There has been several times on the expert server where I have been told to go around noumerous times due to traffic on the runway. After several go arounds, I naturally don’t have much fuel left so I tell ATC that I have almost no fuel left, but I am to far away and need to land (on terrain/grass, etc) but even before hitting the ground ATC threatens to ghost me forcing me to immediately end my flight.
It never came up a message telling ATC I had no fuel left, so My question is,is there a command to notify ATC that you have no fuel left? And is there a way to prevent ATC from ghosting you if you have no other choice?
Sorry if this is in the wrong category or is a duplicate.
Yes there is, If you have been flying for over 1 hour and you have low fuel there is a command, but you would have to been flying for longer than 1 hour
I’d start by questioning this… it is definitely not normal. A controller may try to get things too tight, but a go around still shouldn’t happen that often. Especially not several in a row (because here we’re not talking one or two… otherwise you definitely should have fuel left)! If there’s only tower, try to leave more space with the aircraft ahead when you’re sequenced. You’re probably often too close.
This shouldn’t happen either. Always plan extra fuel! Enough for a long approach and for go arounds. Lots of unexpected things can happen like weather.
You answered it yourself. Also if you think you can’t take another go around, or are too far, it’s up to you to divert. For the security of the plane…
Also in addition to what everyone else has said, you shouldn’t ever land on terrain or anything that isn’t a runway. If you’re that low on fuel then you should divert to another airport or if you can’t make it, then end your flight.
But even if you have extra fuel, it’s understandable that you could run out after like 3 go arounds. For instance if you have 8% fuel on final, and go around three times, you could probable manage to burn all the fuel and have an emergency (depending on aircraft)
Basically, it’s not the pilots fault in a scenario like that IMO
That many go arounds shouldn’t need to happen, but in the case they do and you are running low, either divert or try changing your callsign quickly to LOWFUEL or NOFUEL, normally ATC will get the message. I suppose this could get abused to get priority landing but I think that most ATC will be nice enough to give you priority or at the very least give you vectors towards another suitable airport.
I hope that’s not too much off-topic (please PM me your reply otherwise), but I strongly disagree. The pilot has to keep track of the fuel count and if he/she notices that there isn’t enough fuel to divert if another approach is attempted then he/she should divert immediately to ensure a potential go-around is still possible.
The pilot has to ensure the aircraft is as safe as possible in any case of situation imaginable and a go-around should always be considered!
I don’t know what airport you were approaching and like a lot of people have said, you could’ve diverted. For example, if you were Approaching JFK for the FNF then you could leave the airspace and fly to either SWF or Philly which are both only about 15-20 min away but I still don’t think you should’ve had to go around multiple times so I won’t try to blame anyone
Not really to the first Ive seen it happen often and the person gets put at the back of the line by approach. Additionally packing 1 hr plus 30min of diversion fuel is the standard. Yes they should divert but you nor should criticize them for packing enough fuel.
There’s no set policy. Some controllers will see if they can help you skip the queue, and others will just tell you to divert. The best solution is to bring enough fuel along in the first place.
Did you read my message? 3 go arounds is an awful lot. I think as a pilot I’ve never gotten two and as a controller I only gave two in a row once. (Not even my fault since the pilot didn’t ensure proper distance when sequenced) so never mind getting 3 go around more than once 😳. That’s just not normal. Either that figure is a bit exaggerated or I’d question the situation.
Also for fuel planning I’d have a look at this video. You can see how much extra fuel you need to bring:
Also little side note… you say you had several times the situation where you had more than one go around in a row. Let’s met exaggerated figures on your side. Let’s say you fly once a day and that for 2 years. Since you put it in plural that means that event happened at least twice. Ok so that means you at least have that happen once every 365 flight and you run out of fuel. Now keep in mind the figures I got were by minimising yours as much as grammar permits. Do you think one in 365 planes irl has to go around at least twice and ends up running out of fuel? I doubt it. Had it been the case, ok, but change the figures to what I perceived from what the op is saying and then the answer is certainly no. Doesn’t happen irl…
My mistake, I meant I notify that I have low fuel, like in this case about 10 minutes. Not that i had no fuel left. So my question was is there a command to notify ATC that you have absolutely no fuel left, like zero.
