If you plan to fly an alternate airfield approach/practice approach and wish to prepare your DRAFT report before the IAF, you should subtract how many pounds from the current fuel to estimate your fuel at the divert initiation?

If you plan to fly an alternate airfield approach/practice approach and wish to prepare your DRAFT report before the IAF, you should subtract how many pounds from the current fuel to estimate your fuel at the divert initiation?

• A. 50
• B. 25
• C. 75
• D. 100

Answer: (A)

When planning an alternate or practice approach, you want an estimate of the fuel you’ll have at the moment you actually start the divert. Subtracting a small, conservative amount from your current fuel accounts for the fuel you will burn before you initiate the divert (time spent on the current leg, turning toward the divert, and starting the approach). In this planning method, the standard figure used to represent that burn is fifty pounds. This keeps the DRAFT estimate realistic and safe for training scenarios. So the reason fifty pounds works best is that it provides a simple, conservative offset to reflect the anticipated fuel burn before divert initiation, without assuming too little or too much time or burn.

When planning an alternate or practice approach, you want an estimate of the fuel you’ll have at the moment you actually start the divert. Subtracting a small, conservative amount from your current fuel accounts for the fuel you will burn before you initiate the divert (time spent on the current leg, turning toward the divert, and starting the approach). In this planning method, the standard figure used to represent that burn is fifty pounds. This keeps the DRAFT estimate realistic and safe for training scenarios.

So the reason fifty pounds works best is that it provides a simple, conservative offset to reflect the anticipated fuel burn before divert initiation, without assuming too little or too much time or burn.