Your method of keeping tabs on fuel

dell30rb

dell30rb

Final Approach
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Ren
Sure is odd seeing a bird I fly regularly all bent up. A pilot ran it out of fuel last night and put it in the trees near a neighborhood. Very lucky no one was seriously injured. Sad I won't be seeing her on the ramp anymore. (note: I don't have final word on what actually happened, all i know is that there was an incident, and what this news story reports may or may not even be true)

http://www.nbc12.com/story/15148476/plane-makes-emergency-landing-in-new-kent-county

The method I was taught in training to keep track of fuel is to use your E6B and your course, while timing yourself between checkpoints and manually computing groundspeed. GPS makes this easier but you still have to keep track of your distance traveled and if you have to divert your course for thunderstorms, or other weather this can be difficult, esp. if you're worried about dodging weather.

It seems to me that using endurance is probably the easiest method to keep an eye on fuel remaining. Dip tanks before you takeoff, know how many GPH your airplane burns (use a conservative number) and using simple math you can figure out how long you can stay up. Then start a stopwatch when you crank up the aircraft (or use hobbs time) and you can have a very good idea of your time remaining.

What are your personal methods?
 
Love a Shadin totalizer when i have em...But I use
Pounds per hour(little more accurate) or GPH multiplied by time since block out...timing is the best way IMO....never trust a guage etc..
 
Time + JPI Fuel totalizer.

The JPI is pretty much dead on. Off less than 1 gallon on an 80 gallon burn.
 
Me? I have a totalizer in my plane. One of the top 5 items I've added.
 
when i have to worry about fuel i use a clock.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I thought you didn't have to worry about fuel to begin with?
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i occasionally fly an airplane, when i need to go somewhere or have towpilot duty.

actually when towing we usually manage fuel by the number of tows we've given.
 
I rarely fly a single leg where pushing reserves is an issue. Unless I can see I have at least half tanks and I'm leaving on more than an hour's flight, I'll top it off, to the tabs or full, so I know definitively how much fuel I'm starting out with.
 
I just look at my Fuel gauges. What could go wrong?








:D

Time + JPI EDM 700 fuel totalizer/fuel burn.
 
with leah and i in a club 172 or even a 150 its never an issue to take off with full tanks.

when i fly home to iowa we usually have to stop for gas if we have a headwind but can go non stop comfortably if there is a tailwind.
 
I use my JPI, which is dead-nuts accurate - and I also watch fuel gauges to ensure that their readings correspond to what the JPI is showing me (leaks happen).

Before the JPI, the clock and calculations worked well, and diligence at that process, coupled with a conservative fuel strategy (at least one hour reserve VFR, more IFR), always served me well.
 
I suggest you use whatever tools you have. Look in the tanks. Use a clock. Use a dip stick. Learn what the fuel gauges look like at certain levels. Use a totalizer.

Don't trust a single one of them. Take data from as many ways as you can and make sure they're all telling you something safe. If something suddenly isn't making sense land and figure it out on the ground.
 
dell30rb said:
It seems to me that using endurance is probably the easiest method to keep an eye on fuel remaining. Dip tanks before you takeoff, know how many GPH your airplane burns (use a conservative number) and using simple math you can figure out how long you can stay up. Then start a stopwatch when you crank up the aircraft (or use hobbs time) and you can have a very good idea of your time remaining.

What are your personal methods?
Click to expand...
That's pretty much it. Things get a bit different when you start talking about jet aircraft with profiles where fuel burn can vary wildly with speed, configuration and altitude, but for the planes most of us here are flying, fuel on board/gph - 1 hour = when you should be getting on the ground.

That said, since I turned about 55, my bladder overpressure light usually comes on before fuel is an issue.
 
I know my airplane (Cherokee 140) and just use the conservative 8.5 gph and the clock.
 
I added a "crossbar" made of a dowel and some zip-ties to prevent the dipstick from dropping down. Seems like a bit of a design flaw in the first place...
 
I record my total endurance per tank and mark off 30 minute increments from the endurance as I go along.
 
