New rules covering minimum fuel requirements for all Australian aircraft were scheduled to start on Nov. 8, 2018, but have now been extended to Feb. 28, 2019. The nation’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is providing existing aircraft operator certificate (AOC) holders and Part 141 and 142 training certificate holders more time to comply with the new fuel requirements by issuing an updated exemption.

The authority said it recognized “that many operators were only recently required to amend their expositions or operations manuals to transition to CASR Parts 141 and 142.” To this end, CASA has updated its Part 141 sample operations manual and Part 142 exposition and the annual authoring and assessment tool to reflect these changes. Between now and the exemption deadline, CASA advises AOC holders to “review your current fuel policy and, if required, update your operations manual and submit to your oversighting office.”

The rules re-introduce a 30-minute fixed fuel reserve requirement, reduce reserve requirements for day VFR operations in small piston or turboprop airplanes, require pilots to conduct in-flight fuel management with regular fuel quantity checks and if required declare “mayday fuel,” and introduce “additional fuel” that simplifies the planning requirements for fuel contingencies. The changes more closely align Australian fuel rules with U.S. standards and ICAO recommended practices.