Many thanks to everyone for your prompt and encouraging responses. As a further
insight into my present operating situation, I'm the owner/major shareholder
of G-EIKY and three friends each have a minority interest, but we all have equal
access to the aircraft. In order to avoid misunderstandings re fuel, the
arrangement
we have is always to leave the tank completely full before leaving G-EIKY
for the next person.
Furthermore there is no fuel gauge fitted; only the vertical transparent sight
tube next to the pilot's ankles. I'm a strong advocate of not putting too much
faith in gauges and that the most reliable technology is your watch doing the
measuring of a tank which always starts out full. This has kept me out of the
"ran out of fuel" reports for over 4 decades.
Having said all this, I need to find a good "rule of thumb" which the G-EIKY
group
members can follow to keep us out of the statistics. Perhaps only ever one
person on board when flying from our airfield, which is 500 metres of soft grass
(well-cut) and down in a valley? There is rising terrain when taking off on
31 and minor power cables on wooden poles to clear when taking off on 13.
My arithmetic for flying G-EIKY with me as pilot is 1370 minus 860 empty weight
minus 110 fuel leaves 400 lbs for me and passenger and bags. Not bad ! Take away
me in flying suit being 185 lbs and that leaves 215 lbs for the rest.
All the 15 years that I have flown G-EIKY like this, take-offs at mauw in 20C
nil
wind conditions at our field have been possible, but it's the extra rolling
resistance of a three-wheeled undercarriage which now worries me. I guess that
there is no magic "get out of jail free" card. We'll just have to "suck it and
see".
Perhaps I should make a rule which places an embargo on all take-offs with a
passenger
---From our field whenever the headwind component is less than 10 knots.
What do you think?
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=381583#381583
|