who the hell ever flies at 65% power on a cross country?
Good point.
On cross countries I fly at 78.372% power.
back in the old days it wasn't that hard and no one ran out of fuel.
All days in GA seem to be ‘old days’, because people keep running out of fuel in GA aircraft.
I fly the way I fly and that is it.
And the laws of physics are the laws of physics and that is it.
if the last two litres of usable fuel in the tank worry you then sonny jim you are incompetent. you are worrying about all the wrong things.
I can hear the hairs growing on your chest from here, W8!
Your mission is to fly as far as you can and land with 2 litres usable left in your tanks.
It’s an ISA day and there’s nil wind.
How far can you go? Prove it with data to support your choice of altitude, cruise IAS, RPM, throttle and mixture settings.
If you rarely fly ranges at the edge of your aircraft’s performance envelope and your planning and in-flight management capability, not running out of fuel may not be the product of superior knowledge or superior judgment.