Spent the end of last week camping on the Salmon River. A plane was flying over where we were camped when the engine sputtered. The pilot headed to one of the very few wide spots in the area. I've wondered for several years if this location was landable; apparently it is.

Was told it was a instructor and a pilot getting a mountain flying lesson. They ran out of gas. Instructor put in some gas and flew it out. The student rode out in a truck.

I've cut it close once; at last years JC flyin I landed in Salmon with 1.5 gallons left in the tank It is really easy to cut it too close; now I make sure I have plenty of fuel.

I've always been a chickenshit with fuel... The airplane flys a whole lot better a few hundred pounds over gross than five gallons short of gas.

If I'm pushing into my last hour, I'm squirming.

Gump

I concur with Gump. In all my flying I have probably only gone to less than an hour of fuel more than a few times. So I guess for me the rule of thumb is, I don't go below one hour of remaining fuel. Just a bit chicken I guess. Have fun

Whee. That is an enviable fuel burn. When you figure that 1.5 gallons remaining can still provide for a 45 minute reserve, you are the envy of many.

Sounds like the quality of instruction could have been a bit better?

dirtstrip wrote:Whee. That is an enviable fuel burn. When you figure that 1.5 gallons remaining can still provide for a 45 minute reserve, you are the envy of many.

Isn't it 30 min for day VFR? 1.5 gal will last me 30 min if I pull the throttle back. Now when I fly to short strips I make sure I have 1 hour reserve; when I'm not worried about performance I fill it.

Unless I am doing a VERY short local hop in and out of small lakes, I never cut it under an hour reserve. I only had to learn that lesson the hard way ONE time. I will carry an extra 32 pounds of gas and save myself the trip through the trees these days.

I've never felt that great with less than an hour extra in the tanks. I've used 20+ minutes of it getting around/over weather or less enthusiastic high DA climbs on more than a few occasions. All it takes is remembering one fuel incident from a couple decades ago to keep the handle squeezed on the fuel nozzle for several extra gallons. The twirly is probably still puckered up on that Pacer's seat from that flight if the present owner were to look- it's a good thing the seats had brown upholstery.

I'm more than happy carrying the 66 pounds of extra fuel. In Idaho, I've had to make exploratory trips out of some strips trying to find a way out of the weather on occasion, burning up as much as 45 mins extra just to see if I could finally get down to the Middle Fork and out to Salmon.

way back when in my young days, I was very cavalier with my fuel remaining, sometimes down to as little as less than 15 min, as I have aged and gotten smarter??? I like to keep at least 45- 60 min on board. Can't always happen like that but I am more cautious. RLM

messenger wrote:way back when in my young days, I was very cavalier with my fuel remaining, sometimes down to as little as less than 15 min, as I have aged and gotten smarter??? I like to keep at least 45- 60 min on board. Can't always happen like that but I am more cautious. RLM

Same same. I finally learned to stack the odds in my favor if possible. What are the three things that do you no good??? The gas left in the pump, the runway behind you and the altitude above you.. I like to fly extreme low level so I guess 2 outta 3 aint bad..

If I don't land with an hour of fuel in the tanks, I consider it a fuck up. Unless the tanks are full, I dip them every time I fly.

i'm fine with the needles bouncing on E then 1/4 when i land. that is a good 30 min. normally i land with 14-18 gallons in the tanks.

I like one hour reserve. Fly a Cessna most of the time, if it may be tight, burn one tank dry while timing then I have some idea how much time is in the other tank.

I plan to never fly more than 4 hours on full tanks, 37.5 usable. That will leave me with 5.5 gallons if I burn 8gph and 9.5 if I burn 7gph. My fuel burn is usually under 7.5 so that leaves me with about an hour reserve.

bush master wrote:burn one tank dry while timing then I have some idea how much time is in the other tank.

That is what I do. Run on one tank for an hour then switch to the other and run it dry, subtracting the hour I already used tells me how much I've got left.

I learned the hard way on fuel one time. Don't need that lesson again.

I have 36 usable, with an 8 gph top-end burn. 4 hours of flying would put me at 32 gallons used with 4 in reserve. Not nearly enough for my taste, especially since I've learned the hard way that fuel burn is far from an exact science. I do all my cruise flight planning on 3 hours legs or less, with an allowance to fly 3.5 if absolutely necessary (putting me at 28 used, 8 in reserve).

It helps that I have the old PA-12 glass sight gauges, in which you can't really see the bottom 4 gallons in either tank while in flight. Even though I still have an hour reserve at that point, looking out and seeing two bottomed out sight gauges provides strong incentive to start looking for a pump once I've flown much over 3 hours at cruise power.

The hair on the back of my neck starts to stand up when I get less than an hour of fuel, been there a few times, but I don't like it...........

One hour...about 12 gallons for me, 6 in each inboard tank...even when I'm trying to stay light in the BC.

I'm with Gump and some other on the fuel thing. I'm a huge chicken shit, too. I've read way too many "Fuel Starvation" reports on NTSB.gov. I don't want to be one of them or even close. I try to plan my fuel stops in sync with my bladder releif schedule (2-3 hours for me)

Once you fly with a JPI FS-450 fuel scan, you will wonder how you flew with out one. Amazingly accurate, a real tool when wired into a gps

jim