That typical one-hour fuel reserve most of us use for personal flying works great, mainly ’cause we rarely need it. In most cases, there’s four-plus hours of fuel for a two-hour flight that includes an alternate just down the road. Use a (conservative) default fuel burn to estimate it, and you’re all set. But when loaded up to max weight for a long trip requiring IFR contingency planning, fuel can get tight. That’s when we’ll just stick a suitable fuel stop in the flight plan and go, right? Sure, unless the thought of making it non-stop can trigger symptoms of get-there-itis.
Perhaps you feel a fuel planning exercise coming on. If you do, you’d be correct, but stick with this—it’ll be interesting. Let’s start with the route: Rochester, New York, to Indianapolis Metropolitan.
