Running dry?

Robert,

I know exactly how long I have
left on each tank


No, you don't. You know how much is gone from the tanks, not how much
is left.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Too many of you have been reading "The Cheap *******'s Pilot's Guide".
I have good working gauges and a fuel computer that has been
professionally calibrated and verified at each 100 hour inspection. I
don't need to make the wife want to leave me in order to know how much
fuel I have. Flying over the Sierras, dodging TS's is exciting enough,
I don't need to turn off the fan to add more excitment to my life.

Are your gauges accurate enough to reliably tell the difference between
30 minutes fuel at 60% power and empty in tyubulent air?
Will your fuel computer account for fuel that leaves via a cap that has
developed a leak?

Michael

In article .com,
"Michael" wrote:

Are your gauges accurate enough to reliably tell the difference between
30 minutes fuel at 60% power and empty in tyubulent air?
Will your fuel computer account for fuel that leaves via a cap that has
developed a leak?

Michael

INHO, the biggest error thet the "don't run it dry" crowd fails to grasp
is that, at the end of the flight, it is far better to have that 45
minutes of fuel in a single tank, rather than scattered among three or
four tanks totaling 45 minutes worth.

That is where a lot of fuel starvation accidents happen. Pilot gets busy
on approach, thinking he has selected a tank with enough fuel in it when
that fuel is in another tank.

They should stop being cheap *******s and just buy the damn fuel
computer. Then you know how much fuel is in each tank. You back woods
pilots worry me.

-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:
They should stop being cheap *******s and just buy the damn fuel
computer. Then you know how much fuel is in each tank. You back woods
pilots worry me.

I fly a 1945 Aeronca Champ. It has a single 13-gallon fuel tank that
sits above my legs on the cabin side of the firewall. If there is a
leak, I will feel it smell it.
The Champ has no electrical system, so it cannot power a computer.
I plan for 4-gallons/hour, but in actuality, it burns 3.5 to 3.75 gph.
The most fuel I have put in at one fillup was 12 gallons.

I used to have a 1946 Chief. It had one 13 gal tank in front of you
with a aux feed tank behind you. Running that tank dry would have been
a very, very bad idea. There is no guarantee that the aux tank will
drain to the main tank faster than the plane drinks at all attitudes.

I have a real airplane and as such, I could see if my caps developed a
leak in flight. My caps also get new seals every 12 months per AD.
And yes, ,my gauges can tell the difference between 30 minutes of fuel
and none even in turb. Fuel gauges can be VERY accurate, you just need
to spend the money to keep them in good repair.

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message ups.com...
I have a real airplane and as such, I could see if my caps developed a
leak in flight.

-Robert


No way the sumps can leak, eh? ;-)

Not without a change to the regularly checked and serviced fuel gauges.