VFR fuel reserves: FAA, EASA and UK CAA

Work it out for your own flight on the E6B's time and fuel card: it adds the trip, the reserve for the rule you pick and the taxi allowance, and says whether the fuel on board covers it.

• An FAA local flight still needs 30 minutes. EASA and the UK accept 10. 14 CFR 91.151 has no local case, so a circuit at your home field is planned like any other day flight. Under the EASA and UK means of compliance, a day flight that takes off and lands at the same aerodrome and stays within sight of it needs 10 minutes (AMC1 NCO.OP.125(b) point (a)(1); UK AMC1 NCO.OP.125(b) point (a)(1), CAA ORS9 Decision No. 47).
• Cruise fuel flow understates the local reserve. The 10-minute reserve is flown at maximum continuous cruise power, 1,500 ft above the destination, and maximum continuous power burns more than normal cruise - so on the E6B, enter that higher flow for EASA and UK CAA local flights. The 30- and 45-minute reserves are at holding speed, which burns less than cruise, so cruise flow is a safe stand-in there. The FAA minutes are at normal cruising speed.
• The FAA minutes are in the regulation; the EASA and UK minutes are acceptable means of compliance. 91.151 is binding regulation text. NCO.OP.125 itself sets no minutes - it asks the pilot in command to plan a protected final reserve - and the 10, 30 and 45 minute figures are acceptable means of compliance with it. EASA's NCO.GEN.101 allows other means, and the rule can ask for more (see below).
• Under EASA and UK rules, contingency and expected delays come on top. The final reserve is not for them: NCO.OP.125(a) asks for fuel for “any delays that are expected in flight, and any contingencies that may reasonably be expected to affect the flight”, and AMC3 NCO.OP.125(b) says the final reserve “should not be used as contingency fuel in normal operations”. 91.151 builds wind and forecast weather into the trip, “considering wind and forecast weather conditions”.
• Night is not the same hour everywhere. The FAA and EASA count it from civil twilight; the UK from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise. Which reserve applies at dusk depends on whose rules you fly under.

(a) No person may begin a flight in an airplane under VFR conditions unless (considering wind and forecast weather conditions) there is enough fuel to fly to the first point of intended landing and, assuming normal cruising speed— (1) During the day, to fly after that for at least 30 minutes; or (2) At night, to fly after that for at least 45 minutes.

Binding regulation text for every flight begun in an airplane in VFR conditions under Part 91. Rotorcraft have their own figure in 91.151(b): “at least 20 minutes” at normal cruising speed. Commercial Part 135 operations have the parallel 135.209, with the same 30 and 45 minutes worded on “normal cruising fuel consumption”.

Night, for the 45-minute rule (14 CFR 1.1): “Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time.”

Flying an N-registered aeroplane abroad: 14 CFR 91.703(a) has you “comply with the regulations relating to the flight and maneuver of aircraft there in force” and with Part 91 “so far as it is not inconsistent with applicable regulations of the foreign country”.

Unchanged in substance since the eCFR point-in-time baseline of 1 January 2017 (eCFR version history); its history before that was not checked.

Part-NCO (Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012) governs non-commercial flights in other-than-complex motor-powered aeroplanes and helicopters. A complex aeroplane - over 5,700 kg maximum certificated take-off mass, more than 19 passenger seats, a minimum crew of two pilots, or turbojet engines or more than one turboprop - flies non-commercially under Part-NCC instead, with its own fuel rules, except that a turboprop of 5,700 kg or less stays under Part-NCO (Article 6(8)). Regulation 965/2012 does not apply to balloons and sailplanes.

The rule: a reserve you plan and protect

(b) The pilot-in-command shall plan a quantity of fuel/energy to be protected as final reserve fuel/energy to ensure a safe landing. [...] (c) The pilot-in-command shall commence a flight only if the aircraft carries sufficient fuel/energy and oil: (1) when no destination alternate is required, to fly to the aerodrome or operating site of intended landing, plus the final reserve fuel/energy

In setting the quantity, the rule puts first “the severity of the hazard to persons or property that may result from an emergency landing after fuel/energy starvation”, then “the likelihood of unexpected circumstances that the final reserve fuel/energy may no longer be protected” - which is how it can ask for more than the minutes below.

The minutes: AMC1 NCO.OP.125(b) point (a)

The final reserve fuel (FRF)/energy should be no less than the required fuel/energy to fly: (a) for aeroplanes: (1) for 10 minutes at maximum continuous cruise power at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination under VFR by day, taking off and landing at the same aerodrome/landing site, and always remaining within sight of that aerodrome/landing site; (2) for 30 minutes at holding speed at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination under VFR by day; and (3) for 45 minutes at holding speed at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination or destination alternate aerodrome under VFR flights by night and IFR; and

These are acceptable means of compliance. NCO.GEN.101: “Alternative means of compliance to those adopted by the Agency may be used by an operator to establish compliance with Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 and its Implementing Rules.”

