Gene,

You're absolutely correct. I wasn't worried about the fuel being burned
during the flight. What my concern was the initial take-off weight. I knew
that the only way of getting rid of the extra weight was to lessen the fuel
load, which is what you're saying.

I did some checking and found out the 172 I will be flying was flown for
several hours yesterday, was not scheduled to be flown today, and I am the
only one with it tomorrow. I am hoping they did not fill the tanks when they
returned. If they did or if there is still too much fuel (weight), I am
going to scrap the flight. I'm not going to worry about trying to get some
fuel drained. Given the background for this flight, I don't think it would
be worth the hassle.

This is the first time that I have ever had to fly when W&B became an issue.
Thanks for your comments, they pretty much cover my thought processes during
my initial evaluation of the situation.

Harry

The easy answer to this one is:

You don't have to take off over gross because you are only going to
burn about 10 gals of fuel (in 55 miles) plus, oh, say, another 10....
that's about 120 pounds of fuel. What you *DON'T* have to carry is
about another 16 gals of fuel or about 96 pounds! So...... you'll be
legal with respect to gross and CG, if you don't take what you don't
need.

PS....

If you were a 6'-2" flight instructor flying any of the training
aircraft with long range tanks out of an FBO that automatically tops
off the A/C, you'd know the drill.......... just say, "NO."