Holding Fuel Burn Calculator

You're flying for time, not distance: slowing to best-endurance speed (near best-glide for props) cuts power required dramatically — a trainer cruising at 10 gph holds happily at 7–8, a jet's holding page might show 40% under cruise flow. Configuring early (slow before the fix, lean for the regime) converts directly into extra affordable circuits.

Less than it implies: Expect Further Clearance is a planning time for lost-communication procedures and your own fuel math — not a guarantee the hold ends then. Stacks compress and extend; the EFC may be revised repeatedly. Treat it as the current estimate to price (this tool), re-priced every time it changes, against a bingo that doesn't.

Three escalating sentences: a strategic 'how long do you anticipate the delay?' early; 'minimum fuel' when, upon landing as cleared, you can accept no undue delay; and 'MAYDAY fuel' when landing with less than final reserve has become possible. The professional pattern is making the first call so early that the other two never happen — this calculator's amber verdict IS that first call's cue.

Meaningfully: clean configuration (no flaps), best-endurance speed, leaned mixture for the power setting, and in pistons, consideration of carb heat's cost. Jets weigh holding altitude too — fuel flow at FL200 beats 6,000 ft substantially, which is why crews ask for higher holds during long delays. Every gallon not burned in the stack is a gallon of approach options.