Narrative:

We departed with the required release fuel. While enroute I was performing some fuel calculations and realized that the fuel detailed on the release and on board the aircraft was in violation of our operations manual and the fars that state reserve fuel should be enough to fly for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed. The reserve fuel on all E140 releases is 1700 pounds. I calculated that at 313 KTS; the planned normal cruise speed for this flight; the fuel required for 45 minutes of flight was 2750 pounds. At this point I checked to see if we had enough hold fuel to make up the difference. We did not. Reserve plus hold plus additional hold was 2344 pounds. At this point I checked the long range cruise chart and the fuel required for 45 minutes at long range cruise speed was less than 2344 pounds. It was time to slow the aircraft for descent and so I continued at a reduced cruise speed to comply with the intent of the regulation. It appears that currently all company embraer flights are dispatched in violation of the regulation; which defines reserve fuel as 45 minutes at normal cruise speed. It appears that 1700 pounds is not 45 minutes at normal cruise speed unless I am missing something. I am new to the aircraft; and believed 1700 pounds had been analyzed by the company and found to be an accurate estimate of 45 minutes at normal cruise speed. The company should either change the operating manual to reflect the current apparent use of long range cruise fuel flow or correct the way our flights are dispatched. In the meantime; I am attempting to maintain compliance by requesting additional fuel to insure at least 45 minutes reserve at normal cruising speed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: New in type E140 Captain discovered the company planned 45 minute reserve fuel for all flights is more than 1000 LBS below the actual burn at normal cruise speed.

Narrative: We departed with the required release fuel. While enroute I was performing some fuel calculations and realized that the fuel detailed on the release and on board the aircraft was in violation of our operations manual and the FARs that state reserve fuel should be enough to fly for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed. The reserve fuel on all E140 releases is 1700 pounds. I calculated that at 313 KTS; the planned normal cruise speed for this flight; the fuel required for 45 minutes of flight was 2750 pounds. At this point I checked to see if we had enough hold fuel to make up the difference. We did not. Reserve plus hold plus additional hold was 2344 LBS. At this point I checked the long range cruise chart and the fuel required for 45 minutes at long range cruise speed was less than 2344 LBS. It was time to slow the aircraft for descent and so I continued at a reduced cruise speed to comply with the intent of the regulation. It appears that currently all company Embraer flights are dispatched in violation of the regulation; which defines reserve fuel as 45 minutes at normal cruise speed. It appears that 1700 LBS is not 45 minutes at normal cruise speed unless I am missing something. I am new to the aircraft; and believed 1700 pounds had been analyzed by the company and found to be an accurate estimate of 45 minutes at normal cruise speed. The company should either change the operating manual to reflect the current apparent use of Long Range cruise fuel flow or correct the way our flights are dispatched. In the meantime; I am attempting to maintain compliance by requesting additional fuel to insure at least 45 minutes reserve at normal cruising speed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.