# Fuel Planning General Principles

> Overview of fuel policy requirements and definitions.

- **Subject:** 033 — Flight Planning Monitoring
- **Section:** 033-03 — Fuel Planning – CAT.OP.MPA.106 and CAT.OP.MPA.150 plus AMC1, 2 and 3
- **Topic code:** 033-03-01
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-01
- **Author:** Pablo Asensio Martínez
- **HTML version:** https://pilotsyllabus.com/en/flight-planning-monitoring/fuel-planning-catopmpa106-and-catopmpa150-plus-amc1-2-and-3/general/

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## Basic Fuel Policy (CAT.OP.MPA.150)

The operator must establish a fuel policy for the purpose of flight planning and in-flight replanning to ensure that every flight carries sufficient fuel for the planned operation and reserves to cover deviations from the planned operation.

## Fuel Components

The standard fuel calculation consists of:

1.  **Taxi Fuel**: Fuel expected to be consumed before take-off (start, taxi).
2.  **Trip Fuel**: Fuel required to fly from T/O at departure to landing at destination. Includes climb, cruise, descent, approach, and landing.
3.  **Contingency Fuel**: Fuel for unforeseen factors (winds, ATC routing).
    *   Standard: **5%** of trip fuel or **5 minutes** holding, whichever is greater.
    *   Optimizations allow reducing this (e.g., to 3% with En-route Alternate).
4.  **Alternate Fuel**: Fuel to fly from missed approach at destination to landing at the alternate airport.
5.  **Final Reserve Fuel**: Fuel required to fly for:
    *   **Piston**: 45 min.
    *   **Turbine**: 30 min at 1,500 ft in holding pattern speed.
    *   **Must remain in tanks upon landing** in normal operations.
6.  **Additional Fuel**: Required if the type of operation (e.g., ETOPS) requires it.
7.  **Extra Fuel**: Fuel added at the Commander's discretion.

## Usable vs Unusable Fuel
*   **Unusable Fuel**: Fuel remaining in the tanks that cannot be used by the engines (due to pump location/tank shape). It is NOT included in the endurance calculations.
*   **Usable Fuel**: Total fuel on board minus unusable fuel.

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