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Frankly, I don't expect to be running the wing tanks dry very often -- and I
asked about this last year in this forum and found that very few of "all
y'all" do, either.
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- Rob Wolf, LNC2 70% and holding....
Rob,
Who said that most of us don't run our tanks dry? I hope that it was not "most" of us. I run my wing tanks dry at least every other flight. The tanks need to be either full or empty in order to set the fuel quantity gauge accurately.
For most of my local flights, I fly with either no wing tank fuel or maybe 5 gal per side. Remember that with header tank fuel only, we can fly safely for at least 200 miles.
Back when I used to keep all of my tanks full, I saw another LNC2 pilot put in 10 gal one day and I asked him why. He said that he was going to use 10 gal in tomorrows flight. He then asked me why I carried around an extra 200 lbs of fuel. I couldn't answer.
We have fiberglass tanks, not rubber fuel blatters, that can dry out. I think that my tanks stay in better shape without fuel. Also remember that any unusually maneuvers require that the wing tanks be empty.
Of course, I also remember the old saying that the only time an airplane can have too much fuel is when it is on fire. I always fill all tanks for any cross country flight.
--
Lorn H. 'Feathers' Olsen, MAA, DynaComm, Corp.
248-345-0500, mailto:lorn@dynacomm.ws
LNC2, O-320-D1F, N31161, Y47, SE Michigan
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