Fuel storage

[CaptainPrecious]

Can we get an option to store fuel at warehouses / maintenance centers in order to be able to take opportunities when fuel prices are low?

[joefremont]

I have though about adding fuel storage. The biggest advantage would be when a plane comes in and has more fuel on it than needed in the next flight it could be transfered to the storage tank, also I figured more remote airports should have no ability to buy fuel, so if you want to operate there you would need to fly the fuel from somewhere else. I hope the fuel prices don't fluctuate so much it would make sense to stock up on fuel and then use it later.

The ideas I had were
- To an office/warehouse/maintenance center you could add fuel storage storage tanks, these storage tanks would be specified as using either Jet or Avgas.
- At the end of a flight fuel could be transfered to or from an aircraft into the tank.

I am very reluctant to allow the direct purchasing of fuel or the transfer/sale of fuel to other airlines, the possibilities of shenanigans would cause me great stress.

But I have though about the idea of a new package type of 'fuel'. Basically you could buy a 200 kg barrel of fuel, say at local fuel price plus 20$. You could then transport them on your aircraft like any other package. At some point you could 'deliver/empty' the barrels transferring the fuel into storage tanks or even waiting aircraft.

All these things require time for programming of course which currently I don't have too much of.

[CaptainPrecious]

Your ideas are good!

When are you going to put this into action?

[AdySmith]

The biggest advantage would be when a plane comes in and has more fuel on it than needed in the next flight it could be transfered to the storage tank,

You must have landed below MLW or you get a penalty, so how can there be too much fuel for the next flight, the aircraft is already within weight limits?

[joefremont]

You must have landed below MLW or you get a penalty, so how can there be too much fuel for the next flight, the aircraft is already within weight limits?

Hi Ady, yes your correct, if the pilot was doing there fuel estimation correctly it should never happen, but here it does happen. I did a quick check in the database, on flights since the start of 2022, 3% of all flights departed with less fuel onboard than the aircraft had left over from the previous flight.

[Cat]

Easiest solution to this is change the "overweight landing" from an advisory to a penalty and people will stop landing fat on fuel.

Also regarding storing fuel - I think the complexity of the issue far outweighs the needs of the few for such a feature. Just another FSE thing that caters to more of a GA based operation people are trying to add here.

I would much rather see the seat change feature implemented which would add far more strategy to VA ops here than storing fuel.

Just my opinion of course, nothing more..

[joefremont]

Easiest solution to this is change the "overweight landing" from an advisory to a penalty and people will stop landing fat on fuel.
...

I am a little reluctant to make overweight landings a penalty, mainly because there are too many aircraft models out there that do not use accurate fuel, usually too little. When that happens I try to recommend to them that they fly with the recommended fuel so they don't overload the aircraft with payload/cargo, I can then fix the fuel usage later when it shows up in the list of flights needing review.

I would much rather see the seat change feature implemented which would add far more strategy to VA ops here than storing fuel.

I agree with that. To be honest the remote location ops are the only thing that really interest me about fuel storage and as I think about trying to figure out which airports would be without fuel where you would have to fly it in makes my head hurt.

[CaptainPrecious]

The biggest advantage would be when a plane comes in and has more fuel on it than needed in the next flight it could be transfered to the storage tank,

You must have landed below MLW or you get a penalty, so how can there be too much fuel for the next flight, the aircraft is already within weight limits?

Hi Ady, that's very simple: if you're on a flight with little cargo to your base and want to leave with a lot of cargo, you can come in with more fuel than needed (provided your departure airport sells it cheap) and leave it. So no MLW / MTW problems but you stock up on cheap fuel (your decision of course).

Easiest solution to this is change the "overweight landing" from an advisory to a penalty and people will stop landing fat on fuel.

I'd be all for that!

Also regarding storing fuel - I think the complexity of the issue far outweighs the needs of the few for such a feature. Just another FSE thing that caters to more of a GA based operation people are trying to add here.

I too don't want to overcomplicate things. That's partly why I proposed it, because I thought the implementation would be easy.

If they use it or not pilot's can decide for themselves, right?