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stoki · January 11th, 2008, 13:32

Not a 121 guy but I thought about it and came up with the following;

When we took off we had the required fuel with the 45 minutes after alternate.

We are now in a hold for 10 minutes assuming everything went according to plan thus far and have now 35 minutes of fuel after our alternate.

If as calcaptn said the weather is moving as forecast after those 10 minutes, and should be clearing out by then, I would wait for the extra 10 minutes, which would make a total of 20 minutes in the hold as told to me by ATC, and land the airplane at the original destination if the weather had moved out.

If after those 20 minutes had passed, and the weather was still over the airport, we have 25 minutes of fuel after our alternate. If I can visually see the edge of the storm moving away (from my current position, if VMC?) and am 100% sure that in no more then 5 minutes the storm would be gone, I would still land at the destination. Anything other then that after the 20 minutes I would divert to the alternate, as the weather is not moving as forecast, is therefore unpredictable, and would be starting to push the fuel not knowing for certain when the storm would be moving out.

As bike21 said, if you do end up diverting you can always pick up some extra fuel and just blast off again minutes later to the original airport hopefully without much of a delay if you are not pushing your rest periods.

Kinda lengthy but thats what I have come up with. Not a 121 guy so some of this might not be as simple, lol.

January 11th, 2008, 13:32	#14
stoki Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: New England Posts: 123	Re: Thunderstorm At Your Destination Not a 121 guy but I thought about it and came up with the following; When we took off we had the required fuel with the 45 minutes after alternate. We are now in a hold for 10 minutes assuming everything went according to plan thus far and have now 35 minutes of fuel after our alternate. If as calcaptn said the weather is moving as forecast after those 10 minutes, and should be clearing out by then, I would wait for the extra 10 minutes, which would make a total of 20 minutes in the hold as told to me by ATC, and land the airplane at the original destination if the weather had moved out. If after those 20 minutes had passed, and the weather was still over the airport, we have 25 minutes of fuel after our alternate. If I can visually see the edge of the storm moving away (from my current position, if VMC?) and am 100% sure that in no more then 5 minutes the storm would be gone, I would still land at the destination. Anything other then that after the 20 minutes I would divert to the alternate, as the weather is not moving as forecast, is therefore unpredictable, and would be starting to push the fuel not knowing for certain when the storm would be moving out. As bike21 said, if you do end up diverting you can always pick up some extra fuel and just blast off again minutes later to the original airport hopefully without much of a delay if you are not pushing your rest periods. Kinda lengthy but thats what I have come up with. Not a 121 guy so some of this might not be as simple, lol.