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Calibrating a fuel tube is an interesting exercise but expressing the results to the nearest one-tenth of a gallon has me wondering about the methodology used which would permit such a level of precision much less such a level of accuracy. Do these values represent absolute fuel remaining or usable fuel remaining? Depending on whether the tanks were manually drained and from what point or whether the engines were allowed to stop from fuel starvation. And depending on the aircraft's lateral & longitudinal position at the time. Whether leveled on jacks or whether level flight at some arbitrary center of gravity was approximated. Seven gallons per side difference between Mich3773's results and Ernie's results would seem to suggest, assuming similar methodology, that values to the nearest gallon would be optimistic and only applicable to that particular craft. Notoriously inaccurate panel gauges probably provide similarly usable data. That is to say "yes, there is some fuel in the tanks but I'm not going to bet on the quantity plus or minus ten gallons." As for me, I think that I will continue to rely on self-fueling to the top of the filler for quantity and rely on a fuel flow totalizer cross-checked with running time and panel gauges for consumption.
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10-20-15, 09:50 AM
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