"CVBreard" wrote in message ...
Lots of old pilots didn't trust fuel gauges, which is still a
wise attitude. They'd sometimes fly on one tank until it ran dry and
the engine quit, then switch to the other and know exactly how much
they had left and how much they'd burned.

I'm an old pilot, don't trust fuel gauges and purposely ran a tank dry...only
once...scared the hell out of me and my wife. Never did that again. :-)

Some planes have more complex fuel management than others. We have 5
tanks on our plane. We've run the tips dry a few times. Yes, it's a bit unsettling,
but Margy and I have the tank switch drill down. She hits the pump and I reach
for the fuel selector. Of course the real fun one was when Margy switched from
the tips to OFF rather than MAIN on downwind one day.