I used to teach on the Terrorhawk (sorry TOMAHAWK) and we used the seat belt trick too for locking off the controls. We also used to teach students when doing this to "Climb into" or "Dive away" from the wind when doing this.
As for the fuel tanks, pondlife uses the same idea as we were shown. Centre of the "X" was our equivilant to "tabs" on a PA28.
We only ever used to fuel to that mark as with 2 up and full fuel you're way over MTOM (all 4oz of it)
The 38 has a fair dihedral on the wing so I'm not sure about how you'd calibrate the dip.
Not only do those cap seals let in water, they let fuel out too
as I found out!
Lovely little aeroplane to fly. Good luck with her.
HOP
