Fuel Management faux pas
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Glens o' Angus by way of LA
Age: 60
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Fuel Management faux pas
Had an odd one while flying the Maule from the West coast to Florida. Yesterdays leg was from Waco Texas (KACT) to Trent Lott in Mississippi (KPQL) a 4 hour flight with Tallahassee as an additional option if when I got near KPQL and felt ok I would just keep going and get another 200 miles (appx. 2 hours flying) in the bag for the day. I normally fill both mains (21.5 USG each) and the 2 Aux tip tanks (15 USG each) for a total of 73 USG. Cruise fuel burn is about 9 USG per hour giving a total endurance of about 8 hours till the engine quits so plenty to get to Tallahassee and way more than I need for KPQL.
Take off from Waco then turn East and start a cruise climb up to 7500. My habit is 30 minute increments from each of the main tanks which is about 5USG fuel burn starting with the right tank then back and forth thereafter so at 3 hours of flying I'm down to appx. 1/4 full on the mains (10 gallons total). I then turn the transfer pumps on to shift the 15 gallons from each Aux tip tank into the respective mains transferring at a rate of about 1USG every two and a half minutes.
As I'm climbing out then leveling off the plane is just not flying right, it feels like it's twisted and I'm having to hold the left wing up and this seems to be getting worse as time goes by. I start to wonder if something got damaged while parked up for the night at Waco or if the fuel guy has clipped the wing with the bowser during refueling. The gauges both show full which seems right as I've been in the air just over half an hour and it takes a little while for them to come of the pegs. I know the plane is rigged to perfection as on the previous leg from Las Cruces to Waco it flew like a dream, straight and level. The 2 gauges are for the left and right mains with each having a toggle button when pressed shows the aux tank quantities. I press the left tank toggle and it shows full, all 15 gallons are present I then press the right and am shocked, it's completely friggin empty, not a sausage. My first thought is why in dear gods name did my laziness get the better of me and instead of supervising the kid doing the refueling and verifying the quantities I went outside for a fag. As I'm flying along with healthly right aileron mulling the wayward behavior of today's youth I glanced over and noticed the right transfer switch was in the on position. I guess I must have accidentally knocked the transfer pump on during the run up and went on to piss $75 worth of fuel over the nodding donkeys of East Texas.
Switched to the left tank for the next few hours till it emptied allowing me to bring things back into balance, landed at Lott for the evening and had myself a beer while pondering the effects of a 90lb arm sitting out on the end of one wing on my wee plane.
Landed at KSUA tonight to complete my journey that started 4 days ago at KSMO with stops in KSDL, KLRU, KACT KPQL.
Take off from Waco then turn East and start a cruise climb up to 7500. My habit is 30 minute increments from each of the main tanks which is about 5USG fuel burn starting with the right tank then back and forth thereafter so at 3 hours of flying I'm down to appx. 1/4 full on the mains (10 gallons total). I then turn the transfer pumps on to shift the 15 gallons from each Aux tip tank into the respective mains transferring at a rate of about 1USG every two and a half minutes.
As I'm climbing out then leveling off the plane is just not flying right, it feels like it's twisted and I'm having to hold the left wing up and this seems to be getting worse as time goes by. I start to wonder if something got damaged while parked up for the night at Waco or if the fuel guy has clipped the wing with the bowser during refueling. The gauges both show full which seems right as I've been in the air just over half an hour and it takes a little while for them to come of the pegs. I know the plane is rigged to perfection as on the previous leg from Las Cruces to Waco it flew like a dream, straight and level. The 2 gauges are for the left and right mains with each having a toggle button when pressed shows the aux tank quantities. I press the left tank toggle and it shows full, all 15 gallons are present I then press the right and am shocked, it's completely friggin empty, not a sausage. My first thought is why in dear gods name did my laziness get the better of me and instead of supervising the kid doing the refueling and verifying the quantities I went outside for a fag. As I'm flying along with healthly right aileron mulling the wayward behavior of today's youth I glanced over and noticed the right transfer switch was in the on position. I guess I must have accidentally knocked the transfer pump on during the run up and went on to piss $75 worth of fuel over the nodding donkeys of East Texas.
Switched to the left tank for the next few hours till it emptied allowing me to bring things back into balance, landed at Lott for the evening and had myself a beer while pondering the effects of a 90lb arm sitting out on the end of one wing on my wee plane.
Landed at KSUA tonight to complete my journey that started 4 days ago at KSMO with stops in KSDL, KLRU, KACT KPQL.
Last edited by piperboy84; 2nd Apr 2017 at 02:27.
