Visual fuel check paid off

An interesting thing happened this morning that validated my original training - imagine that. I ordered some fuel while preflighting and a new line guy came to fuel me up. I had about 18 gallons on board. I told him to fill them to within an inch or two from the top. He did his thing and left. Should have taken on about 42 gallons. I normally glance at the fuel gauge on the truck but did not this time.

I was taught to ALWAYS visually check the fuel in the tanks as it's the easiest thing to do to prevent a major cause of aircraft falling unscheduled from the sky. So I do. Every single time that I don't fill the tanks myself, I open them to check fuel level and also always sump newly filled tanks after giving the new fuel a few minutes to settle. Visually checking fuel levels always seemed a tiny bit obsessive but easy to do and a good idea in theory.

When I opened the left tank to check fuel level, it was about 9 inches low, probably holding about 12 gallons. Hmmm. Right tank was about 6 inches low, probably holding about 22 gallons. Hmmm again. Bells going off in cranium. Wow, that is the first time that ever happened - how could this happen, something so easy to get right didn't get done right? Now this was a new line guy, new to my plane and it was in the shade so it was a little hard to see the fuel level. I'm not bashing him because that isn't the important thing, but making the point why it's important to do what I (and probably most of us) was trained to do. It can happen and it did happen, which means it can happen to you.

I called him back and asked him how many gallons he'd given me. 16 gallons he says. I show him the levels and we top them off together giving me another 24 gallons!

Now, I was only going for a short flight and would have been fine. Even if I was going on a long flight my EFIS would probably have pointed out the discrepancy between the float level readings and what I told it were now "full" tanks. Probably. Not good enough.

I'm just a low time pilot, but I don't think visually checking fuel levels every single time is obsessive at all. I trust electrical and mechanical devices like fuel senders and gauges about as far as I can throw the whole plane, line guy and fuel truck.

It's not of course. It's just that when you do something 10,000 times and never see anything amiss, it seems a bit tedious sometimes. My point was that it isn't. In this case it wasn't the gauges or senders that were faulty, but the human who filled the tanks.

Paul Dye probably has some input about the human factors involved in something like this.

Not obsessive. Whenever I (or anyone) fuels my plane, I drain some fuel from the wing sumps. It only takes a second and tht way I KNOW they (or me) didn't pumpma bunch of water or dirt in there. Added benefit is that I see the fuel level is correct and that the caps are on correctly.

Ok, maybe it's a little obsessive. I haven't found water yet, but have found dirt.

Not obsessive... no one but me ever puts fuel in my tanks! If I run into an FBO that insists that they (not me) must fill my tanks, I will watch them like a hawk. Also, I always look at the pump to observe the amount of fuel that went into my tanks, and then I reconcile that amount with my on-board fuel totalizer.

The result of my obsessive behavior is that i can relax while flying and know that I have enough fuel for my mission.

Good job.

Victor

It's also a good idea to visually check your fuel, even if you filled the tanks, if you leave your plane unattended. An exception might be if it's in your secured hangar only you have access to. Even in that situation I can be a little anal about it.

I've never had fuel stolen from my tanks but I know people who have.

Nice catch!
He probably filled them completely. (well at least briefly the tank section between the last to ribs )
Most pumps are just too fast for our RV tanks.

douglassmt said:

In this case it wasn't the gauges or senders that were faulty, but the human who filled the tanks.

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I wouldn't knock the new line guy so bad yet. Although he did not fill the tanks the first time just shows how he is not familiar with fueling the RV tanks. Because of the RV tank baffling it take time to fill. Not like the "other" cert. ships do. In the PA28 I learned in there was no need to wait and let stuff settle then check for the dist. from the tab. Dump it in and go. It does sound like you "taught" him when he returned which is always good. Next time he knows.

I can see why this was a problem.

At least with a 7A, filling the fuel tank is full of optical illusions. You think it's full, because the fuel is up near the top. But it's not. I don't know if it just takes time for the fuel to even out in all the sections of the tank or what but it seems to be you can think you've filled the tanks and you haven't.

