Fuel Stop On A Commercial Flight?

Geico266

Geico266

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This is a fist for me. Coming back from San Jose, Costa Rica to Phoenix, US Air we had to stop in Matzilan, MX for fuel. Entire flight took 6 hours back and 4.5 hours down. Trade winds were over 100 knts (according to the pilot)

Anyone else ever have to stop for fuel on a commercial flight? :dunno:
 
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Geico266 said:
This is a fist for me. Coming back from San Jose, Costa Rica to Phoenix, US Air we had to stop in Matzilan, MX for fuel. Entire flight took 6 hours back and 4.5 hours down. Trade winds were over 100 knts (according to the pilot)

Anyone else ever have to stop for fuel on a commercial flight?
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Depends upon the route, the aircraft and the load. Not really common but not uncommon either.

What type aircraft?
 
prolly getting a hell of a deal on fuel in Mexico...Pemex can be cheap domestically...
 
Lufthansa Frankfurt to Boston - 1980s. Solenoid valve failure. Could not access fuel that was on board. Stopped in Bangor, Maine for fuel to be able to get to Boston. I don't know if he couldn't reach Boston or couldn't reach Boston with required reserves.
 
Two times:

1) Burbank to Dallas several years back on American Airlines MD80. Runway was short...too short for a takeoff on a hot day with max passengers and fuel to Dallas.

So pilot said we had three choices...1) Take off without enough fuel and pick some up, 2) leave some people behind, 3) Leave everyone's luggage behind for a later flight.

We took off with everyone's luggage and minimal fuel. We landed less than 15 minutes in Palm Springs, which has a much longer runway, filled up and arrived 90 minutes late.

2) Transamerica stretched DC8, Oakland to UK, with every seat occupied...Transamerica International Airlines (TIA) for those who remember it. Plane simply doesn't have the useful load to go the distance with all seats occupied. Stopped in Bangor Maine on the way and Shannon Ireland on the way back.
 
Ohare to Singapore, bad headwinds we stopped in Taiwan for fuel. That was in a UAL 747.

San Jose to Ohare UAL 737 stopped somewhere in Iowa (Des Moines or Cedar Rapids) for fuel due to weather reroutes

LAX to Ohare AA MD80 stopped in Rockford KRFD for fuel - weather re routing

Ohare to Sao Paulo stopped in Venezuela for fuel. It was either an AA 57 or 67.

And that was in the last 4 or 5 years. Fly commercial enough and it happens once in a while. Mostly internstional, bu occasionally domestic.
 
VWGhiaBob said:
Two times:

1) Burbank to Dallas several years back on American Airlines MD80. Runway was short...too short for a takeoff on a hot day with max passengers and fuel to Dallas.

So pilot said we had three choices...1) Take off without enough fuel and pick some up, 2) leave some people behind, 3) Leave everyone's luggage behind for a later flight.

We took off with everyone's luggage and minimal fuel. We landed less than 15 minutes in Palm Springs, which has a much longer runway, filled up and arrived 90 minutes late.

2) Transamerica stretched DC8, Oakland to UK, with every seat occupied...Transamerica International Airlines (TIA) for those who remember it. Plane simply doesn't have the useful load to go the distance with all seats occupied. Stopped in Bangor Maine on the way and Shannon Ireland on the way back.
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It's funny that same thing happened to me on an American flight out of Phoenix. I forget how hot the day was, but it was crazy. The pilot kind of told us the choices, and said they were going with less fuel, and to expect an enroute stop. We didn't end up stopping so the winds and routing must have been favorable. I forgot about that until now.
 
RotorAndWing said:
Depends upon the route, the aircraft and the load. Not really common but not uncommon either.

What type aircraft?
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There was a recent discussion about this over at PPW. Apparently United has been using 757s for Atlantic crossings and routinely having to make a stop for gas.
 
Yes.

San Diego to St. Louis. My airline was flying a substitute version of the DC-9 that just barely had the range on a good day. This was not a good day. The wind was out of the East, i.e. "Santa Ana" meaning a takeoff on rnwy 9 rather than 27, meaning a greatly reduced Max Gross Takeoff wt. That rising terrain and parking garage off the end of the runway did baaaad things to the climb performance chart, which is based on a single-engine climb.

The choice was: leave people behind, leave baggage behind, or make a fuel stop. Captain and dispatcher elected to makes a PHX fuel stop. I would bet most of the passengers would have voted that way, as well.
 
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1997 - AA flight from Detroit to Dallas made an unscheduled stop for fuel in Little Rock. :dunno:
 
I had it happen once in the 90s - flight from Philly to San Francisco. Winds were brutal that day. They made it clear before boarding we'd be stopping for fuel in Denver.

Now, guess the carrier.
 
TMetzinger said:
I had it happen once in the 90s - flight from Philly to San Francisco. Winds were brutal that day. They made it clear before boarding we'd be stopping for fuel in Denver.

Now, guess the carrier.
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that would be Untied...(deliberate)
 
Used to happen quite a bit this time of year with Piedmont Airlines' 737-200's on the BWI-SFO non-stop run. Usually stopped in DEN (Stapleton, back then).
 
