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Canadians and Gallons

prkaye

Well Known Member
Question for fellow canucks out there flying with an EFIS/EMS. What units do you use for your fuel quantity and fuel flow? I have been using Gallons and GPH up until now, because that seems to be what everybody does. But I suspect that's just because it makes it easier to talk the same langauge as Americans (of which the vast majority of the RV community is comprised).
I recently switched to L and LPH, since our fuel pumps all indicate in Liters, and our fuel is always priced in $/L. By displaying fuel flow in LPH, I can more easily do the mental conversion to $PH to know how much cash I'm burning as I fly.
Any other Canucks out there also using Liters on their EMS?
 
Gal

I use Gal and GPH. I flew with L and L/hr before. My only recommendation is to pick one and stick with it. Also revise your min fuel for landing. I liked to flight plan a minimum of 3 Gal in each tank (~45 min). This is more than 10L. In my experience, when guys used L, they pushed the min fuel too much. Its a bigger number which tends to make guys more comfortable.
 
In my experience, when guys used L, they pushed the min fuel too much. Its a bigger number which tends to make guys more comfortable.

Good point. I tend to go by time anyway (adjusting mentally if I'm cruising at a higher or lower fuel-flow) when it comes to judging my fuel reserve.
 
age dependent metrics

...I trained in about 1980, and hearing 'gallons per hour' etc. for the last 30+ years is just too much to change for me. I rarely do a conversion, just know when that tanks are full, it's 18 gallons, or as others have said; 2.5 hours to minimums.( not reserve, but the minimum fuel I will operate with in normal circumstances, to give some margin for unporting in turns etc.) I should be in the circuit landing if at 4 gallons in the lowest tank.
 
US gallons

I've only been flying since 94, but this is well after the country officially changed to metric (mid 1970's). I've never known small aircraft to burn anything other than US gallons (as all the POH show specs and charts in that unit of measure). Today, it's priced and sold by the litre but I figure the feds know that us pilots are a smart enough to work in both units of measure. I buy it in litres, and burn it in US gallons. Doesn't everyone do this?

By the way, isn't the US officially metric but practically (day to day usage other than the scientific community) imperial?

Bevan
 
US gallons per hour and nautical miles per hour. I pay in litres at the pump but I am used to gph in the air, all the charts are gph and almost all the aviation conversations are in gph.
I would like to see more RV pilots make the conversion to knots. It is the language of aviation and is the number that controllers are interested in.
 
I fly knots, but do fuel in litres and litres/hour. However, that has such a PITA when doing power calculations and talking with other pilots that I'm going to switch to US gal/hour. That way I only have to convert when I pay :)

I know my wife would sigh loudly at this and shake her head. She grew up in metric and sets her back seat GPS in km/h. That isn't so bad, though, when you can say that you are doing 305 ! (~165 kts, our normal travelling cruise speed)
 
I also use Kts for speed.
I've never known small aircraft to burn anything other than US gallons

Oh no! So my RV won't burn the fuel if I measure it in Litres? Yikes, better switch my units back before I try to go flying! ;)
 
By displaying fuel flow in LPH, I can more easily do the mental conversion to $PH to know how much cash I'm burning as I fly.
Anything that makes it easier for me to figure out how much cash i'm burning as i'm flying is not welcome in my panel. :eek:

That being said, my MGL fuel gauge is set to L. Now if I could only get it properly calibrated...
 
I've used Gallons, Litres and Pounds all in piston Lycomings. Burning 60 pounds/hr makes flight planning really easy. Use what you find easiest.
 
You can throw us Aussies into the equation as well. We are a metric country just like Canada. As such, we must placard out aircraft fuel tanks in litres and have a fuel correction card on the panel which converts the gauges in gallons to litres.

The last four aircraft I have owned were not American aircraft so all were in metric, however, I find that working the RV in gallons is easy. I plan on 10 GPH and standard Vans gauges go 15 (1.5 hours), 10 (1 hour), 5 (1/2 hour), 2.5 (1/4 hour). 10 GPH are much easier than 37.85 LPH when flight planning.

However, DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON POUNDS AND OUNCES :(

We still use the international aircraft system of feet, knots and nautical miles etc. I too wish Americans would talk in Knots or at least tell us when you are talking in MPH ;)

Just a thought for my US friends out there. Did you know that the metric system is the easiest of all systems to use. If you don't believe me, have a look at your money.

For me, I have an iPhone app that I use all the time to convert everything to everything and back again. Thank you Mr Apple, you saved my aviation sanity...
 
IIRC, when talking to Van, someone ask him why he didn't use knots. His reply was "I can see the miles on the ground, I've never been able to find a knot". This is kind of my thoughts also.

Question, didnt' knots originally begin with boats/marine? If so, how did it find it's way into aviation?........and why?:confused:

Marshall Alexander
 
IIRC, when talking to Van, someone ask him why he didn't use knots. His reply was "I can see the miles on the ground, I've never been able to find a knot". This is kind of my thoughts also.

Question, didnt' knots originally begin with boats/marine? If so, how did it find it's way into aviation?........and why?:confused:

Marshall Alexander

So I am gonna teach my granny to suck eggs:

You can find a Nautical Mile on every 1:50,000 aviation map. 1 Nautical Mile is equal to 1 minute of arc on a great circle. Therefore 1 degree of arc on a great circle is 60 nautical miles. This is how the old seafaring terms have entered into air navigation.

Just look at the lines of longitude on your map and find one that is marked out in degrees and minutes. There you have a very accurate Nautical mile scale.

The Nautical Mile is a much more "natural" scale to use IMO.

Basically navigation is navigation no matter what your mode of transport is.
 
1 Nautical Mile is equal to 1 minute of arc on a great circle. Therefore 1 degree of arc on a great circle is 60 nautical miles. This is how the old seafaring terms have entered into air navigation.

Just look at the lines of longitude on your map and find one that is marked out in degrees and minutes. There you have a very accurate Nautical mile scale.

The Nautical Mile is a much more "natural" scale to use IMO.

Basically navigation is navigation no matter what your mode of transport is.

That is exactly the reason we use nautical miles per hour.

Now Anthony you have opened a can of worms. Some people are going to say; "Maps? we are supposed to read maps? I thought you just hit Go To on the GPS" ;)
 
Canadians and gallons

I set up my Dynon EMS for U.S. gallons or both fuel quanity and fuel flow since that's what the Lycoming bookn uses for my IO-360.U.S. gallon is about 3.85 liters..Have had no issues at all.Easy to work with.

Dave
RV-7
C-GCPD
 
So I am gonna teach my granny to suck eggs:

You can find a Nautical Mile on every 1:50,000 aviation map. 1 Nautical Mile is equal to 1 minute of arc on a great circle. Therefore 1 degree of arc on a great circle is 60 nautical miles. This is how the old seafaring terms have entered into air navigation.

Just look at the lines of longitude on your map and find one that is marked out in degrees and minutes. There you have a very accurate Nautical mile scale.

The Nautical Mile is a much more "natural" scale to use IMO.

Basically navigation is navigation no matter what your mode of transport is.


I said on the ground, not on a map.;)

Marshall Alexander
 
I said on the ground, not on a map.;)

Marshall Alexander

So you did Marshall. However I was trying to answer your question about naval distances creeping into aviation. I respectfully suggest that living in Oklahoma is the reason why nautical miles may be strange to you. I too find it hard to relate to what a nautical mile actually looks like on the ground, but to be honest, from the way I was taught to navigate and from my experience, I find it easier to calculate in Nautical Miles and Knots.

Getting back to the original point of this thread, maybe there should be new Canadian measurement introduced ie The Canadian Gallon. Defined as the amount of Labatt Blue the average Canadian drinks in one evening :rolleyes:
 
Many Canadians enjoy a Nova Scotian beer called Alexander Keith's (I prefer Keith's Red). A Superior beer in every respect. Yesterday was Alexander Keith's birthday and our local bar had a celebration - I participated by having a couple of Keith's Reds.
 
