You bet. It's called a sight guage. A transparent panel or tube in the root
end of the tank so that you can see the gas. You have to keep the plane in the
attitude you used to calibrate the guage, but it will never suffer an
electrical or mechanical failure. Fancy ones will have a stripe behind the
tube. The gas will act like a magnifying glass and make the stripe look real
wide. Helps with the nearly transparent gas. Add a little light on the subject
and you can see it in the dark, too.




In article , "NoSpam" wrote:
Is there a way to ACCURATELY measure the available fuel in the tanks of a
general single-engine piston aircraft??? I know there are fuel flow
computers available (such as JPI?). But these typically need to be "set"
with a starting fuel quantity, and then it accurately measures the fuel flow
rate (consumption rate) to calculate the remaining fuel. However, if you do
not start with full tanks, or a [accurate] known given amount of fuel in the
tanks, this method does not seem that reliable/accurate... Is there a way
to accurately measure the fuel in the tanks while the aircraft is on the
ground (using some "mechanical" measuring tool/gauge)? Is there a way to
accurately measure the amount of fuel in the tanks while in flight?

A friend of mine has bought some digital fuel gauges (a combination a
several digital engine instruments -- but I forgot the manufacturer's name).
Using these fuel gauges, you "calibrate" the instrument/gauges by leveling
the aircraft (both "wings level" and "pitch/flying attitude level") and
starting with 0 gals of fuel in the tank, then adding one gallon at a time,
wait a while for the fuel to settle, then take an electronic reading, add 1
gal of fuel and repeat the process until the tanks are full. How accurate
is this method? (personally I do not know how accurate this is, but would
like to know from someone with experience using these instruments...)

Thank you.

Cameron




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