I have the JPI 760 with fuel flow on my Seneca IV, very accurate indeed. People spending money on a Seneca and not bothering to fit a fuel flow are stupid!
I agree 200%.
Rather a harsh statement - if it was such an obvious requirement why was it not factory-fitted?
Because that is how aviation works, has always worked and hey we beat the Germans doing things this way (twice) so it must be good for you, young man!!
Why do GA spamcans almost universally have almost totally useless fuel gauges? Answer as above. TRADITION, young man. Tradition is good even if it kills people, because it is CERTIFIED!! (young man)
A fuel totaliser is not completely dirt cheap - a few grand on a piston twin, especially on a non-N-reg. Also, the vast majority of GA pilots, even Seneca owners, rarely if ever go very far (usually citing bladder endurance as the limiting factor) so this is not an issue. And then somebody decides to push things a bit, and gets a big suprise.
Actually this kind of thing could happen closer to home than Africa. My most stressful day ever was when I got refused a landing in Italy (alleging lack of PPR but actually they could not be bothered to read faxes in English), then landed elsewhere in Italy where the *******s wouldn't sell me their avgas, but luckily I had enough to cross the Alps into Germany.
Admittedly one would (should) never get into a situation where one runs out because even a landing in Albania (no avgas at LATI, for sure) and having to get a BA flight to London while arranging for drums to be shipped there is better than running out.
I have never flown in Africa but if the landing options are going to get one shot then one better have enough fuel to never have to bet on availability in this way. Tricky! But avoidable IMHO. If flying in such a dodgy place, local knowledge is everything (actually local knowledge/language is dead handy in Italy too) and perhaps somebody tried to do something without it. The published airport data is flakey enough in Europe and I would expect it to be near-useless in Africa.