Minimum fuel

Just a comment... Last weekend I had to move a full load, five seats
and baggage, across three states with multiple stops... This required
a light fuel load to make the W&B work out...

For those who have not seen my postings on fuel before, I am a fanatic
about not ever going into the last hour of fuel, for any reason... I
have even, in the distant past, landed 20 minutes from home for gas to
avoid busting my own one hour minimum rule... Given that the current
bird holds six hours of fuel and my bladder range is four hours, it has
been many years since I had less than two hours in the tanks...

Anyway, this time the significant other was breathing down my neck
about completing the flights on a fixed schedule... After beating up
on my whiz wheel for 20 minutes it became clear I would have to suspend
the fuel rule for the first time in decades, and go 15 minutes into the
fuel reserve because there 'aint no' gas station in the middle of Lake
Erie... I measure fuel by the clock and use the fuel gauges only as a
'how goes it' indicator, though I know from experience the gauge on the
main tank is on the money... So, there we are going across Lake Erie
on a gorgeous sunny day as the needle just touches the 1/4 mark which
means exactly 60 minutes of fuel left.. The count down timer I normally
use for approaches agrees with the gauge...

What didn't agree was my pucker factor... Amazing what your nervous
system can do when it wants your attention... In spite of my
intellectual knowledge that I had 15 minutes until landing with 60
minutes of fuel on board, my parasympathetic nervous system threw a
tantrum... I got a hollow in the pit of my stomach.. My palms got
sweaty... I had that, 'something bad is going to happen' sensation...
OTOH, the engines continued to do the Lycoming four banger, shake,
rattle, and roll... They weren't nervous... And the flight ended with
the usual squeak of tires on the concrete at Port Clinton...

So what is the point of this post? Well not much, except rules can be
broken ( NASA just did) if done carefully, but it still feels bad...
It will be a long time before I break the 1 hour rule again,
significant other not withstanding...

denny

Denny wrote:
For those who have not seen my postings on fuel before, I am a fanatic
about not ever going into the last hour of fuel, for any reason...

Not a bad rule. You won't get every bit of utility out of your
airplane, but you're also not likely to ever run out of fuel. I think
that's a perfectly reasonable way to fly.

Anyway, this time the significant other was breathing down my neck
about completing the flights on a fixed schedule...

Don't let your SO talk you into breaking rules. Lie if you have to.
Fudge your calculations to make it look like going non-stop will mean
landing with 15 minutes reserve instead of 45. Or zero. Or halfway
through the flight tell her you must be hitting unexpected headwinds
because you keep hitting checkpoints further and further behind your
flight planned estimates. Or that you've *really* got to take a leak
NOW and you're not going to make it to your destination without
wetting your pants. Once you're on the ground, you might as well take
on another 10 gallons.

If you really are committed to breaking a rule, I'd rather take on an
extra 30 minutes of fuel and take off overgross. You didn't say what
you're flying, but a "4-banger" is probably burning no more than 10
gph in cruise; 30 minutes is 30 pounds of fuel. Nobody ever died
taking off 30 pounds overweight, but people have died being 3 pounds
of fuel short of making the runway.

Did you try planning different power settings? Cruising at 55%
vs. 75% power can make a huge difference in range (especially with a
tailwind).

Boy Denny, I hear ya!
I also never go into the last hour's worth of fuel and the only time I've
actually gotten below that was a non stop trip from Atlanta back to
Wisconsin into some pretty heavy head winds. We were in the air for 5
hours.

I normally plan our fuel burn at 25gph by my watch, start up to shut down.
I stopped 20 minutes from home and pumped 120 gallons into the Aztec, 24gph,
but it only left 6 gallons in each of the four tanks, 24 total, only 20 of
which was usable. Just under 50 minutes of fuel in a perfect world. My
hands were still sweating and my knees were weak as I climbed back in the
plane. I think the last 30 minutes of that flight took a larger toll on me
than the first 4 and 1/2 hours.

