Message-ID: <364D90D0.1EB0@ibm.net>
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 08:16:48 -0600
From: Snowbird <snbird@ibm.net>
Reply-To: snbird@ibm.net
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student
Subject: Re: Visually checking fuel EVERY TIME in preflight?
References: <72gnac$vu$2@jetsam.uits.indiana.edu> <364C790D.FA4EEB5D@birdland.sky> <72iadp$rk2$1@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> <08DA2A587B9DAE79.54AA89CF8FE72084.53C337BD4E0497A4@library-proxy.airnews.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: 32.100.136.38
X-Trace: 14 Nov 1998 14:59:13 GMT, 32.100.136.38
Organization: IBM.NET
Lines: 39
X-Notice: Items posted that violate the IBM.NET Acceptable Use Policy
X-Notice: should be reported to postmaster@ibm.net
X-Complaints-To: postmaster@ibm.net
Path: news.jprc.com!dca1-feed2.news.digex.net!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!digex!howland.erols.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsm2.ibm.net!ibm.net!news1.ibm.net!32.100.136.38
Xref: news.jprc.com rec.aviation.student:38777

JStricker wrote:

> And sometimes visually full isn't really full either.  At least if you > have one eye like me.

(story of visual check problems deleted)

John, if you're flying this plane a lot, you might be interested
in one thing we did.  We already had a "universal fuelhawk", an 
acrylic tube numbered for 172 tanks, but I've seen plain wooden
dipsticks I would think would work as well (looked like calibrated
paint stirrers to me).

For the first 4 months we owned the airplane, we always bought
self-serve fuel or had the plane fueled only while we were there.
We would stick the tanks, note the number, and write a log of the
place, the number on the stick, and the fuel that tank took.  We
played around with running less or more from one or the other
tank to get more values.

At the end of four months we put all the numbers in an Excel
spreadsheet and created a calibration chart.  Now I can stick
the tanks, get a number, and read off the amount of fuel in
the tanks.  Caveat, of course it's important that the plane be
level, we had a few outliers probably caused by non-level readings.
If the number really matters, we stick the tanks then move the plane
and stick them again.

This might have the advantage for you of being independent of
depth perception.

It also helps when weight and balance is critical, but fuel
isn't, you know pretty closely how much fuel you've got.

Of course it's a good idea to fasten something to the fuel
dipstick so it can't fall into the tanks.

Regards,
Snowbird

