Skip to content

Can You Use Reserve Fuel?

Can you use your reserve fuel?

It was the evening of January 3rd, 1991. My friend and fellow CFI Billy was sitting with me in the Executive Air Center FBO at KORL.

This guy walks in and says “I need a CFI!”. Magic words in any FBO, immediately Billy and I leapt to attention.

“I rented a plane (C-172RG) from Thomson-McDuffie in Georgia and I need to get it back there tonight. Problem is, the weather is IFR and I don’t have an instrument rating.”

Both of us volunteered to go along, but how would we get back? “Well why don’t one of you follow along in a second plane and fly both of you back after? I’ll pay for it.”

So we arranged it so that I would fly up with the doctor (yeah of course he was a doctor) and Billy would follow along behind in N75885 from the CAP Flying club. Billy also decided to bring his girlfriend along for company.

The doctor and I departed for 48J (it has new letters now) and he was right. It was IFR. Nothing nasty, just some clouds, rain and low ceilings. We talked all the way back and he assisted me on the approach in to Thomson. We landed and parked at the FBO and he wrote me a big check, big enough to cover the rental, the fuel and our hours as CFIs. Billy arrived shortly after. It had taken him 2 hrs 45 minutes to get there, with a slight headwind.

We topped off 885, filed IFR and departed for KORL, planning 2:30 flight with an hour reserve, figuring for an approach also. All completely legal. The weather was forecast to be clearing 50 miles south of Thomson with a slight tailwind, so we were good to go.

As we got in to the clear, we saw way ahead of us, an unforecast fog bank was rolling in over the east coast.

I noticed on the DME (yes DME – this was pre-GPS) that our ground speed was quite low, about 85 kts. This head wind was not in any forecast. I did some calculations and determined that it would be prudent to stop for fuel. Jacksonville was coming up ahead. Unfortunately JAX and CRG were both below minimums. We could see the airliners descend in to the fog, disappear for a few minutes and come back up. They weren’t getting in.

“JAX is any place open? We may be min fuel.”

“Only place above minimums is Thomson 150 miles behind you, unless you want to go to Atlanta, which is more like 250.”

We decided to continue, hoping Daytona or Sanford would be open. DAB was bad, they were 100 and 1/4 mile vis, RVR 1200. Keep going. SFB was worse, indefinite ceiling and 1/8 mile vis. At this point we had been airborne for 3 hours. KORL was advertising 300 and 1, above minimums.

At our request, stating min fuel, Orlando Approach gave us a close in vector for the ILS, which we easily made and landed on runway 7. We taxied in, tied down the plane and went home. It was around 230 am at this point. When I got home I left a msg on the Exec Air voice mail asking for a top off in the morning.

They Woke Me Up

Around 7am I heard my pager going off in the other room. I was very groggy. Then my home phone rang. “Wow what do they want? Maybe it’s another flight!” I thought. I went and saw it was Exec Air trying to reach me. I called up and Lisa answered, “John, Kelly wants to talk to you.”

Kelly Carpenter was the Head Linesman for the FBO. He got on the phone and wasted no time. “John get in here right now. I have some people that want to talk to you.” “What about?” I asked. “Did you fly 75886 last night?” “Yes…” “Was anyone with you?” “Yeah Billy was with me.” “Well I’m calling him too. Get in here ASAP”

I managed to wak up, drove out there and they sat me down in the conference room. Shortly after Billy straggled in. Two senior pilots, Dan Wyckoff and Paul Allen came in and sat down. “What’s this about?” I said. They shook their heads. “Kelly wants us to hear what he wants to say.”

C-172M golds 40 gallons usable

Kelly walked in and said without preamble. “John I just put 39 gallons in to 75885. You flew illegally.”

What? “What do you mean?” “Well you’re required to have a reserve when you land.”

I looked at him incredulously, “Well first of all Kelly, when did you become a pilot or a CFI? That’s not the rule.”

He said “I know the rules! You have to plan 45 minutes reserve to hold after shooting an approach, missing and going to your alternate!”

“Yes that’s correct and that’s what we planned. We ran in to headwinds and a fog bank that was not in any forecast. We were looking for a place to stop for fuel all the way here. There was none. This was the best weather along the route. We didn’t break any rules.”

He looked at Dan and Paul for support. They were kind of smirking. Paul summed it up well: “Kelly this is a perfect example of why we have the reserve, in case anything comes up that requires us to USE IT. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

It was the best option

Looking back, I think we pursued the best option. Really it was the only option. There was no place to land and returning to Thomson was iffy at best, as the weather was deteriorating there. Sometimes Stuff Happens.