Definition
The amount of usable fuel still available in the aircraft's tanks at a given moment, typically expressed in time (minutes or hours of flight) rather than gallons or pounds when reported to ATC during an emergency or fuel-related communication.
Plain English
How much fuel you still have left to fly with, usually stated as how many more minutes or hours you can stay in the air.
Context Anchor
Seen when evaluating how long the aircraft can continue flying, whether an emergency airport is reachable, or whether an early landing is needed.
Why Pilots Care
Directly determines which airports remain within safe range before fuel exhaustion in an emergency.
Intuition Check
Do not think of remaining fuel as the tank size or the fuel you started with. It means the usable fuel left right now, based on what was loaded and what has already been burned.
Example Sentence 1
When declaring minimum fuel, the pilot reported remaining fuel of 45 minutes to approach control.
Example Sentence 2
The crew recalculated remaining fuel after the engine failure to confirm they could reach the alternate.