What an amazing thread!
Light aircraft:
Visual check "full" or dipstick for quantity. High wing or low wing. Gauges as useful as a nun's nipples.
Heavy aircraft:
Two independent methods to verify fuel quantity, or stick check. The two independent methods are normally fuel remaining plus fuel uplift = gauge reading +/- a tolerance. Fuel remaining is verified at end of flight by fuel load - fuel used = gauge reading +/- a tolerance and estimated transit/hangar fuel used.
I have always thought these rules of the air to be as entrenched globally as a pre-flight walkaround.
Obviously not.
