How to ACCURATELY measure fuel/gas in a single-engine piston aircraft?

B.t.w. the fuel gauge that I was referring to (that a friend of mine had
installed) was the FL-100 by AerospaceLogic

See: http://www.aerospacelogic.com

Regards,

Cameron




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Newps wrote in message news:aeqKb.745729$HS4.5807961@attbi_s01...
I bought the fuel hawk for my 182. Total waste of money. My left tank
reads a different distance up the stick than the right tank for the same
amount of fuel.

snip

That's strange. Is there something about the 182's construction
that puts the tanks at different attitudes? I would think that they
should be just about the same if you were measuring on level ground.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


NoSpam wrote:

Is there a way to accurately measure the fuel in the tanks while the
aircraft
is on the ground (using some "mechanical" measuring tool/gauge)?

Yes. Make or buy some sort of dipstick. Mine is a clear plastic tube. I bought
it
and drained one of my fuel tanks. We then pumped in 5 gallons and marked where
the
level was when I stuck the tube in. Put in another 5 gallons and marked that.
And
so forth. Now I can stick the tube in the tank, pull it out, and know within a
gallon or two how much is in that tank.


Of course, that would be "total" fuel, right? Not usable. Unless you managed
to get all the gas out when you drained it, and those drains for some reason
don't always get all the gas out. Found out when trying to remove a Cub's wing
tank (PA-11). Drained till it stopped. Went to disconnect the fuel line, and
fuel comes running out. Caught about 1/4 gal.

That would tell me there was another 1/4 gallon available to the engine below
the strainer- and that raised all kinds of other questions too... When we took
the tank out of the wing, we were STILL able to drain another 1/4 gallon of
fuel, too.

--
Mike

"Mike O'Malley" wrote in message
...
Of course, that would be "total" fuel, right? Not usable. Unless you
managed
to get all the gas out when you drained it, and those drains for some
reason
don't always get all the gas out.

Actually, you have it backwards. If he got all the gas out when draining
the tanks, then the calibrations would indicate total fuel, rather than
usable. On the other hand, there's no guarantee that even a partial drain
would result in an amount equal to usable fuel being left in the tank (as
you found out, it could be more, and of course it could also be less).

A correct procedure, IMHO, would be to ensure that the tanks are
*completely* empty. Then add an amount of fuel equal to the known unusable
amount. At that point, mark the zero point on the dipstick and start with
the remainder of the fuel intervals.

I use a dipstick calibrated in that manner with my airplane. The only
gotcha is, of course, unless the plane is parked on perfectly level ground,
there's a bit of error due to the slope. But it does a pretty good job.
Certainly it is better than eyeballing it, or trying to decide whether the
fuel is "at the tabs", completely full, somewhere in between, or not even
visible.

Pete

Newps wrote:
*Peter R. wrote:

NoSpam wrote:


Is there a way to ACCURATELY measure the available fuel in the
tanks of a
general single-engine piston aircraft???


Just after receiving my private pilot certificate, I bought a
FuelHawk
to accurately measure remaining fuel in my Skyhawk's tanks:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?O202128F6

Due to the type of missions I routinely fly, I often have to trade
fuel
for passenger and luggage weight. This stick is indispensable in
assisting me with W/B planning and fuel/reserve estimates.

I would be very uncomfortable flying one of these missions without
it.

I bought the fuel hawk for my 182. Total waste of money. My left
tank
reads a different distance up the stick than the right tank for the
same
amount of fuel. Also the stated quantity on the stick is not
correct
for either tank. So I had to make my own. I used a 50 cent wooden
dowel and an ink pen to mark 5 gallon increments, left tank on one
end
and right tank on the other. *

Yep! I did the same although not for a Cessna except I used saw cuts in
the stick just in case the pen wore off. Surprisingly, it hasn't yet!
It may only be only a difference of 3 or 4 litres between the tanks,
but you never know when you might need 'em.


MQD_117.3


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Mike O'Malley wrote:

Of course, that would be "total" fuel, right? Not usable.

Nope. Usable fuel. The Maule has two fuel lines (doh!) that run down the left side
of the fuselage and come together at the selector switch. Each line has a drain at
the bottom of the fuselage. These drains can be locked open. When no more fuel
comes out when the drain is open, you've run out of useable fuel. There's probably
still some in the tank.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

John Galban wrote:

Newps wrote in message news:aeqKb.745729$HS4.5807961@attbi_s01...

I bought the fuel hawk for my 182. Total waste of money. My left tank
reads a different distance up the stick than the right tank for the same
amount of fuel.


snip

That's strange. Is there something about the 182's construction
that puts the tanks at different attitudes? I would think that they
should be just about the same if you were measuring on level ground.

It's not much difference, maybe 1/8 to a 1/4 inch. But that's quite a
few gallons in a long range tank. Plus I calibrated in my hangar. It
is of no use to get the plane level, you must calibrate where you will
normally be dipping the tanks. The plane looks level but if I took a
level to the seat rails it may be off a little.

mqd_117.3 wrote:


Yep! I did the same although not for a Cessna except I used saw cuts in
the stick just in case the pen wore off. Surprisingly, it hasn't yet!
It may only be only a difference of 3 or 4 litres between the tanks,
but you never know when you might need 'em.

I wondered about the ink too when I did it, but it has been 4 years now
and it looks like the day I did it.

Newps wrote:

I bought the fuel hawk for my 182. Total waste of money. My left tank
reads a different distance up the stick than the right tank for the same
amount of fuel.

Doesn't the 182 have fuel bladders? That might have something to do with it.
Not that that's a good excuse for that degree of inaccuracy.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

Most 182's have bladders like mine.

G.R. Patterson III wrote:


Newps wrote:

I bought the fuel hawk for my 182. Total waste of money. My left tank
reads a different distance up the stick than the right tank for the same
amount of fuel.


Doesn't the 182 have fuel bladders? That might have something to do with it.
Not that that's a good excuse for that degree of inaccuracy.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."