B777-300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Company Policy; Procedure
During preflight; the aircraft was fueled to the planned RLS (release) fuel. Rough numbers were RLS 311.7 with the fuel gauges showing all normal parameters and standard loading. In other words; all looked normal on the flight deck. The fueler came to the cockpit and said he had a problem with the numbers and wanted to discuss them with us. He explained he fuels the flight daily; and that in his experience the aircraft should have taken more fuel than he pumped. The gauges showed we were full and had shutoff any more fuel going to the tanks. He then showed us the old fuel slip which we (cockpit) no longer are required to have; and is no longer supplied to us. The B777 allows up to 750 gallons of calculated fuel disparity between the aircraft load and the fuel pumped into the airplane. His numbers were over 5;500 gallons difference. Maintenance was called. After much discussion and checking of fuel dipstick charts; the fueler's calculations; and maintenance procedures; it was determined that the gauges were giving erroneous indications. The on-site maintenance personnel and fueler worked very well together with the cockpit crew to find a solution. Maintenance then 'reset the circuit breakers' or rebooted the Fuel Indication System. When the fuel gauges came back on-line the new indicated quantity immediately showed what the fueler had calculated and what the predicted maintenance fuel dipsticks showed and now seemed to be accurate. We were over 25;000 lbs short of the required fuel load even though all indications were normal in the initial preflight loading.The old standard procedure of providing the cockpit a copy of the fuel slip with the corresponding numbers and requirements should always be provided. Yes; the fueler did his job in notifying us that the gallons were out of limits; but it was his call only that caught the problem. Had he missed this or just let it go; the outcome may have been disastrously different. At best; the gauges may have caught up or eventually corrected themselves; but we; as a bare minimum would have had to divert. Our flight was scheduled to land with 23.4 lbs of fuel. The initial fuel load would have us leaving the gate over 25;000 lbs short. After prolonged holding; we arrived to the gate that day with 15;700 lbs. During flight; all 4 crewmembers took notice at exactly the same time when the engines would have gone quiet. We were in a holding pattern 48 miles out of [destination airport].WE NEED TO MAKE THE FUEL SLIP A REQUIREMENT AGAIN; AND STANDARD PROCEDURE.
B777-300 First Officer preparing to depart on an international flight reported the fueler alerted them to a potential fuel upload issue that was traced to malfunctioning fuel quantity indicators. The flight would have departed 25;000 lbs short of cleared fuel had the issue not been caught on the ground.