If a line guy is in a hurry, I can see this happening.

I usually just fill the tank myself but this is a good reminder to me to add how many gallons the plane SHOULD take to the line guy when I tell him to fill it up.

+1 on not obsessive. I do it every time I fly. Manually dip the tanks to confirm quantity. Good habit!

while going for my ppl, my cfi said it was time for me to take the flight test. but b4 I did he wanted me to fly with the head of the flight school. we took off and about 10 min into flying he asked me how much fuel did we have and i said the gauges read 3/4 full. he asked if i had LOOKED in the tanks to confirm, i said no. wow wrong thing to say! he said lesson over and he flew back to the school giving me an earful. he gave me back to my cfi saying he wasnt ready! my instructor asked me what i had done to get him so upset, did you roll the 172? or land in front of an airliner taking off? I told him what happened, he sorta caught his breath and said that he had never mentioned that to me to look in the tanks. he said he was probably going to get a good talking to from the head cfi. he told me not to worry, he is not mad at you. he cares...........because HE ran out of fuel TWICE!
even if u have locking gas caps and u park it over night somewhere, LOOK in tank! one can very quickly drain u dry from the bottom! ask me how i know.

Fuel check

It sometimes amazes me to see how non-chalant some folks are when it comes to fueling. I either do it myself or stand there while it is bring done. Guess what?, I've never had a problem.

Plus 1 for this.....

LettersFromFlyoverCountry said:

I usually just fill the tank myself but this is a good reminder to me to add how many gallons the plane SHOULD take to the line guy when I tell him to fill it up.

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Telling someone to fill the tanks based on some arbitrary measurement such as "inches from the top" or "to the bottom of the tabs" etc. is subjective, and is also prone to being affected by all types of other factors that may leave the tanks filled incorrectly.

Pilots should generally know how much fuel remains in each tank, and should always instruct "strangers" to fill each tank to a specified number of gallons per tank. They should also always be present when the tanks are filled, but i know thi is not always practical or possible. This is not fool proof either, but IMHO it is much more reliable than the "inches from some reference point" approach.

Very glad that you practice the correct preflight procedures, and that you caught this problem before it caught you. This is a great reminder for us all. Don't get complacent when it comes to fueling.

Someone might recall the details, but the FAA made a big deal about visually checking fuel levels in preflight for aircraft with questionable quantity indicating systems. I think they even stated the need for a marked dip stick if necessary to determine the quantity. I seem to recall that they went so far as calling it negligent if you failed to do a visual check.

Even with a fuel totalizer and independent quantity indicators there is nothing like seeing it for yourself.

Tank cap off

Visually check fuel/cap secured every time. While preflighting the CAP GA-8, (really high wing), it is a pain to pull the ladder out of the baggage area to climb up to check fuel. On one visual check, we found the tank cap sitting on the wing. Not sure if a member had fueled it themselves or off the truck by an attemdant. Doesn't matter. We followed the checklist and avoided an issue. Fuel gets sucked out at an alarming rate when the cap is off the tank. The GA-8 cross feeds when on "both".
Following the checklist is a safety item.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT

A couple of months ago, after the truck finished and I checked the fuel and caps, the fuel truck driver commented that he doesn't see many that do. He said probably less than 10% check after he's done.

Over fueling can be a problem too!

One of our low time renter pilots flew one of our 172s XC last weekend with a couple of buddies - so he needed to have less than full tanks (our planes have 53 gal tanks). We made sure the plane was low on fuel before he left - so he could add what he needed. When he got to his destination, he asked to have the tanks filled to 16 gal/side. The lineman added 16 gal/side! That put him about 10 gal overweight. With no reasonable way to offload fuel, to his credit, he took the plane up solo for an hour to burn off the excess fuel before loading up for the return flight. Good judgement was not cheap!
He said he learned 2 things: 1-always tell them how much fuel to add - not a desired fuel level (they have no real way to determine that), and 2-there is no substitute to being there during refueling - especially when partial fueling is needed.
I congratulated him on his good decision. He got his training somewhere else, so kudos to his instructor.

fuel

I either watch the guy or do it myself. Checking fuel level should be part of the checklist.

