Weight & Balance Question

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."

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.

That's fine for this flight, but I am going to use your post to ask a
question that I've had for some time. Let's say you do need to "dump fuel",
to get the weight down. How do you do it? Does the FBO drain it for you?
What do they drain it into? What would you do if you were at an unattended
field? Can this drained fuel be saved and re-used at a later time, or do
those bad FBO people keep it?

"Geoffrey Barnes" wrote in message news:0QWGb.1558
That's fine for this flight, but I am going to use your post to ask a
question that I've had for some time. Let's say you do need to "dump fuel",
to get the weight down. How do you do it? Does the FBO drain it for you?
What do they drain it into? What would you do if you were at an unattended
field? Can this drained fuel be saved and re-used at a later time, or do
those bad FBO people keep it?


I've done it a few times. First was at STL when all four pilots getting out of
the warrior told the line crew to just fill it to the tabs. We found the
airplane after dinner topped off. We waited while they opened the quick drains
into 5 gallon buckets. Since it was their mistake, they bought the fuel back
from us. Don't know what they did with it after that.

Another time was when I told a lineman to top off the wing tanks in a PA-12. He
also did me the service of topping off the aux tank where the back seat was
located. Only problem was didn't need, or want the extra 19 gallons, and
without the battery, they fuel couldn't be transfered out, so it was 114 pounds
of extra weight that I didn't need either. That they drained out into 5 gallon
buckets as well. And I don't know what they did with that gas either.

The only other times I've done it was when swaping wings or fuel tanks, and we
just dumped the jerry cans back into our tanks. I would assume that it would
work the same at an FBO with their rental aircraft.

"Geoffrey Barnes" wrote in message nk.net...
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.

That's fine for this flight, but I am going to use your post to ask a
question that I've had for some time. Let's say you do need to "dump fuel",
to get the weight down. How do you do it? Does the FBO drain it for you?
What do they drain it into? What would you do if you were at an unattended
field? Can this drained fuel be saved and re-used at a later time, or do
those bad FBO people keep it?

I've had this done two or three times. The FBO treated it as normal
procedure, and since I rent wet, there's no cost implication. The fuel
truck can suck a metered amount of fuel out of the tanks and back into
the truck, so it seems.

One time it was for my checkride in a 152 (no tabs) - we filled it up
and then took 6 gallons out, and I made sure the examiner knew it.

-- David Brooks