Aviation Fuel Burn Calculator
Flight time × fuel flow with reserves on top — the basic fuel equation, with VFR/IFR reserve presets and the gallons↔pounds conversion built in.
Plan with your aircraft's measured burn, not the brochure's — and remember 91.151's 30/45 minutes are legal minimums calculated at cruise consumption, not a comfort target. Most professionals land with an hour.
Formula
⚠️ For flight planning and education only — verify with official sources, your POH/AFM and certified equipment. Not for primary navigation.
Disclaimer: This tool is for general informational and estimation purposes only and is not professional financial, tax, accounting or legal advice. All figures are estimates — verify with a qualified professional before making decisions. Read the full disclaimer.
Flight time × fuel flow with reserves on top — the basic fuel equation, with VFR/IFR reserve presets and the gallons↔pounds conversion built in.
About Aviation Fuel Burn Calculator
Fuel planning is three terms that pilots love to abbreviate to one: the trip burn (time × flow), the ground-and-climb allowance the cruise number ignores, and the reserve the regulation demands and prudence doubles. This calculator keeps all three visible, prices the total in gallons, pounds and litres, and presets the reserve choices to the 14 CFR 91.151/167 minimums — labeled as minimums.
How to use Aviation Fuel Burn Calculator
- 1Enter — sensible defaults are pre-filled so you see a worked result immediately.
- 2Read the live results: .
- 3Check the "With your numbers" line to see the formula total = time × flow + taxi/climb allowance + reserve minutes × flow substituted step by step.
- 4Adjust inputs (or flip the unit toggle) until the scenario matches yours, then copy or share the result.
Why use Aviation Fuel Burn Calculator?
- ✓Instant, free and private — every calculation runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded
- ✓Built on the published formula total = time × flow + taxi/climb allowance + reserve minutes × flow with sources cited on the page
- ✓Plan with your aircraft's measured burn, not the brochure's — and remember 91.151's 30/45 minutes are legal minimums calculated at cruise consumption, not a comfort target. Most professionals land with an hour.
- ✓Switch units, tweak any input and watch every result update live
Frequently asked questions
What are the legal fuel reserves for Part 91 flying?+
VFR: enough to reach the first intended landing point plus 30 minutes at normal cruise (day) or 45 (night). IFR: destination, then alternate when required, then 45 minutes. All computed at normal cruising consumption. They are floors with no margin for the unforecast headwind that made you need them — hence the professional habit of one-hour personal minimums.
Why a separate taxi-and-climb allowance?+
Because cruise flow understates both ends: taxi and run-up burn 1.5–3 gallons before wheels-up, and the climb runs full-rich at full power — roughly 30–50% above cruise flow — for ten-plus minutes. POH time-fuel-distance-to-climb tables price it exactly; a flat 2–3 gallon allowance covers typical trainer profiles. Skipping it quietly spends a third of the legal reserve.
Should I plan with the POH burn or my own numbers?+
Your own, validated: track actual fuel added against Hobbs time across a dozen flights and you'll know your airplane's honest burn at your leaning technique — frequently half a gallon or more above book for aging engines and casual leaning. The POH is the floor of plausibility; your records are the plan.
When do pounds matter more than gallons?+
Whenever weight-and-balance is tight (the 6 lb/gal conversion is exactly the W&B input), for turbine aircraft (fuel ordered and burned in pounds or kilos), and at the margins of performance planning where 30 gallons is a passenger's worth of climb gradient. This tool prints all three units so no conversion happens mentally at midnight.
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