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N24YW

Well Known Member
I went to a distance airport to get fuel today. I showed about 2.5 gallons in my right tank. I have Vans gauges. I flew for approximately 25 minutes on this. About 10 minutes of the 25 was flown after the gauge showed zero. The motor continued to run for about 10 seconds after the fuel pressure gauge went to zero. It took another 5-8 seconds to regain power after it ran out. I had the power at 2300 rpm. Fix pitch. When I filled it up it took 19.26 galon. I did my testing with 5000 feet agl. I thought I would pass this info on for anyone interested. Some day I will test the left tank.

Ps the fuel price was 3.69 at AWG today.

Jim Knight
Burllington Iowa
RV-6 280 Hours.
 
I was testing the gauge and to make sure that I could get as much fuel out of the tank as possible. I also wanted to see how long it takes to regain power after fuel runs out. Some people may not think it is a good idea but I was above a airport with plenty of fuel in the other tank.
 
N24YW said:
I went to a distance airport to get fuel today. I showed about 2.5 gallons in my right tank. I have Vans gauges. I flew for approximately 25 minutes on this. About 10 minutes of the 25 was flown after the gauge showed zero. The motor continued to run for about 10 seconds after the fuel pressure gauge went to zero. It took another 5-8 seconds to regain power after it ran out. I had the power at 2300 rpm. Fix pitch. When I filled it up it took 19.26 galon. I did my testing with 5000 feet agl. I thought I would pass this info on for anyone interested.
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I did the same testing on our RV6A ... was able to burn 19 gallons from each tank ... also our gauges show 0 (zero) you have about 30 seconds before the engine quits. Other tests showed an wind milling engine would restart on the other tank on its own within 45 seconds, if you turned on the fuel pump it restarted in 20 seconds.
 
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My 6A 0320......... The motor quit 9 minutes after the gauge hit "0". Switched tanks, no boost used and the motor fired in about 4 seconds. Unused fuel in tank was 6oz.

Why the test? It's just good stuff to know. Plus it was fun to do.
 
Thanks guys...

...for passing this on. Don't be surprised to get flamed a little but this is good stuff to know. My Van's gauges are also off, in my favor, and I've run them 'til almost zero indication and then checked amount taken on with the gauge....seems like 2.5 gallons more than indicated.

Regards,
 
Good info

I have done this on both tanks 2-3 times each. I was usually able to run another 0.6 gallons after the needle hit the zero peg. I set my usable fuel at 37 gallons because I determined I had about 0.5 gallon unusable in each tank.

I even let another pilot run a tank empty to experience it. My opinion is that it is good practice when done high over an airport.

The first time I did it the circles I was making over an airport became much smaller as I got closer to empty. I still can't explain that :)
 
Just remember guys, when you are coming in to land on fumes the plane is pointed down and so is the fuel, away from the pickup tube. Remember your required reserves, and don't push the envelope on landing with the least amount of fuel, sooner or later, you'll loose.

Just be carefull out there. We have had enough people hurt lately. Fly SAFE!
 
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GRT w/ Van's Float Senders

I have not done the real life test and probably won't. I just wanted to point out as a tip to the EFIS types that you can set the calibration. I set each tank's readout to show -1 when empty so that at zero I should have 1 gallon. Hopefully this also gives a little safety margin for the nose-down scenario.
 
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