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I know there are piston-powered air- planes that have crappy fuel indica- tors. In those airplanes you should allow for extra margin. One old adage about fuel gauges states, “fuel gauges are only accurate when they are on the ground and full or completely empty!”
True, but you can monitor the flight time on the amount of fuel you have onboard, you can “stick your tanks” to be certain of your fuel level, and you should watch the fueler and verify the amount of fuel that is placed on- board. You should never take off with- out knowing how much fuel you have onboard. If you fly an airplane with inadequate instrumentation, then move up in panel or airplane. You must know how much fuel you have onboard. I know this is a harsh word, but it is a true word that might help some pilots with reality. If you sense that you are going to land with less than comfortable fuel, make that stop. In my experience, the stop is far less painful than anticipated. With prior planning, they are even less painful.
Mission accomplishment: It is the bane of aviation. For some reason, the usual people that migrate to aviation are mission-accomplishing, got-to-fin- ish-what-I-start kind of people. We are good at so many things in life, but we are not good at making decisions near our objective. When we can see the light at the end of the tunnel; when we are on the last mile of the marathon; when it’s fourth and goal – that’s when people like us tend to kick it into high gear and accomplish that mission. And normally we do accomplish that mission. But, sometimes we put the value of accomplishing that mission above the safety of the flight.
Bottom line, we tend to be terrible at analyzing risk when in the last seg- ments of a mission. Sometimes we ac- cept a flight to our home airport when the weather is clearly not acceptable. Sometimes we push the limits of our fatigue knowing that our own bed will feel so much better than a hotel bed. Sometimes we land with less fuel than we should. And sometimes, thankfully
rarely, we get to log some unexpected glider time in an airplane with a per- fectly good engine and dry tanks.
If my story of woe resonates with you, I’m so sorry. I made a terrible decision on that day in Bosnia in the Blackhawk to fly with less fuel than I’d fly in a Piper Meridian. Decide today what you will do when that still, small voice in the back of your mind tells you, “Think about this twice.” It’s probably not a mission that must be accomplished, and a fuel stop is almost always a good idea.
Joe Casey is an FAA-DPE and an ATP, CFI, CFII (A/H), MEI, CFIG, CFIH, as well as a retired U.S. Army UH60 standardization instructor/ex- aminer. An active instructor in the PA46 and King Air markets, he has accumulated 16,000-plus hours of flight time, with more than 5,200 dual-given as a flight instructor. Contact Joe at joe@flycasey.com or 903.721.9549.
Covington
http:/covingtonaircraft.com
December 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 7