30 yrs ago, DC-3s could not depart from AUG (Augusta Me) Rwy 17 on hot summer days with fuel and baggage for Boston. Pax would bus to Waterville Me, 17 miles north, DC-3 would pick them up there and then head to Boston.

Rwy17 at AUG was an uphill climb. With northerly winds they could depart downhill on 35.

Not really landing for fuel, but a diversion to pick up the pax.
 
Rather than fill the tanks go with the minimum fuel and take a chance. If the winds come up ,just stop for fuel. Why worry about the passengers? Make sure we get the bag fees.
 
At one time it was routine. The only reason the town Iqaluit (CYFB.) even exists is that it is on the great circle route to Europe. DC-6,7, Constellations, Stratocruisers, all used to regularly stop there, Shannon (EINN) and/or Keflavik (BIKF).

Smaller corporate jets do so today.
 
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frfly172 said:
Rather than fill the tanks go with the minimum fuel and take a chance. If the winds come up ,just stop for fuel. Why worry about the passengers? Make sure we get the bag fees.
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If you have a full pax and cargo load you may not be able to "fill the tanks". Besides, those pesky regulations get in the way about fuel requirements, weather, minimums, etc....:rolleyes:
 
American, from BUR to DFW. They would stop in ONT and take on more fuel, as they knew it before they even took off..
 
MSP to DCA in a MD90. Weather at DCA dropped below minimums and we were in a hold for a while. Landed in Richmond for fuel.
 
My CFII sent me this from 2 weeks ago. Manchester UK to JFK. Had to stop in Bangor, ME for fuel. B767
 

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RotorAndWing said:
If you have a full pax and cargo load you may not be able to "fill the tanks". Besides, those pesky regulations get in the way about fuel requirements, weather, minimums, etc....:rolleyes:
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This brings up another question. How do you do a W&B without actually weighing the baggage and the passengers? Obviously, people are much heavier than before. :dunno:
 
Geico266 said:
This brings up another question. How do you do a W&B without actually weighing the baggage and the passengers? Obviously, people are much heavier than before. :dunno:
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The airline uses a standard weight for adult males/adult females and children. Any cargo carried is actually weighed.

There usually is a winter weight and a summer weight formula (airline dependent) Also, airlines around the world use different numbers based upon averages for that region.
 
It happens. I remember returning from IAD to DEN one thanksgiving years ago and we landed and the pilot comes on and says "For those of you who've looked out the window, you may have realized this isn't Denver but Omaha." Of course, the flight attendants had already told us the story. We stopped for fuel because it looked like there'd be weather delays getting into DEN.

The only bad part was we had a lot of AFA cadets on the plane worried about busting their leave if they were late getting back down to the springs. However, when we arrived around midnight I noticed that there were reps from the academy there to take care of them.
 
RotorAndWing said:
The airline uses a standard weight for adult males/adult females and children. Any cargo carried is actually weighed.

There usually is a winter weight and a summer weight formula (airline dependent) Also, airlines around the world use different numbers based upon averages for that region.
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What is the standard weight of the girls of Wal-Mart? :D
 
Every time I travel to Kuwait or Dubai. If it's a military flight, we stop in Bangor, Maine. Whether it's military or civilian, we almost always stop in Shannon, Ireland.
 
Montreal to Paris. Had to stop in Ireland somewhere for extra push water. Nasty headwind. Everyone on board was fine with it except one loudmouth American a few rows back. I got to 'splain about running out of gas in a plane was a really, really bad thing. Weather happens.
 
Norman said:
What is the standard weight of the girls of Wal-Mart? :D
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Well, you've got your "meth-heads", and then you've got some with "tortilla poisoning", so I guess it mostly evens out...
 
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Geico266 said:
Trust me, I'm glad they decided to stop for fuel. :lol:
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Beats the alternative!

kgruber said:
At one time it was routine. The only reason the town Iqaluit (CYFB.) even exists is that it is on the great circle route to Europe. DC-6,7, Constellations, Stratocruisers, all used to regularly stop there, Shannon (EINN) and/or Keflavik (BIKF).
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Yup. 1968, I was on a chartered DC-7C from Gatwick to Chicago, with a fuel stop at Shannon. EGKK -> EINN = 336 nm; EINN -> KORD = 3,445 nm.
 
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I've only had to stop once.....

It was BNA-PHX and it was scheduled for a 737-700, but we got a -300 instead (much lower Max TOGW and higher fuel burn). We fueled to ATOG and were good to go with the forecast winds. The winds turned out to be much higher than forecast, so we ended up stopping in ABQ for fuel. No biggie. It added less than 30 minutes to the flight.
 
Evening (~7:30PM) United flight from Orlando (KMCO) to Dulles (KIAD). Flight was delayed for about 30 minutes because of a whopper of a central Florida afternoon thunderstorm. Then we sat in the gate for a while. Then we boarded and they explained that the fuel system in Orlando was still down from the lightning. So we went to Jacksonville for fuel then on to DC.

Only time I've ever had a fuel stop on a commercial flight.

John
 
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