Personal Best (Worst) at the Gas Pump

FormerHangie

FormerHangie

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FormerHangie
This evening, I set a new personal best at the gas pump by putting $175 worth of gasoline in the family boat. That was 42 gallons of 90 octane E0 mogas at $4.19 per gallon from the marina gas pump. The good news is that we'll only need to do that three or four times a year.

I'm sure that seems like pocket change to many of you. Is there one memorable fill up in your past you'd care to share?
 
denverpilot said:
Are you limiting the answers to MoGas? Because if not, the turbine pilots will be along in a second to shatter your concept of “a lot of gas”. LOL.
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If you bought it at a gas pump I'd like to hear it. Filled up an empty Aztec at a big city FBO? Bring it. Fueled up a King Air in Europe? Yess! Gassed up the Gulfstream in an exotic location? Even better!
 
Recently I was in an FBO's lobby when the fuel truck driver returned and told the guy at the desk that he had pumped 147 gallons of avgas into my airplane. When questioned the fueler looked at the piece of paper in his hand and repeated the 147 gallon figure. The desk guy shrugged and started filling out the invoice accordingly.

At this point I engaged these fellows in a conversation about (1) the proper use of decimals and (2) the fuel capacity of a Cessna 172.

I paid for my 14.7 gallons of 100LL and got out of there ASAP.
 
My most memorable fill-up was my Beech 18 when I first picked it up. Started it up and taxied it over to the self serve pump from the previous owner's hangar.

I put 308 gallons into it. Max capacity is 318. I am amazed that I had enough gas to get to the pump!

I had to swipe my credit card like 4 times to top it all off.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My most memorable fill-up was my Beech 18 when I first picked it up. Started it up and taxied it over to the self serve pump from the previous owner's hangar.

I put 308 gallons into it. Max capacity is 318. I am amazed that I had enough gas to get to the pump!

I had to swipe my credit card like 4 times to top it all off.
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Here's to hoping someone drained the tanks on the ground!!
 
FormerHangie said:
If you bought it at a gas pump I'd like to hear it. Filled up an empty Aztec at a big city FBO? Bring it. Fueled up a King Air in Europe? Yess! Gassed up the Gulfstream in an exotic location? Even better!
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Fuelled up my Aztec from the travelling caravan fuel truck at Oshkosh a few years ago.
Don't remember the amount (funny how the brain can help recovery by erasing bad memories :) ), but I do remember telling the driver I only wanted to buy fuel, not buy back the whole airplane from him.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My most memorable fill-up was my Beech 18 when I first picked it up. Started it up and taxied it over to the self serve pump from the previous owner's hangar.

I put 308 gallons into it. Max capacity is 318. I am amazed that I had enough gas to get to the pump!

I had to swipe my credit card like 4 times to top it all off.
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I can't help but think that first fill after buying a twin should be a sign of some sort to us...:eek:
 
I had at one point a Semi Truck sleeper cab in my company's fleet...it had dual 100 gallon tanks. Best just not to look at the total.

But it was still better than the POS Isuzu truck with a only a 30 gallon tank that needed to be filled up every other freeway exit.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My most memorable fill-up was my Beech 18 when I first picked it up. Started it up and taxied it over to the self serve pump from the previous owner's hangar.

I put 308 gallons into it. Max capacity is 318. I am amazed that I had enough gas to get to the pump!

I had to swipe my credit card like 4 times to top it all off.
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I was looking at Beech 18s on barnstormers and half the ads said the planes came with full fuel. I thought that was silly, but then I realized that's $1500 off the purchase price. :eek:
 
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Best? They had an AOPA event at San Marcos, TX with $0.99/gal 100LL. I might still have the fuel receipt around somewhere.

Left a passenger behind so we could load on more fuel! <-- That part is not a Ravioli True Story
 
Worst I've had in GA was a line guy filled our Maule with 60 gallons on 100LL. When I questioned him he said he put 30 a side in a tank that only holds 21.5. Come to find out the guy overfilled it to the point that it overflowed through the broken filler tube necks into the entire wing.

Worst Airline was A FBO guy plugged us in, tied the dead mans rope to the trolley and walked away. Some minutes later I noticed we had 12,000 pounds of fuel for a 2,500 pound order. We ended up cancelling the flight and ferrying the plane home because the FBO refused to defuel us.
 
Sort of how light twins seen like a good deal sometimes, mid size offshore boats are the same way. Acquisition isn't the hard part. Feeding and care.

After I stepped into my first (and so far, last) twin inboard sport fish, I ran offshore for a day, trolled, caught a few fish and ran back in. After the fuel pump rolled into 4 digits I realized I may not be going offshore as much as I thought.

I'd done the math on the fuel burns and knew what to expect at the pump, but actually seeing it (and then paying for it) was when reality truly hit.

Had a blast with that boat though and still occasionally either the wife or I will get nostalgic and talk about shopping for another until we remind ourselves what it cost to truly use the thing.
 
The first time ever for $1.00 gas was at the floatplane dock at Germansen Landing. They had to bring in 55 gal barrels up the river.

What was this world coming to in 1967, $1.00 GAS!!!!
ViMR0l.jpg
 
Pilawt said:
Recently I was in an FBO's lobby when the fuel truck driver returned and told the guy at the desk that he had pumped 147 gallons of avgas into my airplane. When questioned the fueler looked at the piece of paper in his hand and repeated the 147 gallon figure. The desk guy shrugged and started filling out the invoice accordingly.