Jim

"Denny" wrote in message
oups.com...
Just a comment... Last weekend I had to move a full load, five seats
and baggage, across three states with multiple stops... This required
a light fuel load to make the W&B work out...

For those who have not seen my postings on fuel before, I am a fanatic
about not ever going into the last hour of fuel, for any reason... I
have even, in the distant past, landed 20 minutes from home for gas to
avoid busting my own one hour minimum rule... Given that the current
bird holds six hours of fuel and my bladder range is four hours, it has
been many years since I had less than two hours in the tanks...

Anyway, this time the significant other was breathing down my neck
about completing the flights on a fixed schedule... After beating up
on my whiz wheel for 20 minutes it became clear I would have to suspend
the fuel rule for the first time in decades, and go 15 minutes into the
fuel reserve because there 'aint no' gas station in the middle of Lake
Erie... I measure fuel by the clock and use the fuel gauges only as a
'how goes it' indicator, though I know from experience the gauge on the
main tank is on the money... So, there we are going across Lake Erie
on a gorgeous sunny day as the needle just touches the 1/4 mark which
means exactly 60 minutes of fuel left.. The count down timer I normally
use for approaches agrees with the gauge...

What didn't agree was my pucker factor... Amazing what your nervous
system can do when it wants your attention... In spite of my
intellectual knowledge that I had 15 minutes until landing with 60
minutes of fuel on board, my parasympathetic nervous system threw a
tantrum... I got a hollow in the pit of my stomach.. My palms got
sweaty... I had that, 'something bad is going to happen' sensation...
OTOH, the engines continued to do the Lycoming four banger, shake,
rattle, and roll... They weren't nervous... And the flight ended with
the usual squeak of tires on the concrete at Port Clinton...

So what is the point of this post? Well not much, except rules can be
broken ( NASA just did) if done carefully, but it still feels bad...
It will be a long time before I break the 1 hour rule again,
significant other not withstanding...

denny

In article .com,
"Denny" wrote:

In spite of my
intellectual knowledge that I had 15 minutes until landing with 60
minutes of fuel on board, my parasympathetic nervous system threw a
tantrum... I got a hollow in the pit of my stomach.. My palms got
sweaty... I had that, 'something bad is going to happen' sensation...
OTOH, the engines continued to do the Lycoming four banger, shake,
rattle, and roll...

Not nearly as bad as getting distracted looking for traffic, being
vectored by ATC, missing the normal tank change point in the checklist
and hearing the engine surge at 2500 AGL three miles from the threshhold
with an hours worth of fuel in another tank!

On 5 Jul 2006 07:38:28 -0700, "Denny" wrote in
.com::

It will be a long time before I break the 1 hour rule again,
significant other not withstanding...

Your 1 hour fuel rule is admirable.

I have found it takes enormous courage to resist the influence of
social pressure when making prudent flight decisions, but rest
assured, your passengers are counting on you to do exactly that
despite their protestations. (Too bad JFK Jr. hadn't learned that.)

What's the water temperature in Lake Erie this time of year? :-(

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 15:54:35 +0000 (UTC), (Roy Smith)
wrote in ::

Don't let your SO talk you into breaking rules. Lie if you have to.

There's no need to lie. Just assume your authority as PIC, and do
what's right.

Than not withstanding, thanks for your insightful comments.

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On 5 Jul 2006 07:38:28 -0700, "Denny" wrote in
...
What's the water temperature in Lake Erie this time of year? :-(


Surface temperature is about 70 degrees F...

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
Don't let your SO talk you into breaking rules. Lie if you have to.

There's no need to lie. Just assume your authority as PIC, and do
what's right.

That ignores the larger picture.

Personally, I'd be incredibly disappointed if I found that I had to lie to
my spouse in order to get her to be comfortable with my decisions with
respect to maintaining the safety of a flight. However, from many
discussions with other people, including many close friends, I recognize
that, unfortunately, my situation is uncommon. Many people are in
relationships, and quite happily so, where they rely on deception at times
in order to keep things going smoothly.