Once planned, the reserve is protected (AMC3 NCO.OP.125(b)): “If the fuel/energy on board falls below the FRF/energy, the pilot-in-command should consider this to be an emergency.” No holding figures in your handbook? GM2 NCO.OP.125(b): “derive the fuel/energy flow data from the long-range/best-range cruise data or, if this is not provided, from the lowest available cruise data in power setting tables.”

Night (Regulation 965/2012, Annex I (79)): “‘night’ means the period between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight or such other period between sunset and sunrise as may be prescribed by the appropriate authority, as defined by the Member State;”

Adopted by ED Decision 2022/005/R (22 March 2022), applicable from 30 October 2022 together with the rule text of Regulation (EU) 2021/1296. The aeroplane text is unchanged through ED Decision 2025/023/R (15 December 2025). Regulation (EU) 2025/133 retitled the point “Fuel/energy and oil supply” from 18 February 2026. Read in EASA's Easy Access Rules for Air Operations, Revision 24 (March 2026), which EASA describes as “not an official publication”; the Official Journal texts were not read.

The UK rule now has the same structure as EASA's - a planned, protected final reserve - after S.I. 2024/1290 replaced UK NCO.OP.125 on 30 October 2025, and UK Part-NCO covers the same aircraft as the EU's. The minutes are in the CAA's acceptable means of compliance, identical for aeroplanes to EASA's in minutes, power, speed and height:

The final reserve fuel (FRF) or energy should be no less than the required fuel or energy to fly: (a) for aeroplanes: (1) for 10 minutes at maximum continuous cruise power at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination under VFR by day, taking off and landing at the same aerodrome / landing site, and always remaining within sight of that aerodrome / landing site; (2) for 30 minutes at holding speed at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination under VFR by day; and (3) for 45 minutes at holding speed at 1 500 ft (450 m) above the destination or destination alternate aerodrome under VFR flights by night and IFR; and

Before 30 October 2025 the minutes were in the UK regulation itself, flown at “normal cruising altitude” with no power setting or speed stated: “(i) by day, taking-off and landing at the same aerodrome/landing site and always remaining in sight of that aerodrome/landing site, to fly the intended route and thereafter for at least 10 minutes at normal cruising altitude; (ii) by day, to fly to the aerodrome of intended landing and thereafter to fly for at least 30 minutes at normal cruising altitude; or (iii) by night, to fly to the aerodrome of intended landing and thereafter to fly for at least 45 minutes at normal cruising altitude” (UK Regulation 965/2012 Annex VII as it stood on 29 October 2025).

Night (UK Regulation 965/2012, Annex I (79)): “'night' means the time from half an hour after sunset until half an hour before sunrise (both times inclusive), sunset and sunrise being determined at surface level”

ORS9 Decision No. 47 was made on 9 May 2025 and came into force on 30 October 2025, with the new UK NCO.OP.125 substituted by S.I. 2024/1290 reg 10(2)(f) on the same day. No later amendment was found, but the ORS9 decisions after August 2025 were not all checked.

Reserves are examined on both sides of the Atlantic. Practising them here is all KeepBlueUp claims - nothing on this site is approved by the FAA, EASA or the UK CAA.

• FAA-S-ACS-6C, PA.I.D.K3c - Calculating: “Fuel requirements, including reserve”
• FAA-S-ACS-6C, PA.I.D.S4 - “Recalculate fuel reserves based on a scenario provided by the evaluator.”
• EASA PPL theory syllabus (AMC1 FCL.210; FCL.215): 7.3 Flight planning and flight monitoring - fuel planning

Read on 7 October 2026. Check the current text before you rely on any of it.

• 14 CFR 91.151, eCFR and its version history; 14 CFR 1.1, 91.151(b), 91.703 and 135.209 as published by the Cornell Legal Information Institute (law.cornell.edu).
• EASA Easy Access Rules for Air Operations, Revision 24 (March 2026): NCO.OP.125, NCO.GEN.101, AMC1 to AMC3 and GM2 NCO.OP.125(b), Articles 1, 5 and 6 and Annex I of Regulation 965/2012; ED Decisions 2022/005/R and 2025/023/R.
• CAA ORS9 Decision No. 47 (9 May 2025), page 415; S.I. 2024/1290 and UK Regulation 965/2012 Annexes I and VII on legislation.gov.uk.

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