Quote:
Originally Posted by sns3guppy
It's not a matter of fear. It's a matter of airmanship and common sense. Running a tank dry is stupid.
Running a wetted component dry is foolish. There's no need.
An hour reseve in one tank should always be kept anyway. It's still no reason to run any other tank dry.
Run an engine dry in flight, you may or may not get it started again. You may or may not damage the fuel pump and fuel system. You may or may not end up cavitating a pump and either damaging it or being unable to restore fuel flow. You run a tank dry and then attempt to switch tanks, and find yourself stuck on the low tank (I've seen it happen), and now all your fuel is in one place...where you can't use it.
Run a tank low. Don't run it dry.
The only exception I've used in the Skymaster has been using tip tanks; pumped into the main based on time, when needed, but only on exceptionally long flights. I found that based on calculated consumption, I could easily push those flights past 9 hours if needed, without ever being concerned about running a tank dry. Nor would I try.
If you continually plan your flights down to the last dregs and find yourself needing to run a tank dry to make up for poor planning, you're doing yourself no favors, nor are you being kind to the airplane. You're abusing your equipment and your chances.
I presently fly (among other things) a large four engine aircraft internationally; fuel management is an important issue. I can't imagine anyone being foolish enough to push fuel to the limits. Land sooner. Plan tech stops. Get more fuel. Don't go as far. I fly into some remote places and fly some very long legs, and I wouldn't ever, ever consider being foolish enough to compromise fuel, let alone run tanks dry. Whether piston or turbine equipment, it makes no difference.
Teaching others to run tanks dry is irresponsible. Hopefully those reading can understand why, or have enough common sense not to go try it themselves.
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I'm betting that the four engine aircraft you now fly internationally is a jet or turbo prop. If so, not running tanks dry is proper.
Piston aircraft are different. The WILL restart in flight if they STOP. I've never had an engine not restart--ever... it's part of the FAA certification requirements that you must be able to turn off the fuel, let the engine die and simply add fuel and have it restart. Unless Sir Isaac Newton was wrong, it WILL restart. Putting an aircraft in the dirt (or water) from fuel exhaustion while having fuel spread around other tanks is going to look stupid in an NTSB report. Teaching piston pilots the safety of running tanks dry is the only responsible thing to do. Not running tanks dry on a max range trip in a piston engined aircraft is foolish enough to compromise your fuel situation.
We have the liberty of disagreeing. What should we tell the 400 MILLION flight hours of piston airliners with paying customers on board that ran tanks dry on every flight? What should we tell the thousands of pilots worldwide who are doing this successfully as a matter of routine? That it doesn't work and there are having all sorts of failures as you outline and dying as a result? As Confucius say, "Do not tell man something impossible when he already do it."
That said, do it your way.