When you write "there's no need to lie", you are no longer talking about
aviation. You are making a statement about the person's relationship with
his SO, one that may or may not be true depending on the actual nature of
the relationship (an aspect of the issue that I doubt you have personal
knowledge of, unless you are their couple's counselor, or a very close
friend, or something like that).

I would say that your statement is more accurate when talking about
passengers generally. There is less risk in simply making an outright "no"
statement when not dealing with an intimate relationship. But when dealing
with a spouse or similar, things are more complicated and lying may be the
only way to ensure the safety of the flight *and* the integrity (such as it
may be in such situations) of the relationship.

All that said, I would also say that there is generally no need to educate
one's passengers, spouse or otherwise, on the finer details of the
regulations or of the flight planning details. If they don't know that 30
minutes during the daytime is the legal minimum, or if they don't know the
precise fuel load and fuel burn, it's easy enough to truthfully say, simply,
"we can't make this distance safely without stopping for fuel along the
way".

How often this will work obviously depends on the individual passenger, how
much interest they take in the flight planning and execution, and how
willing they are to accept the pilot's definition of "safely". I have also
found that, even if the passenger does wind up taking an interest and
looking into the details later, it still allows me to execute the flight as
I see fit, delaying arguments until such time when they are rendered moot.
After the fact, if there are still questions, I am more easily able to
address them without getting bogged down in "but I really want to make this
flight!" emotional issues.

Using this method, I have yet to have a single passenger get upset with me
regarding any decision I've made with respect to flying. Or at least, as
far as I know. And that includes flights that were simply cancelled, as
well as having to leave one person on the ground while I took two others
sightseeing, due to balance considerations (granted, in that case, the guy
was an unexpected tag-along, invited by my passengers and not me). All of
my passengers have recognized my authority as pilot in command and while
they may ask questions regarding why I make decisions the way I do, they
have never complained about my right to make those decisions, or about the
outcome of such decisions.

Perhaps most of my passengers would be just as cooperative if I filled them
in on all the little details, but some of them may not have been. I've
found it's simpler, and easier to stick to my standards, when the passengers
are volunteered information only on a "need to know" basis. I encourage
interest, and do answer questions truthfully when asked, but I don't go out
of my way to explain every little detail, and that includes not going out of
my way to differentiate between issues that are regulatory in nature and
issues that are my own personal safety requirements. (Of course, with the
responsibility to ensure the safety of the flight, the pilot's own personal
standards could be considered regulatory as well, I suppose ).

Pete

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote in message
news:JOGdneSVwODlZTbZnZ2dnUVZ_rmdnZ2d@wideopenwest .com...
What's the water temperature in Lake Erie this time of year? :-(

Surface temperature is about 70 degrees F...

Wow. When I read that I was skeptical. But, not only are you correct
(duh), you were even being a bit conservative:

http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/laketemps/laketemps.htm

Even 30 feet below the surface, the measured temperature is 73F. On the
surface, it may be quite a bit warmer than that.

Looking here (the minimum temperatures over the last 80 years):
http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/laketemps/COLD_LE.htm

I am amazed at the variation in temperature of the lake during the year, and
just how warm the *lowest* temperatures on record are during the summer.
I'm so used to our snow-melt-fed lakes here in the Puget Sound area that I
forgot many inland lakes can get quite warm during the summer (for example,
at that same depth of 30 feet, Lake Sammamish varies only within a range of
about 15F throughout the year, peaking about about 60-65F...even at the very
surface, it rarely gets as high as 70F, and even then only briefly right
near the end of the summer).

The water at the Lake Erie beaches must feel like bathwater! (in the
summer, I mean)

Pete

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 13:35:51 -0400, "Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea
Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote in
::

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
.. .
On 5 Jul 2006 07:38:28 -0700, "Denny" wrote in
...
What's the water temperature in Lake Erie this time of year? :-(


Surface temperature is about 70 degrees F...

While they're reporting 73 degrees F at 30 foot depth he
http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/laketemps/laketemps.htm

It would appear that the lowest surface temperature is 39 degrees F as
reported he http://www.coas****ch.msu.edu/erie/e.html