Fuel planning & reserves

You always load more than the trip alone needs. Add up the fuel to reach the destination, the legal reserve, and a bit for taxiing. Your cruise burn rate (gph) turns each block of time into fuel:

minFuel = burn × (flightTime + reserve) + taxi

• VFR reserve (CARs 602.88): enough to reach the destination and then keep flying 30 min by day, or 45 min by night, at normal cruising speed. It sits on top of the trip fuel.
• Taxi/start allowance: fuel for start-up, run-up and taxi is counted separately (CARs 602.88(5)(a) also wants fuel for foreseeable delays); it burns before the trip clock starts.
• Watch the gallon: a POH burn is usually US gal/h, but Canadian pumps and older gauges read imperial. Convert before you plan: 1 imp gal ≈ 1.201 US gal (1 US gal ≈ 3.785 L, 1 imp gal ≈ 4.546 L). Using an imperial burn figure as US gal/h under-fuels the aircraft.

Trap: leaving out the reserve or the taxi allowance, applying the day reserve at night, or mixing imperial and US gallons; each under-fuels the aircraft.

Practice