B737-300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 149
Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors; Procedure; Aircraft
Our aircraft arrived late due to weather in the area. On taxi out; it looked as if we were going to be delayed due to weather so we taxied out on one engine. I opened the fuel crossfeed valve to try to keep the fuel balanced while waiting to takeoff. The delay was not as long as we thought it was going to be so we went through the start procedure on the second engine and I failed to close the cross feed valve before we took off. There was a lot of weather in the area and I was focused on deviating around weather during the climbout. I did not notice the fuel imbalance until we were clear of the weather and into the cruise portion of flight. When I did notice; the fuel was approximately 4;000 LBS off. I started the crossfeed process and saw that we would need to have vectors on the arrival in order have the fuel balanced within the 1;000 LB imbalance needed to land. We received the vectors and landed with 3;250 LBS in the left tank and 2;550 LBS in the right tank. The landing was normal.I should have told the First Officer that I was opening the crossfeed valve to help keep the fuel balanced during taxi and checked the balance during climbout as I normally do. Better crew coordination is vital especially during high workload situations.
Anticipating substantial delay after taxi out due to weather the Captain of a B737-300 opted to taxi on one engine and; to protect against lateral fuel imbalance; opened the fuel crossfeed. When the delay proved minimal they started the second engine and departed only to discover during cruise they had not closed the crossfeed and were now faced with a 4;000 LB lateral imbalance.