Large transport flight crew departed and flew with a non-SOP fuel loading.

Attributes
ACN	1343642
Time
Date	201603
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 274 Flight Crew Type 9300
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 152
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

Narrative:

I was the first officer on reserve with a shorter than normal call out; and given short term parking and to get there as soon as possible. I made it to the airport with plenty of time but knew the clock was ticking. I met the captain in operations but we had to get a ride from ops to the hanger where the aircraft was parked. Maintenance was busy and our ride was 30 minutes late. We would have made our scheduled departure time and our returning DH flight had we made it to the hanger on time but with the delay we were a bit rushed trying to get our preflight done to make our scheduled DH.during preflight; maintenance asked the captain if he wanted to transfer fuel from the center to the main tanks. He said no because there were 4;900 pounds of fuel in the center tank (main tanks had 6;000 pounds) and that he was sure he was allowed up to 5;000 pounds in the center tank with the main tanks less than full. I did not process the conversation I had overheard until later at cruise; as I was wrapped up my preflight duties and didn't want to hold up our departure so we could make our DH. We took off with that fuel configuration; and when things settled down at cruise; we talked about looking up the fuel issue to make sure it was correct and then realized we took off with the fuel out of limits. The flight arrived without further incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Large transport flight crew departed and flew with a non-SOP fuel loading.

Narrative: I was the First Officer on Reserve with a shorter than normal call out; and given short term parking and to get there as soon as possible. I made it to the airport with plenty of time but knew the clock was ticking. I met the Captain in Operations but we had to get a ride from Ops to the hanger where the aircraft was parked. Maintenance was busy and our ride was 30 minutes late. We would have made our scheduled departure time and our returning DH flight had we made it to the hanger on time but with the delay we were a bit rushed trying to get our preflight done to make our scheduled DH.During preflight; Maintenance asked the Captain if he wanted to transfer fuel from the center to the main tanks. He said no because there were 4;900 pounds of fuel in the center tank (main tanks had 6;000 pounds) and that he was sure he was allowed up to 5;000 pounds in the center tank with the main tanks less than full. I did not process the conversation I had overheard until later at cruise; as I was wrapped up my preflight duties and didn't want to hold up our departure so we could make our DH. We took off with that fuel configuration; and when things settled down at cruise; we talked about looking up the fuel issue to make sure it was correct and then realized we took off with the fuel out of limits. The flight arrived without further incident.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.