Ron Rosenfeld wrote:

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:42:31 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:


IMHO, proper fuel management means never even coming *close* to running a
tank dry, let alone doing it intentionally.

And how do you know how much fuel you really have in your tanks?

It seems simpler, and safer, to figure this out by running the tanks dry,
at least once, than to trust the manufacturer's numbers.

Wouldn't it be safer (maybe not simpler) to just drain the tank on the
ground to find out?


In my case, I
have about four gallons less than the published numbers which is 1/2 hour
at economy cruise which is VFR reserves.

That's very important to know, but I still think that find out from the
safety of the hangar would be the best choice.

I find it very interesting that the "run the tanks dry occasionally"
group uses the argument that it is is about safety: knowing exactly how
much fuel your tank(s) hold. If they are truly interested in the
safety, it would seem to me that they would perform that operation on
the ground with a pony pump, some rubber hose, and a couple of clean 50
gallon drums (or a lot of clean buckets/gas cans).

The only two reasons I can see for intentionally running a tank dry are
to accurately determine your fuel flow (which doesn't really help you
since it's after the fact) or to extend your range to the absolute
maximum, which comes back to whether or not that's a good idea.
Personally, I think it's foolish since at worst, refueling adds an hour
to your trip and the break to stretch your legs helps prevent fatigue on
really long trips.


-m
--
## Mark T. Dame
## VP, Product Development
## MFM Software, Inc. (http://www.mfm.com/)
"OK, who stopped the payment on my reality check?"