Fuel Reserve for Microlights?

[Thunderboy]

In light of the recent accident I was wondering. Normal aviation law requires a 45 minute reserve of fuel at all times. Does it apply any differently to microlights or is it also 45 minutes?

[Morph]

I have always worked on a 30 minutes or 10%. In the case of my BB that's 10liters, which calculates to about 45minutes flying.

A lot of the older microlights only had 2 hours of fuel so they didn't really apply the minimum. In fact I recall some of the high hour pilots talking of days when they took off, flew the cabbage patch until they ran out of fuel and then landed.

[justin.schoeman]

In light of the recent accident I was wondering. Normal aviation law requires a 45 minute reserve of fuel at all times. Does it apply any differently to microlights or is it also 45 minutes?

45 minutes is what the law says... (OK - I haven't down airlaw for microlights, but I can't find anything in the microlight exceptions about fuel reserves.)

If you land with less than 45 minutes fuel on board you are supposed to file an incident report with the CAA.

-justin

PS - The 45 minutes is final reserve - you must land with this. You are also supposed to start of with an additional 5 minutes/5% on top of this.

[Morph]

If you land with less than 45 minutes fuel on board you are supposed to file an incident report with the CAA.

This is for Certified aicraft

[Thunderboy]

We should maybe look further into it. I will look at my airlaw books tonight again.
From an insurance point of view (both life and aircraft) they will always find a way out, so if anything happens and we have landed with less than 45 minutes + 5 minutes they could try find excuses for not paying if there was a problem?

[Wargames]

PS - The 45 minutes is final reserve - you must land with this. You are also supposed to start of with an additional 5 minutes/5% on top of this.

Real stupid question coming up: If you are required to land with 45 mins of fuel left, and is required to have 5 mins more to take off, does that mean you're only allowed to fly 5 mins ??

Not even a relaxed curcuit!!

[Thunderboy]

PS - The 45 minutes is final reserve - you must land with this. You are also supposed to start of with an additional 5 minutes/5% on top of this.

Real stupid question coming up: If you are required to land with 45 mins of fuel left, and is required to have 5 mins more to take off, does that mean you're only allowed to fly 5 mins ??

Not even a relaxed curcuit!!

No you should not take off, you supposed to always have 45 minutes reserve + if you plan a cross country you need to put in 10% extra on the total fuel consumption required for head winds etc. The 45 minutes technicaly should only be used in an emergency situation ie you got lost, had to divert etc. That then would put you into an emergency situation requiring an incident form with CAA. This applies to all PPL pilots, question is, and I think it does, apply to us?

[justin.schoeman]

PS - The 45 minutes is final reserve - you must land with this. You are also supposed to start of with an additional 5 minutes/5% on top of this.

Real stupid question coming up: If you are required to land with 45 mins of fuel left, and is required to have 5 mins more to take off, does that mean you're only allowed to fly 5 mins ??

Not even a relaxed curcuit!!

I am listing reserve fuel requirements here. You need take-off, cruise, land, go-around, and alternate fuel on top of this.

[justin.schoeman]

If you land with less than 45 minutes fuel on board you are supposed to file an incident report with the CAA.

This is for Certified aicraft

That section in the CARs is specifically listed as being applicable to microlights.

[Thunderboy]

If you land with less than 45 minutes fuel on board you are supposed to file an incident report with the CAA.

This is for Certified aicraft

That section in the CARs is specifically listed as being applicable to microlights.

Well there is our answer - Something I am sure a lot of the microlight guys are unaware of, myself previously included.

[C205]

In my MPL subjects I was told 15 to 30 minutes in reserve.
My microlight only has about an hour's endurance - does that mean I can only do a 15 minute cross country if I follow the 45 minute rule? At my cruising speed that will take me to about downwind in one circuit .

[justin.schoeman]

In my MPL subjects I was told 15 to 30 minutes in reserve.
My microlight only has about an hour's endurance - does that mean I can only do a 15 minute cross country if I follow the 45 minute rule? At my cruising speed that will take me to about downwind in one circuit .

No idea. There _should_ be an exception for such cases, but I can find nothing in section 103. Any microlight instructors around who actually teach airlaw?

[Morph]

you are now scratching where it did not previously itch

However as said before, I do set myself a personal limit of 10 liters in the tank (about 45min) plus the 5 liter header, another 30 minutes. But that's just because I carry 100l plus 5. In fact my MGL gauges are set to start warning at this point. In my previous plane I had a 70 liter tank, and here too I set myself the limit of 15 liter's reserve (purely incidental, since the fuel level sender could only read the top 55 of the total 70 liters.)

Remember the original definition of a microlight is 40 liters of fuel, 45min for a 582 would be +/-15 liters, leaving you with 25 liters, i.e. 1.5 hours to cruise with. When flying cabbage patch and not being anymore than 5 to 10 minutes away from an airfield I would not bother, but on longer trips I would def insist on this rule. Imagine cruising 65 miles to Saldanha from Morning Star to discover Saldanha is closed with fog. What then? The 45 Minutes will give you alternates like Delta 200 to land at instead of trying to negotiate a difficult and dangerous outlanding.

[Thunderboy]

As Morph says it is all about planning. I have not heard of anyone actualy being inspected on how much fuel they have when they land but while saying that I have heard of more and more people that have had the CAA trained police inspect them for other things. There will probably not be a problem unless there is a problem.

Although we all fall under the same law think about what you fly - a trike can probably land in more places and less distance than a BB and so might push the envelope a bit more although a BB can carry 100l and go that much further. Personaly I also set myself a limit as Morph does and 45 + 5 minutes is not a bad idea as it is safe and falls inside the law. If you only have a tank that holds a hour of fuel maybe it is worth looking at getting as bigger one?

[C205]

Have thought about getting a bigger tank but have had no need for it ... Yet - since we're only doing cabbage patch flying.