about fuel management: I must confess a very embarrassing
incident when I ran out of fuel at the end of a long cross
country: I did the whole planning fine, computed the fuel
required, got my navigation prepared with wind aloft, places
to eat and refuel, length of runways, crossed all the ts,
dotted all the is, and all that, by the book; I was mighty
pleased with myself, and it was one of my first really long
cross-country, i.e., a flight which required a couple of
fuel stops; at the final refuel, I noted that all my
computations were within a gallon or so (well, I don't remember
the details, but pretty close) of the actual fuel burn; a
nice weekend indeed. Exhausted but happy, I got to my car
and drove home; well, I didn't get the fuel exhaustion
on the highway, had to call AAA... the one thing I didn't check
was the car.

there, I had to get that out of my chest eventually,

--Sylvain