Fuel contamination and other basic survival instincts

Ben Hallert wrote:

Sounds like a good argument to check the sumps on your takes as part of
your preflight. My instructor told me explicitly not to trust the fuel
truck, as PIC it's my responsibillity to make sure he didn't 'fill me
up with water' (was one way he put it).

He taught me to sump the tanks, then verify the color of the fuel
against a white surface. I know that it can take a few minutes for
contamination or wrong fuel to settle to the sumps, but if I _don't_
check, then I lose an opportunity to abort the flight I might have
otherwise had. Basically, it's not a 100% guarentee I'll catch a
problem, but it's certainly better then if I just go on 'faith' (a poor
trait to have in the cockpit, it seems).

First time I fueled at a nice FBO, I felt kinda funny when I sumped and
checked the tank, like the look the fuel guy was giving me was sorta
funny, but I remembered my responsibillity and finished the check.
It's my butt on the line, not his.


First time I fueled at a "nice FBO" (Signature at IAD) i said fill it to
the tabs and they even wrote that on the fuel ticket, so I went about my
business that day. The fueler topped the tanks while I wasn't there, I
returned to find them topped and they had to drain fuel, a lot of hassle
for them and delay for me. I think in that case they would have
preferred that I had watched over them, but at the big FBOs sometimes
unless you're leaving right away you can't get them to do it at a time
you can be there to watch.