Minimum fuel

Just a comment... Last weekend I had to move a full load, five seats
and baggage, across three states with multiple stops... This required
a light fuel load to make the W&B work out...

For those who have not seen my postings on fuel before, I am a fanatic
about not ever going into the last hour of fuel, for any reason... I
have even, in the distant past, landed 20 minutes from home for gas to
avoid busting my own one hour minimum rule... Given that the current
bird holds six hours of fuel and my bladder range is four hours, it has
been many years since I had less than two hours in the tanks...

Anyway, this time the significant other was breathing down my neck
about completing the flights on a fixed schedule... After beating up
on my whiz wheel for 20 minutes it became clear I would have to suspend
the fuel rule for the first time in decades, and go 15 minutes into the
fuel reserve because there 'aint no' gas station in the middle of Lake
Erie... I measure fuel by the clock and use the fuel gauges only as a
'how goes it' indicator, though I know from experience the gauge on the
main tank is on the money... So, there we are going across Lake Erie
on a gorgeous sunny day as the needle just touches the 1/4 mark which
means exactly 60 minutes of fuel left.. The count down timer I normally
use for approaches agrees with the gauge...

What didn't agree was my pucker factor... Amazing what your nervous
system can do when it wants your attention... In spite of my
intellectual knowledge that I had 15 minutes until landing with 60
minutes of fuel on board, my parasympathetic nervous system threw a
tantrum... I got a hollow in the pit of my stomach.. My palms got
sweaty... I had that, 'something bad is going to happen' sensation...
OTOH, the engines continued to do the Lycoming four banger, shake,
rattle, and roll... They weren't nervous... And the flight ended with
the usual squeak of tires on the concrete at Port Clinton...

So what is the point of this post? Well not much, except rules can be
broken ( NASA just did) if done carefully, but it still feels bad...
It will be a long time before I break the 1 hour rule again,
significant other not withstanding...

denny