Oil in Quarts or Litres

[Lagentium]

Good evening Ppruners,
Just a quick question, I'm looking at buying some oil for our flying groups new aircraft, when looking at oil it comes in quarts and litres. What should I buy? Any points of view would be greatly appreciated

Cheers, Jim :ok:

[Jan Olieslagers]

What I learned in ground class: as oil goes, quarts and litres are close enough to be considered equal. Is the difference 10%? Where's the slide rules?

Ok, dug up my own. Closer to 5%, apparently. Can you make out 5% on the dipstick?

[Lagentium]

I see what youre saying Jan, I looked into it before posting and couldn't understand why they sell them in separate measures when they are quite similar, and to answer your question, no! I'd have no chance of descriminating 5% on a dipstick!!!!

[riverrock83]

Now is that a US Quart or an Imperial Quart?

I'm afraid I've grown up with the metric system. I had to look up what a Quart is in relation to litres (Imperial = 1.1 litre, US = 0.94 litre).
Going in litres should avoid confusion, helping us newbies.

However, how is oil consumption described in the POH? I presume you are going to record usage (for engine monitoring)?

[SinkRateSam]

Just go with the unit on your a/c's dipstick, basically the unit which AFM/POH talks about. That way it's clear to everyone how much you're actually putting in and adds to the convenience (even though the diff between l and qrt is quite negligible).

No need to make it more complicated than it is. :p

[Jan Olieslagers]

couldn't understand why they sell them in separate measures

Two explanations I've found:

1) private pilots, PPL'ers in special, are incredibly conservative. "It's been US quarts all of me life, why change? Works all right, dunnit?"

2) private pilots - not restricted to ppl'ers this time - love to show off how clever they are. "A
US quart? That makes about, err, say, slightly more than, err, now make it a litre, that will generally do."

And a third, on the seller's side now: "The market demands we should offer the appropriate quantities in various locales. This has a slight effect on pricing, but nothing prohibitive".

[Lagentium]

Evening riverrock, it's US Gallons, which I'm guessing they sell for people who own American built aircraft so it fits in with their POHs, I'd like to keep a record of it but can't think of a decent way to measure everything accurately, from what's going in and what's being used!

Cheers, Jim:ok:

[Cusco]

I buy my avgas from the pumps in litres, I plan my flights in US gallons:

My fuel gauges are in US gallons but our wooden dipstick is in Imperial gallons.

We buy oil in US quarts and call them litres.

Oh and I keep 5000 metres away from cloud especially when flying under 3000ft so I can spot my waypoints 5 nautical miles away.

All this while cruising at 150 miles (statute) per hour

[Dave Gittins]

What difference does the size of the container make ? Don't you just pour it in until it's wet enough of the dipstick ?

Is it cheaper in bigger containers ?

[Cusco]

What difference does the size of the container make ? Don't you just pour it in until it's wet enough of the dipstick ?

Is it cheaper in bigger containers ?

Probably:But I just wait till the oil goes down to 6 thingummies on the dipstick and shove one thingummy of oil in till the level goes more or less up to 7 thingummies.

We buy our oil in units of one thingummy. Much less messy......

Cusco

[A and C]

Its simple, if its packaged this side of the Atlantic its sold in the Napolionic units of the old enemy.

If it is packaged the other side of the Atlantic its sold in americanised real units.

[Heston]

Um well from 1812 to 1815 both the US and France were the enemy (from a UK pov anyway). So only Imperial measures will do!

H

[n5296s]

americanised real units
This must surely be a good moment to discuss WHY a US pint is 16 fl oz and a UK one is 20. Actually it's the Americans who are with tradition. The UK pint is a result of some fiscal shennanigans in 1824 - Wikipedia is, as usual, your friend.

[Obi_Wan]

Quite some years ago, I recall doing this in some fraction of UK gallons, but these days I work on the same lines Cusco works. Beautifully put there, I'm assuming your units of "thingummy" are fully interchangeable with "whotsits", a subset of "jobbies".:ok:

[Lagentium]

Sorry to bring the tone down Obi Wan but jobbies mean a different thing to me!!

Cheers, Jim :ok: