chris wrote:

I am not trying to be difficult here, but I just wondered... If they
don't have sticks, how do you know how many hours gas it's got without
using the gauges?? And if that's the case, you are assuming the
gauges are accurate. Without deciding on your preflight that it's got
a certain amount of fuel in it, how can you then know if the # of gals
on the gauge is actually in the tank?? I suppose if you always fly
with the tanks full it's OK, but you can't guarantee on every flight
it will have full tanks...

Perfectly valid points. I'm one of those that tops off the tanks before a
flight, about 90% of the time. For that other 10%, I look in the tanks and
visually verify the amount of fuel. With a little experience, it's pretty
easy to come within a gallon or so on a Cherokee. When I owned a Cessna, I
used a stick. I didn't see any reliable way to visually verify the fuel in
the Cessna without climbing on top of the wing. When I was still working on
my PPL, my instructors had me stick a finger in the tank, but this was only
valid if verifying that the fuel level was very near full.

The gauges are never a subsitute for verifying the level of fuel in the
tanks (by stick or by sight). Many a pilot has ended up on an NTSB report
for assuming the gauges were accurate.

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

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