My fuel gauges are pretty accurate, but usually after 2.5 hours of flight time it needs to be filled up

On XCs I look at the clock, hobbs, and fuel gauges to see when I need mo gas
 
JPI and clock.
My plane has short legs... I don't fly more than 2 hours at a pop.
 
Ron Levy said:
That said, since I turned about 55, my bladder overpressure light usually comes on before fuel is an issue.
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Hey, I resemble that remark. The club's 172 has about 6 hours of fuel. I've got about a 3 hour bladder. Start with one full and the other empty and running out of fuel will require a big leak in the fuel system.

But, for the younger crowd - fuel/gph - 1 is a perfect solution.
 
My instructor told me to stick my finger into the tank to see how much fuel was there if it wasn't full. It's been a long time since I've flown a 172 or 152 so I don't remember what she told me about how much fuel was left if I could touch fuel. But for our short lessons it was enough if I could feel fuel with my fingers. For longer flights we topped off.

Anyway, it's dang hard to drop your fingers into the tank.
 
I wait till the fuel light blinks and press nearest on my Garmin. So far it works about 90% of the time. :)
 
A low-tech solution that works is "time in your tanks" or "wheels on ground time." In either case, you determine before takeoff how much time you have in your tanks based on fuel consumption numbers from the POH modified by any experience you have with that specific airplane. Let's say that you have topped off the tanks and, referring to the POH performance charts, determine that your fuel endurance is four hours. Three hours after takeoff you should either be on the ground or at least within five or ten miles of an airport where fuel is available...even if that means reversing course. No exceptions.

Saves a lot of calculation.

Bob Gardner
 
Bob's right -- fuel equals hours, period.

At this point when I dip tanks I run through the mental math and don't climb in until I've figured out how many hours and minutes I have aloft.

The Chief is easy -- 12 gallons @ 4 GPH = 3 hours (even though burn is closer to 3.6/hour). I also like the float wire right in front of me.

:D
 
One of the things I'm doing with my 170 as part of this annual turned restoration is to have calibrated fuel gauges http://sportys.com/pilotshop/product/9334 made up once we start putting fuel back in the plane so that I will have a pretty good idea of what I have in the tanks. Only downside is that with the '48, you need to have separate left and right sticks since the tanks are different quantities.

Then, once I get it flying, I'll make a few x-country runs and see what my true burn is before I start making any long x-countries.
 
Bob Noel said:
My instructor told me to stick my finger into the tank to see how much fuel was there if it wasn't full. It's been a long time since I've flown a 172 or 152 so I don't remember what she told me about how much fuel was left if I could touch fuel. But for our short lessons it was enough if I could feel fuel with my fingers. For longer flights we topped off.

Anyway, it's dang hard to drop your fingers into the tank.
Click to expand...

I was taught this method too. Never really had an issue with fuel, but it would be nice to have a more accurate measurement for rental planes with different tanks (dipsticks can be unreliable here- as I embarrasingly found out).
 
Jaybird180 said:
but it would be nice to have a more accurate measurement for rental planes with different tanks (dipsticks can be unreliable here- as I embarrasingly found out).
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If you fly PA28s, the dipsticks are fairly universal

Problem is the 172s. Over the decades, Cessna offered so bloody many different tank capacities that you really need to look into the POH for each specific plane to know what it has and consequently it is tough to carry around 10 or so different dipsticks!
 
Fearless Tower said:
If you fly PA28s, the dipsticks are fairly universal

Problem is the 172s. Over the decades, Cessna offered so bloody many different tank capacities that you really need to look into the POH for each specific plane to know what it has and consequently it is tough to carry around 10 or so different dipsticks!
Click to expand...


One thought: If you think you are going to be cutting it that close that visually checking (or feeling with the fingers) the fuel may not be accurate enough, maybe topping the tanks is the best way to deal with it.
 
Bob Noel said:
One thought: If you think you are going to be cutting it that close that visually checking (or feeling with the fingers) the fuel may not be accurate enough, maybe topping the tanks is the best way to deal with it.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

To me, the issue of knowing exactly how much is in the tank when it is less than topped off is for those situations where due to usefull load or density altitude, that you need to depart with a known quantity of fuel that is less than full tanks.
 