DGlaeser said:

One of our low time renter pilots flew one of our 172s XC last weekend with a couple of buddies - so he needed to have less than full tanks (our planes have 53 gal tanks). We made sure the plane was low on fuel before he left - so he could add what he needed. When he got to his destination, he asked to have the tanks filled to 16 gal/side. The lineman added 16 gal/side! That put him about 10 gal overweight. With no reasonable way to offload fuel, to his credit, he took the plane up solo for an hour to burn off the excess fuel before loading up for the return flight. Good judgement was not cheap!
He said he learned 2 things: 1-always tell them how much fuel to add - not a desired fuel level (they have no real way to determine that), and 2-there is no substitute to being there during refueling - especially when partial fueling is needed.
I congratulated him on his good decision. He got his training somewhere else, so kudos to his instructor.

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They did that to me just before my PPL checkride We left specific instructions the night before not to fill the tanks all the way so it would leave me right at gross with my examiner (C150; it didn't take much). But as I discovered just before heading out to meet the examiner, the tanks were full. Fortunately, I was early as usual and was able to burn it down low enough to be legal.

I can't imagine going for a flight without sticking the tanks, or at the very least popping the caps for a visual. It's a combination of self-preservation gene, a deep mistrust of gauges and training at a school with a higher-than-average emphasis on safety.

If the lineboy were truly new to the job and not experienced (at all) with aircraft fuel tanks, he may have tried to fill them like you fill a car - stick it in, turn it on, when it clicks off it's full. That won't work on an aircraft tank...

It pays to look

As a third year Ag Pilot we were busy as could be right at the peak of the season. I had the loader fill the hopper with my preplanned chemical load and he knew that I always topped of the Ag Husky fuel tanks. I went to talk to another farmer and check his maps while this was going on. Came back in a rush and asked the loaded if he filled her up. Yup he says. I always clip my maps to the instrument panel before lighting the fire so that they don't blow away or worse yet fall into the mostly open bowls of the Ag Husky. I blast of and am work a field about 10 miles from the airport and after a short while I remarked to myself how well the old gal was performing today. After a few more swaths the light came on that she was performing a little to well so I snatched the maps off the panel...Lo and behols both tanks were showing empty. Now we all know that a TSIO520 wants about 18 to 20 GPH to keep the fan turning.I prayed and kept an eye on every useable road and field all the way back to the airport. Landed and taxied up to the refill pad and as I swung the tail around the old gal sputtered. Long story short one tank empty and the other has something right at the published unuseable fuel level. Had a long talk with the loader and then a heated discussion with the pilot (me) that is about how stupid I was for not visually checking even thought this loader had always been there and did it all correctly. Just takes once to ruin the whole day. Never left the ground since that day without pitting the old mark one mod one eyball on each tank.

An unintended consequence of installing the Andair locking fuel caps is that I almost always remove the cap and stand right there and watch the aircraft being refueled, and then replace the cap, (on the rare occasions that I do not refuel it myself) since I have the key to unlock the caps. I have, on occasion, given the key to the fueler when I had some reason that I could not be right there to witness the fueling. I am always vaguely uncomfortable when that situation arises, so I open the caps back up and visually check the fuel before departing. Even with fairly accurate gauges, super accurate flo-scan, and being the only one flying the airplane, I am uncomfortable not making a visual check before flying.

RVDan said:

Someone might recall the details, but the FAA made a big deal about visually checking fuel levels in preflight for aircraft with questionable quantity indicating systems. I think they even stated the need for a marked dip stick if necessary to determine the quantity. I seem to recall that they went so far as calling it negligent if you failed to do a visual check.

Even with a fuel totalizer and independent quantity indicators there is nothing like seeing it for yourself.

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Indeed! A 1969 C182 I flew had the same fuel gages as my 1950 Plymouth Cranbrook!! It was NEVER correct. I wonder how many years they were used.