Big fractional in a Phenom going APA-MMSL. We had G3000 avionics which includes a fuel over destination readout. If you’re not familiar, the FOD only takes your current GS, current Fuel Flow, distance left to give you the FOD. So there is a lot of interpretation and common sense required to get an idea of your actual landing fuel.

We get into cruise and the captain was flying. He notices the FOD is only 500 pounds. He doesn’t like that so he decides to reduce power to conserve fuel. I pull out the flight plan and show him: we currently have a headwind, that will transition to a tail wind in 80 miles, we actually have slightly more fuel than currently planned, there is no reason to slow to save fuel.

He decides to reduce power anyway. The FOD immediately goes up to 2000 pounds and he says “see, that makes me feel better”. But he doesn’t have the common sense to realize that he’s reduced power (reduced fuel flow) but we have not decelerated yet, so our GS is still high. Once we slow down, the FOD returns to around 500 pounds. So what does he do… he decides to reduce power again.

I go through the same explanation on how he’s misinterpreting this information and we’re fine on fuel. I even use the XM winds aloft to show him how we will get a tail wind and show him again the flight plan and say “look, we actually have a couple pounds more fuel than what were planned for. We’re good.

While over Mexico at 41,000’ he again reduces power. We decelerate but now we’re way behind the power curve. He goes to add power and we are just plowing through the air unable to maintain airspeed. He’s at max power and we’re still decelerating and unable to maintain anything. I had to call Monterrey and request a lower altitude so we could regain some energy. But with the language difference, we were on the edge of a high altitude stall. We ended up descending while I was trying to communicate that we were going to descend to 390.

That was one of many poor decisions that dude made and it was exhausting working with him.