I'm still debating what units to use. Almost everything in the UK these days is metres, litres and kilos, but the aircraft is designed in inches, US gallons and lbs. We have the option to use either but have to be consistent. Since I have fitted the VANS fuel gauges, I guess I am committed to US gallons. Also makes it easy since 1 US gallon of Avgas =6lb.

On the miles vs nm debate, nm wins hands down. By happy co-incidence that (some approximate) 1nm=6000ft, 1 radian=60deg, 1 minute of longitude=1nm, 60 secs=1min, 60mins=1 hour etc etc we have the wonderful 1 in 60 rule which results in all sorts of easy mental calculations relating to navigation and flying in general. Some of these only work if you use nm/knots. Example: RoD on a 3 deg approach = 5 x GS. So, approaching at 70kts into a 10kt headwind, RoD should be 300fpm.

Of course, I don't suppose the current generation of GPS/calculator trained pilots have ever heard of it ;)

And Island Monkey is absolutely correct about the origin of the nm. The term "knots" came about from the way of measuring speed in the old ships. A piece of rope with knots at predetermined intervals would be dropped over the side. The sailor would let it pass through his hands as it was dragged out and count the number of knots in a given time. This equalled the speed through the water in nm/hour :D

I can't remember the numbers used but I'm sure Wikipedia will know. 16ft spacing and 10 secs works - do the math.....
 
metric measurments

If an Aussie can but in.. We have had the metric system since 1970. However, to make sure we were on the same system for altitude measurement they officially "metricated" the foot. So it is still "legal" to use feet for measuring altitude.
 
A few years ago, I helped a friend buy and ferry a Lithuanian registered YAK 52, LY-AFQ from Witmundhaven in northern Germany to Egelsbach near Frankfurt. The altimeter was calibrated in metres and the subscale calibrated in a Russian unit that required a conversion table. The airspeed indicator was calibrated in Kilometres per hour as well. Needless to say it was an interesting exercise juggling with the conversion table. We used to approximate our altitude in feet. Both of us got pretty good at remembering the numbers that represented 1000 ft 2000 ft etc, as we used 300 metres = 1000 ft as a rule of thumb. We used litres for our fuel capacity and duration calculations.

LY-AFQ.jpg
 
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I used to own a Yak-52 but in Australia, we had to swap out the Altimeter for one which read in feet and the ASI for Knots. The fuel was in litres and the manifold pressure was in some Russian metric measurement which we didn't understand so we just called it 'Bananas'. When setting up for cruise, I would set the RPM to 70% and the manifold pressure to 7 Bananas (or 82% and 8 Bananas for aerobatics). At the end of the day, there is a work around for all this.
 
Metric conversions

I've flown gliders imported from Europe where the altimeter has been converted from metres to "near-enough-is-good-enough" feet by repainting the indications on the card and fiddling with the calibration.

You end up with an altimeter where the big hand shows 3000' per revolution and the little hand counts 3000, 6000, 9000, etc.

Tedious.

- mark
 
Russian time

I have a vague recollection that the Russians, who could not use the same units as the capitalist west, also used Moscow time instead of GMT / UTC.

Does anyone else know about this?

Cheers

Jim
 
Warning geek alert! Nautical miles are actually more "real" than statute miles, in a way. This is because the earth is a curved surface and nautical miles are measures of the arc. Statute miles are "flat" map distances. Yes, your odometer can measure statute miles as it passes over the arc, but why not use a unit of measurement more true to the path you are actually following? Just sayin'! :p;)
 
Imperial units as applied to aircraft comes closest to measurement Nirvana. The denominator on all bolt and rivet sizes is binary (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc). This is beautiful. I feel like crying every time I reach for a wrench.
 
Cost

Pricey!
Up where I'm working, my company sells it for $1.73/L last time I checked. But our airplanes burn it at the rate of between 16usg/hr for the smallest plane to 22 imp. gal/hr for the biggest piston one.

I've become so used to interchanging units that whenever a customer is curious, I just give them the most impressive sounding units. the best is 6lbs/minute for one of the turbine machines.
 
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