"J a c k" wrote in message
. ..

Why? The flight manual and a stick, verified by experience, work very well.

The flight manual will only tell you what to expect from an average, new
aircraft of your model. Experience can only tell you what to expect from your
airplane under typical conditions. A fuel guage would tell you what is actually
in your airplane's tanks today, on this flight, right now. I can think of
several reasons (such as a fuel leak)why an airplane might suddenly have less
gas in it than even an excellent preflight procedure, backed up by years of
experience, would lead you to expect.

Inaccurate gauges are not the cause of the problem.

No, but an accurate fuel guage could certainly warn you about a problem.


Next, you are probably going to say that it is perfectly OK to have crappy
brakes on our gliders because we should all be making our landings at the proper
speed into adequate fields, while always exactly hitting our aim point. (typed
with a grin)

Vaughn