Time, running out of fuel and fuel gauges

S&B wrote:

My point is to not rely solely on electrical components/indications

I agree. This is why I always take along a cross country flight log
with blocks at each waypoint for estimated time of arrival and actual
time of arrival. En route, I use this log and a clock to monitor fuel
usage.

OK, so the XC log is produced by Jepp's FlightStar flight planning
software, but I could produce one by hand if I had to.

--
Peter

wrote in message
oups.com...
[...]
My point is to not rely solely on electrical components/indications.

Who said anything about making the fuel flow meter one's sole source of
information with respect to fuel quantity?

Geez...take a chill pill. The correct "takeaway" here is that a) fuel flow
meters ARE useful (when properly calibrated) and b) you cannot trust any one
source of information (not even your watch) and so the more sources of
information you have available, the better (so you can cross-reference).

It's got nothing to do with being "one of the soon to be gone dinosaurs".
Other than a dinosaur who refuses to take advantage of new technology *in
addition to* their existing tools may be gone sooner rather than later, that
is.

Pete

Pete
You misread or misunderstand me. I said not to rely SOLELY on
electrical. I'm delighted to see the modern advances and electronics
and use them as often as they are available. But, I've been around a
long time and have yet to see a foolproof system. I've encountered more
than a few in-flight failures of nearly everything that can go wrong!
Fortunately I was close enough to make a landing when I had some
serious failures in flight.
BTW, what is a "takeaway"? Is that a new word that us old english major
dinosaurs have to learn? Of course I understand the meaning or intent,
I think, but have never seen it used before.
geeezzzo....chill pill?
fly safe and don't take anything for granted
Ol S&B

My JPI is always within a gallon when I top up.

Dylan Smith wrote:
snip
So my lesson is - keep track of time AND cross check time and your
expected fuel burn with the fuel gauges. If the gauges show less than
expected, land and check it out. They might well be right.


That's the key to using the often less-than-accurate fuel gauges
found on most aircraft. Even though they may not tell you the exact
quantity of fuel in each tank, an unusual reading can tip you off to a
fuel leak or higher than expected fuel burn.

One more trick that I keep in the bag is to burn fuel from one tank
at a time (even when flying a high wing that allows both). If you
have a leak or unusually high fuel burn, you'll be alerted when a tank
goes dry ahead of schedule. At that point, you (hopefully) have fuel
remaining in the other tank to get you safely on the ground. When
flying on a "both" setting, by the time you realize that something is
wrong, you may have emptied both tanks.

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