"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:59:07 -0500, Mike Weller
wrote:

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 01:34:56 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:


4. Measure your gas with your watch, never your fuel gauges.

That has served me well for a long time.

Mike Weller



I used to believe the same mantra. But one flight many years ago changed
my mind.

You need to believe the method that is the most conservative at the time.

Some years ago, when I believed as you wrote, a tank ran dry unexpectedly
about 12,000 feet over the hills of W Va. Not a very hospitable place.
The tank ran dry about 5 minutes before I was planning to switch, at a
time
when there should have been about 20 minutes of fuel remaining.

The fact that it ran dry allowed me to refigure my fuel consumption and
know what I had left in the other tank. The closest airport happened to
be
my planned destination (CRW) and I landed with maybe 15 minutes of fuel
remaining, instead of the planned for 60 minutes.

The problem turned out to be a leaky gasket in the fuel servo, increasing
my fuel consumption by about 10-15%, if I recall correctly.

What says a fuel gauge is any more or less accurate than a fuel FLOW gauge?