Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200; Flight Crew Total 23000; Flight Crew Type 13000
Other / Unknown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
Looking at paperwork shows a FOD [fuel on deck] value of 6.4 with ACF calculations etc. etc. Flight planned at FL360. Noticed turbulence over Rockies and it was obvious that at some point we would have to descend below planned FL. Flew ABOVE planned at FL380 to save gas and added 1.5 then had to descend to FL320 and then FL300 for ATC requirements 1 hour out. Given this we landed with only 6.2. Now; figuring the savings at 380 vs. 360 was about 800 LBS for several hours if we stayed at 360 would have landed with 5.4 then less the 1.5 I added would have been 3.9 thousand pounds; unacceptable.
Air Carrier Captain laments the low fuel loads that the company flight planning software routinely provides and offers an example.