On Saturday 29 April 2006 6:23 pm, James Knott wrote:
No, I'm saying planes often fly with less than a full tank, when it's not needed to fly to the destination. If a plane takes of with a full tank of fuel, when only half a tank is sufficient, then they're carrying all that fuel at great expense and may also decrease available payload. Don't forget, fuel consumption depends on weight, so if they carried far more fuel than they needed, they'd burn significanly more fuel to carry it. In that Gimli Glider incident, they goofed in calculating how much fuel they needed. One reason that prop planes often fly with less than a full tank has to do with weight and balance. Every aircraft is certified for a maximum gross weight. The weight is very important at takeoff, and at the altitude of the airfield (Actually density altitude). The pilot must take into account the empty weight of the aircraft, the weight of the crew and passengers, the baggage and cargo, the fuel, and the density altitude. I once crashed a helicopter while landing on a mountain top because we were too heavy. -- Jerry Feldman
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