B777 first officer reports insufficient fuel to continue a flight from hawaii to the main land which...

Narrative:

In flight planning we noted that we were planned at FL390. This was my first flight from hawaii to the main land as I normally fly to asia. The captain accepted the fuel as planned; and I found no reason to disagree. When we got our fuel we were fueled exactly at cleared plus taxi. On rotation we had 79.9 on board vs plan at 80.2 if memory serves correctly...so there we are down 300 lbs. Next we did not get FL390; we got FL330 a 6000 lb bust...I expressed concern to the captain as we were planned with only 900 lbs extra at the etp. He contacted dispatch immediately and told me that he thought track a was a good plan...I had no reason again to disagree so we got clearance from hcf to go to alpha track. Captain notified dispatch and they strongly recommended not going to alpha but to stay on charlie. We followed their advice and proceeded on charlie. At the first checkpoint we were down over 1000 lbs. And knew we were in trouble on the etp. The captain called dispatch and for the next hour we tried every possible idea to find a a way to continue. Ten minutes prior to the etp we were down 2800 lbs for the etp required fuel. We notified oakland by cpdlc we needed to turn back and got clearance to do so. We did everything possible to complete the flight successfully but there was no way to continue without far required fuel on board. In hind sight; on these crowded tracks I should have advocated adding fuel in case we get stuck low. In the future I will do so as forcefully as I can.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B777 First Officer reports insufficient fuel to continue a flight from Hawaii to the main land which requires a turn back. Crew had planned FL390 but were assigned FL330 for the crossing.

Narrative: In flight planning we noted that we were planned at FL390. This was my first flight from Hawaii to the main land as I normally fly to Asia. The Captain accepted the fuel as planned; and I found no reason to disagree. When we got our fuel we were fueled exactly at cleared plus taxi. On rotation we had 79.9 on board vs plan at 80.2 if memory serves correctly...so there we are down 300 lbs. Next we did not get FL390; we got FL330 a 6000 lb bust...I expressed concern to the Captain as we were planned with only 900 lbs extra at the ETP. He contacted Dispatch immediately and told me that he thought Track A was a good plan...I had no reason again to disagree so we got clearance from HCF to go to Alpha track. Captain notified Dispatch and they STRONGLY recommended not going to Alpha but to stay on Charlie. We followed their advice and proceeded on Charlie. At the first checkpoint we were down over 1000 lbs. and knew we were in trouble on the ETP. The Captain called Dispatch and for the next hour we tried every possible idea to find a a way to continue. Ten minutes prior to the ETP we were down 2800 lbs for the ETP required fuel. We notified Oakland by CPDLC we needed to turn back and got clearance to do so. We did everything possible to complete the flight successfully but there was no way to continue without FAR required fuel on board. In hind sight; on these crowded tracks I should have advocated adding fuel in case we get stuck low. In the future I will do so as forcefully as I can.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	871230
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZOA.ARTCC
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Oceanic
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 11500 Flight Crew Type 600
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

B777 first officer reports insufficient fuel to continue a flight from hawaii to the main land which requires a turn back. Crew had planned FL390 but were assigned FL330 for the crossing.