Fuel management
Hi GC,
I have been reading this thread with interest. I note that you have been taught to put everything on your chart, rather than on a plog form. I was told off for doing precisely this by an instructor who was an ex RAF Group Captain, ex fast jet pilot, and a very senior test pilot. My point is that what the RAF does today will be anathema tomorrow. So don't regard it as gospell. It is only how things are done today in one organisation. Do listen to pilots from other spheres; they all have good things to teach.
As to the fuel check circles. As has already been said, these seem to fit the bill fine for fast jets and also for you - as long as you are only flying 50nm legs between quiet aerodromes with only a simple aeroplane and only you and perhaps your instructor aboard.
However, if you were to fly a four or six seater, with several tanks, over legs of 200nm or more and with three or four passengers and luggage aboard, I suspect this method of fuel management might soon prove inadequate.
May I suggest that you ask around at the club and see if there are any pilots there who have flown a Hercules or a Galaxy a Tristar or a Nimrod and ask them how they manage their fuel burn. Let us know what you discover.
I did ATPL groundschool about ten years ago, and the method of fuel management I was taught was based on airline practice, i.e. calculate taxi fuel, trip fuel to destination, fuel from destination to alternate, half an hour's fuel for remaining in the hold at the alternate, and then landing and taxi-in fuel; (not to mention any allowance for 'unusable fuel' and maximum permissable fuel load to remain under max landing weight). Obviously, you can't use this method on a Pa28, but it does at least provide the mental backgound for my fuel planning. Even in a small aeroplane I allow for taxi fuel and I do calculate my fuel from destination to alternate (just in case the aircraft ahead of me does a wheels-up landing on the only runway at my destination). I plan each leg of a multi-stage trip as though each was a separate trip. Yes it takes time, but it gives me confidence.
Regards,
Broomstick.