Fuel planning is the calculation of fuel required for a flight including taxi, trip, contingency and legally mandated reserves. For schools it is both a safety-critical student skill and an operational discipline — consistent uplift logging feeds accurate cost and utilization data.
Fuel planning is the calculation of fuel required for a flight: taxi fuel, trip fuel for the planned route, contingency, alternate fuel where required, and the legally mandated final reserve — under EASA VFR rules typically 30 minutes at normal cruise by day (45 at night), with FAA VFR requiring fuel to destination plus 30 minutes day / 45 night. The output is a minimum fuel figure the actual uplift must meet or exceed.
In training operations fuel planning is doubly loaded: it is a skill students must demonstrate and an operational discipline the school must run — standard fuel loads per lesson profile, W&B interaction on small trainers, and accurate uplift logging that feeds both cost accounting and endurance verification on the next flight.
Why it matters for flight schools
Fuel exhaustion and starvation remain leading, entirely preventable causes of GA accidents — and they cluster around exactly the flying schools do most: multiple short lessons where 'it flew an hour, it has plenty' replaces calculation. The organisational defences are unglamorous: standard minimum-fuel states for dispatch, tank-checked (not gauge-read) quantities, and uplift records that make each aircraft's fuel state knowable. Cost control comes free: logged uplift per flight is the raw material for honest per-hour economics.
How FlightLogger handles it
FlightLogger records fuel uplift per flight as part of the journey log, giving schools both an endurance trail per aircraft and clean fuel-cost data per hour flown — without a separate fuel book.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum VFR fuel reserve?
Under EASA, plan to land with at least a 30-minute final reserve by day (45 at night) for aeroplanes; under FAA VFR, fuel to the first landing point plus 30 minutes day / 45 night at normal cruise. School policies often add margin on top of the legal minimum.
Should students plan fuel by gauge or by calculation?
By calculation, verified physically. Training-aircraft gauges are only required to be accurate at empty; the professional habit is known starting quantity (dipped or full), computed burn, and gauges as a cross-check.