Narrative:

This report is being submitted due to concerns over the fuel sheet we received for our flight and the legalities of the fuel sheet. The fuel sheet was submitted separately to management for review if needed.summary of the event: five minutes before departure the fueler came up and handed us the fuel sheet apologizing for taking so long. He indicated that he had to drip the tanks which took a few minutes longer than anticipated; but then left before we could question him about anything. I was in the middle of a welcome aboard announcement; so did not hear this part until later. We decided to question why the fueler had to drip the tank; or what had caused this extra step. Turns out that the number of gallons he had calculated to be added was not enough. According to the fuel sheet he could add a maximum of 250 gallons on top of what he had previously calculated; but that wasn't enough. He had to actually add 402 gallons. Because this exceeded his tolerance he said his procedures were to drip stick the tanks. We took an initial departure delay sorting this out.the fuel quantity gauges all showed the correct amount of fuel required so we had no problems with what we showed for fuel. Upon further analysis of the fuel sheet we started looking at the drip stick figures and got a second red flag. The fuel sheet showed that for the desired fuel he should be sticking location number eight on each of the wing tanks; and they should drip at 12.1 inches. His recorded figures showed that they dripped at 14 inches and 13.4 inches respectively.I knew from previous airplanes that there is a tolerance in those figures; but I was not familiar with the B-777 limits. Based on crew concerns; we decided we better question even those drip stick figures. It was determined that the B-777 drip stick limits is plus or minus one inch which meant that both wing tanks were not in tolerance. We later saw that on the bottom of the fuel sheet; this limit is printed on the fuel sheet. Not being sure of what we needed to do next; but having one first officer advocating that we were not legal; we contacted maintenance and it was suggested that we write this up; which we did to the best of our abilities. Maintenance came out and asked us what we wanted them to do; since it appeared that we had the proper amount of fuel on board. They came on board and checked the onboard maintenance computers to see if there were any displayed faults. We had no faults and no previous history on the airplane. The fueling supervisor came up and showed us the B-777 fueling manuel and showed us according to his book how much fuel we had in each of the main tanks. This was written by him to the right side of the fuel sheet. These figures actually showed that we should have more fuel on board than what was desired by roughly 1600 lbs. At this point we were not sure if the fuel density was causing the problems; or something else such as ramp tilt; etc. But all agreed that we had sufficient fuel on board to operate this flight as planned.during the course of this two hour delay; I communicated with zone control; the fueling team; maintenance control; local maintenance; our dispatcher and flight management trying to cover all bases of the delay and to determine the legality. Bottom line was that the fuel sheet figures were not within the tolerances displayed on the fuel sheet. The question then came up; as to how do we resolve the discrepancy. This is certainly outside of the specific training we receive as pilots; so normally we rely on the expertise of the fueler. When brought to their attention; they were not too concerned about the limits or exceeding the limits; but were more concerned that we did in fact have enough fuel on board the flight to operate it safely. In my opinion; we never figured out why the fueler had problems; and then why the drip stick procedures didn't work out as planned - within tolerances. Maintenance signed this off as ground checked and all fuel quantity gauges ok. We then departed with no fuel issues what so ever during our flight. Even though this happened last month; I realized that this should be documented and probably shared with both the fleet and maintenance departments.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777 crew spent two hours dealing with a fueling discrepancy that appeared just before gate departure. They detailed the effort made to determine an adequate; legal; and accurate fuel on board for departure.

Narrative: This report is being submitted due to concerns over the fuel sheet we received for our flight and the legalities of the fuel sheet. The fuel sheet was submitted separately to management for review if needed.Summary of the event: Five minutes before departure the fueler came up and handed us the fuel sheet apologizing for taking so long. He indicated that he had to drip the tanks which took a few minutes longer than anticipated; but then left before we could question him about anything. I was in the middle of a welcome aboard announcement; so did not hear this part until later. We decided to question why the fueler had to drip the tank; or what had caused this extra step. Turns out that the number of gallons he had calculated to be added was not enough. According to the fuel sheet he could add a maximum of 250 gallons on top of what he had previously calculated; but that wasn't enough. He had to actually add 402 gallons. Because this exceeded his tolerance he said his procedures were to drip stick the tanks. We took an initial departure delay sorting this out.The fuel quantity gauges all showed the correct amount of fuel required so we had no problems with what we showed for fuel. Upon further analysis of the fuel sheet we started looking at the drip stick figures and got a second red flag. The fuel sheet showed that for the desired fuel he should be sticking location number eight on each of the wing tanks; and they should drip at 12.1 inches. His recorded figures showed that they dripped at 14 inches and 13.4 inches respectively.I knew from previous airplanes that there is a tolerance in those figures; but I was not familiar with the B-777 limits. Based on crew concerns; we decided we better question even those drip stick figures. It was determined that the B-777 drip stick limits is plus or minus one inch which meant that both wing tanks were not in tolerance. We later saw that on the bottom of the fuel sheet; this limit is printed on the fuel sheet. Not being sure of what we needed to do next; but having one First Officer advocating that we were not legal; we contacted Maintenance and it was suggested that we write this up; which we did to the best of our abilities. Maintenance came out and asked us what we wanted them to do; since it appeared that we had the proper amount of fuel on board. They came on board and checked the onboard Maintenance computers to see if there were any displayed faults. We had no faults and no previous history on the airplane. The fueling supervisor came up and showed us the B-777 Fueling Manuel and showed us according to his book how much fuel we had in each of the main tanks. This was written by him to the right side of the fuel sheet. These figures actually showed that we should have more fuel on board than what was desired by roughly 1600 lbs. At this point we were not sure if the fuel density was causing the problems; or something else such as ramp tilt; etc. but all agreed that we had sufficient fuel on board to operate this flight as planned.During the course of this two hour delay; I communicated with Zone Control; the fueling team; Maintenance Control; Local Maintenance; our Dispatcher and Flight Management trying to cover all bases of the delay and to determine the legality. Bottom line was that the fuel sheet figures were not within the tolerances displayed on the fuel sheet. The question then came up; as to how do we resolve the discrepancy. This is certainly outside of the specific training we receive as pilots; so normally we rely on the expertise of the fueler. When brought to their attention; they were not too concerned about the limits or exceeding the limits; but were more concerned that we did in fact have enough fuel on board the flight to operate it safely. In my opinion; we never figured out why the fueler had problems; and then why the drip stick procedures didn't work out as planned - within tolerances. Maintenance signed this off as ground checked and all fuel quantity gauges ok. We then departed with no fuel issues what so ever during our flight. Even though this happened last month; I realized that this should be documented and probably shared with both the Fleet and Maintenance Departments.

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.