My personal method is to have enough fuel for the trip plus a 1-hour reserve, based on the worst-case fuel flow numbers. For less than fuel fuel, it's nice to have an airplane that has either a dipstick or locations in the tank (tabs, slots, etc) with know fuel quantities at that level.

Flying one with a Shadin fuel flow indicator. Great item for accurate fuel calculations in flight.
 
Bob Noel said:
One thought: If you think you are going to be cutting it that close that visually checking (or feeling with the fingers) the fuel may not be accurate enough, maybe topping the tanks is the best way to deal with it.
Click to expand...

Agree. The fuel totalizer really opened my eyes on the first cross-country that I took after installation. With the turbo engine, a 50-degree change in TIT temperature (say, between 1550 and 1600 degrees) can make a difference of 0.8 gallons/hour or more depending on altitude. That's 15-20 minutes of fuel for a tank at a 12 gph burn.
 
Pretty easy now with a fuel totalizer, mechanical gage on each wing tank and electric fuel gages in the plane. Back when I flew my Tiger I paid real close attention to flight time vs. total burn. Topped the tanks often and kept a notebook to verify my GPH numbers. Without a fuel totalizer I would be VERY conservative. Aircraft fuel gages are basically worthless.
 
a fuel totalizer is nice, and a flight computer helps, but all you need is a clock and the following:

) Accept that fuel=time, not distance
2) Visually verify amount of fuel on board before takeoff
3) Be conservative with gph estimates- add padding for ground ops and climbouts
4) Plan on a reserve and take the time "deadline" seriously... when the clock says you are now burning your reserve, you should probably be headed to an alternate. If you are still headed to your intended destination, and there is no alternate closer, you are now dealing with a mistake you made earlier; probably before you even took off.

What kills me about the classic fuel-exhaustion accidents (barring malfunctions) is that all this stuff is merely common sense, and no fancy gadgets are required. Pilots who run their tanks dry are simply putting their desire to get somewhere above safety and reality itself. :dunno:
 
rottydaddy said:
a fuel totalizer is nice, and a flight computer helps, but all you need is a clock and the following:

1) Accept that fuel=time, not distance
Click to expand...

Yes, it equals time, but fuel only = time when the leaning is done the same every time.
 
jesse said:
I suggest you use whatever tools you have. Look in the tanks. Use a clock. Use a dip stick. Learn what the fuel gauges look like at certain levels. Use a totalizer.

Don't trust a single one of them. Take data from as many ways as you can and make sure they're all telling you something safe. If something suddenly isn't making sense land and figure it out on the ground.
Click to expand...
+1
I use a totalizer, time, and fuel level gauges. I also consider the accuracy of each to be in that order from highest to lowest and pad my reserves appropriately. Baring a malfunction (which should be fairly obvious in the instantaneous FF readings) the totalizer will track usage to about 1%. Of course it's indication of fuel remaining is subject to user input error and it will not account for any fuel leaks. But as long as I'm confident the starting fuel level was accurate (e.g. when the tanks were topped) and the fuel gauges are behaving as expected I assume the totalizer reading is accurate. Timing has the same issues as a totalizer (dependent on accurate initial fuel and lack of leaks) but is far less accurate because it's greatly affected by power and mixture settings unless you have an accurate fuel flow readout. And in an unfamiliar aircraft the actual fuel usage may not match the POH values. Fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate but are reasonably useful for detecting large errors in available fuel. Again, readings from the gauges in an unfamiliar aircraft must be taken with a rather large grain of salt vs when you own the airplane and/or use it regularly and the fuel gauge accuracy and quirks are well known.
 
jesse said:
I suggest you use whatever tools you have. Look in the tanks. Use a clock. Use a dip stick. Learn what the fuel gauges look like at certain levels. Use a totalizer.

Don't trust a single one of them. Take data from as many ways as you can and make sure they're all telling you something safe. If something suddenly isn't making sense land and figure it out on the ground.
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
 
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