Sliding member
What amazes me is a few clubs don't seem to have any fuel record on their tech logs
That sort of record is worth less than the paper it is written on. Always do a physical check, and if one is not possible (because due to W&B you "have" to fly with the fuel level below where it is visible) then take on enough fuel at the pump such that even if the tank was empty to start with you could complete the planned flight with reserve. Might need to re-calc W&B though.
The recent well publicised incident (G-OMAR) involving an unsuccessful CAA prosecution shows these records are completely and utterly worthless. Relying on them does appear to be legal though!! Perhaps because airliners do it routinely (but they have good equipment) and the CAA could hardly admit openly that most light planes have useless gauges...
I have seen two cases of "3.5hrs" in the logs and empty tanks, and that was on PA28s. No idea how often it happened on Cessnas; I trained on them but never checked them (if going solo, always went to pumps and got a gollocking from the CFI occassionally...)