"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
On 2007-04-01, chris wrote:
only 4 have working fuel gauges!! The rest are just placarded u/s.
And the only reason there are 4 planes that have gauges that work is 3
of them are brand new a/craft. The deal with fuel gauges is, we know
the fuel burn and we have a stick to dip the tank on preflight, what
do we need gauges for ???

That's a hazardous attitude, and a fuel exhaustion accident waiting to
happen. The fuel gauges should not be relied on - this is true - but
they should work as they provide a useful cross check.

I was new to the 1960 Cessna 182 which I was taking on a long cross
country trip. The night before, I checked the fuel to make sure I didn't
need to have it topped off, since I was leaving before the FBO would be
open. Looking into the tank, the fuel was at the top. I checked it again
the next morning as part of my preflight. The fuel level was the same.

I had calculated my fuel burn for the trip, which gave me an hour's
reserve on landing.

Halfway through the trip, the fuel gauges showed less fuel than my
calculations said the tanks should have, so I told ATC that I was going
to land short of my destination.

I then discovered that what looked like full wasn't really - probably
about 45 minutes off full. I could have ended up at my destination with
only 15 minutes of fuel. A go around, or a vexatious routing from ATC
could quite easily have exhausted that.

The important lesson is to be conservative with long flights in an
unfamiliar aircraft, and that fuel gauges are a very useful cross check.
How many fuel exhaustions have happened because fuel gauges have been
improperly maintained, could not provide a cross check, and the pilot's
calculation was wrong? Or the pilot had less fuel than he thought? Or
there was a leak?


If you are planing a flight with so little reserve, which is obviously
considered both legal and acceptable - I highly recommend you carry your own
gage, and physically _stick_ the tanks on preflight. My personal experience
with fuel gages has been that they can cause more problems than they solve,
if you try to rely heavily on them.