At this point I engaged these fellows in a conversation about (1) the proper use of decimals and (2) the fuel capacity of a Cessna 172.

I paid for my 14.7 gallons of 100LL and got out of there ASAP.
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Most of the CSR's didn't know anything about fuel capacity or weight/balance and would constantly put the screws to GA pilots to buy more fuel.

ARFlyer said:
Worst I've had in GA was a line guy filled our Maule with 60 gallons on 100LL. When I questioned him he said he put 30 a side in a tank that only holds 21.5. Come to find out the guy overfilled it to the point that it overflowed through the broken filler tube necks into the entire wing.
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Worst Airline was A FBO guy plugged us in, tied the dead mans rope to the trolley and walked away. Some minutes later I noticed we had 12,000 pounds of fuel for a 2,500 pound order. We ended up cancelling the flight and ferrying the plane home because the FBO refused to defuel us.
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Refused to defuel?? They caused the issue!

Another FBO on the field I worked at vastly overfueled a Harrier that had come in with a fuel leak issue. They also didn't chock or cone him overnight, the pilot got in and it rolled across a taxilane and into the grass. They then refused to tow the aircraft.
 
I had to fill a rental 172 at the self serve at KDLO, and some douche tard parked their Cub in such a position that the only way I could taxi through was to pass behind the pump. I had like an inch of clearance between the wingtips, the pump and a light pole, and had to be ground guided by the passenger. In retrospect I probably should have just pushed it backwards.
 
I consciously ignore the dollars on the pump when I fill-up the Twin Bonanza...
 
I filled the Cherokee up, went and got a soda pop. Came back out to pay, and they couldn’t find the invoice. Got filled up (around 40 gallons) for free. Happened again another year. Basler filled me up at Oshkosh. Lotta gas too, I went to pay and they didn’t have the invoice. Didn’t have another chance to pay them, I figured they’d bill me or call me or something. Never happened. First thing I did on landing the next year (after tying down the airplane and setting up camp) was to go to their booth to pay last year’s fuel bill. They didn’t have the invoice. I got filled up again for free.
 
I helped fuel a DC-6 in northwest Alaska. 800 gallons.

You think fueling a high wing Cessna is a pain....
 
I had a pickup with a 100 gallon tank in the bed. Wasn't bad when gas was less than a dollar a gallon.

Last time I used it gas was 3.65 a gallon. The station only allowed a 75 buck limit on credit cards. Had to run my card 4 times to fill up.
 
Flew up to Oshkosh from NC in about 2.5 hours. I burned 33 gallons of 100LL. My dad drove his Honda CRV from NC to OSH and burned 32 gallons in 18 hours. I was pretty happy with that.
 
I worked back the 70's age 18, as line "man" at an airport in N IL. The gas truck had two tanks one for 80/87 and one for 100/130. The airport also had two ten thousand ground tanks for avgas.

We as line " men" were supposed to top off the truck tanks each night from the ground tanks, this idiot that worked there on the night shift took the ground tank hoses one for each truck tank, put them the tank truck fill ports to fill the truck and started pumping fuel into the truck

it was winter and he tied off the fuel nozzles with electrical wire so he did not have to sit there in the cold outside, well he went home and forgot about the truck, two full ten thousand gallon ground tanks were emptied over night, most ended up on the ground, it was a sea of avgas when I got there in the morning, rather than call the fire department, the manager just let it seep into the ground and told me not to tell anyone, this was a Beech dealer and there were many airplanes sitting in the sea of fuel for days. I think gas was about $.50/ gallon back then. $10,000 of fuel gone, the idiot that did it, showed up right after I did in the morning after and wanted to know if I had shut off the pumps yet.
 
Fueled up and tied the plane down in the last remaining tie down spot. it was slanted slightly lower on one side. When I came back to the plane the next day the lower wing tank was completely empty having slowly drained out of the vent.
 
I once went to 100LL-up the Cessna. Didn't need to top off the tanks, just needed "some more". Wasn't going far. Safety first, don'cha'know.

Put in what I thought was 26 gallons. Seemed like a lot, considering how short a time it took.
Turned out I was looking at the wrong dial, and had just put in 26 dollars.

I took off. "Gosh those gauges look funny." But we all know Cessna fuel gauges suck, right? :)
(Thankfully figured it out before getting into trouble...)
 
The highest I've spent was $2500. Piddling compared to a Gulfstream etc
 
Had a boat with 300 gallon tank ,twin 454s 28 gah at 17 it’s. Also had a twin beech travelair 108 gallon tanks 22 gah at 164 it’s. Sold both,now I burn 5.2 gah in my two seater.
 
Clip4 said:
When I was 16, my first fill up was 12 gallons for $2.99. It has been down hill from there.
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When I was 15, I had a Honda CL175 motorcycle. Every Friday I used to go fill up the tank, I think I never spent more than 80 cents.

Looked exactly like this one:
H19536-L127382603.jpg
 
Keep thinking I should bolt shut, or otherwise secure, the filler port on the side fuselage of the Tiger, after taking the auxiliary tank out of the baggage compartment. I have bad visions of getting a cockpit full of 100LL after telling the FBO to “top her up “.
Sometimes I specify wing tanks, sometimes forget.
Do have an “INOPERATIVE” sticker on the fuselage filler, but still....
 
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