Bad fuel gauges?

wrote in news:38ce9894-6517-473f-b36e-602d70fa1a94
@z17g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

We have a lot of
problems with them in jets too, believe it or not.

Bertie

Doesn't that mean there's a certain fudge factor in landing weight
calculations?



Not really. We have procedures to know what the actual fuel on board is
before departure ( we compare the indicated against the arrival and the
uplift) and we have fuel used based on FF as we go to cross check. When the
gauges work, they work well, problem is when there is any moisture in the
tank they go nuts, though. The senders are capicitor type and just a drop
renders then next to useless. That's th ebiggest bugaboo with them, but the
computers can also give difficulites. If things don;'t add up we "drip" the
tanks. There are little tubes on the bottom of the wing we can pull down
and get an accurate reading of the fuel in the tank.

Given the lack of apparent crashes due to inadequate flap settings I
guess that ya'll pretty much have the innacuracies under control.

We pretty much always land at the same flap setting. Just the approach
speed varies. A ton of weight would only mean about a knot in the
difference.


Bertie