Check your gas.

On Dec 1, 1:09 pm, "vaughn"
wrote:
"Ken S. Tucker" wrote in ...

Well for small a/c (I'm Cessna 152), I fill my own and
check for water and of course color.
Otherwise, read the meter of the gas input or trust the
fella loading you.

No way! (I suspect Ken is another who flies about as much as Mx) I don't care
if you watched the guy top off your tank and now both guages read full. The
wise pilot still visually checks the fuel level before flight (eyeball, finger,
or dip stick). While you are at it, make sure that both filler caps are on
tight.

Every Flight Manual has a fuel consumption rate graph
as a function of power/rpm/cruising speed, so at flight
planning, a time and range can be estimated that does
not rely on the fuel gauge, which is accurate to +/- 10%.

I would LOVE to have a Cessna with a fuel guage that was accurate to +/- 10%.
On every Cessna I have ever flown, the fuel guages were best described as
semi-usless crap. Do I look at them? Yes; because in-flight they are your only
direct evidence of remaining fuel. Do I trust them? No!

So a cross check of a wrist watch with the fuel gauge
is a no-brainer.
Ken
Vaughn

Vaughn you're a glider enthusiast?
Anyway I'm involved with writing flight sims too.

I can see an unexpected head wind can mess up preflight planning,
cross country, if you're using long hops, which gives the pilot
a navigation problem = divert for fuel, or push to destination.
Aviation weather forecast is usually pretty good.
Ken