Let's begin with the Universal Application of Fuel Policy — Page 23, Lesson 34

I want to walk you through the start of Chapter 2, which is all about Fuel Policy and Fuel Monitoring. This is a critical chapter because fuel management is one of the most fundamental safety responsibilities you'll have as a professional pilot. Let's begin with the Universal Application of Fuel Policy. Before we dive into the detailed breakdowns, I want you to understand the big picture. Very soon, you'll be working through practical planning examples for three different aircraft types: the Single-engine Piston, the Multi-engine Piston, and the Medium Range Jet Transport. For each of these, we'll enter various tables and graphs to calculate fuel consumption. From those, we can work out how much fuel will be used for a particular flight length under different conditions of aircraft weight, air temperature, and wind component. In general, these predictions are quite accurate — as long as the actual meteorological conditions you experience in flight are close to the forecast values used to produce the plan. We call this calculated amount the Trip Fuel. Now, here's the key point: on its own, trip fuel is not enough. If you had only the trip fuel on board at the moment of take-off, the engine would stop from fuel starvation the moment you arrived at the destination. That is obviously not an acceptable way to operate. So clearly, we need fuel beyond the bare minimum to just do the trip. After all, we start using fuel even before take-off — we have to consider start-up and taxi. We also need reserve fuel, firstly in case the trip does not go as planned, and secondly so we can taxi in and shut down after landing. The principles that establish how much fuel should be carried on an air transport flight have been internationally agreed and are laid down in CS-OPS 1. While the actual amounts vary from aircraft type to type — because different aircraft have different fuel consumptions — the rules by which the minima for each flight are calculated are universal. This set of rules is known as EASA Fuel Policy. Now, let's move to Realistic Trip Fuel. Whatever the commercial pressures might be to carry minimum fuel, there is no point in coming up with an unrealistically low figure for your trip fuel. The idea is that your planning must be realistic and accurate, based on the actual conditions expected.