Running dry?

When I'd had my Comanche less than a month, and hadn't yet figured out an
accurate fuel burn rate, I accidently ran a tank dry -- at night over Puget
Sound. Switched tanks and hit the boost pump and it started immediately.

Then I restarted my heart, turned east and landed at Skagit to fill up.

Seth
"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
On 2005-08-19, Paul kgyy wrote:
The ACS magazine this month mentions sometimes 2-3 minutes to restart a
Comanche engine after running a tank dry. They don't recommend doing
it...

Not borne out by experience, though. A friend of mine would routinely
run a tank dry in his Comanche - when he did it with me on board, the
engine caught immediately when the tank was changed. It may as well have
been a high wing Cessna single.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Gets your attention over trees, rocks, or water, doesn't it?

Jim



Then I restarted my heart, turned east and landed at Skagit to fill up.

Ayup.

Pretty religious about my reserves since then.

I have two 30-gallon tanks. I switch tanks as soon as I reach cruise
altitude -- usually about 20 min at full power, which I interpret as burning
half an hour of fuel at 65% cruise. Then I switch each hour thereafter. In
theory, this leaves me thirty minutes if I go dry.

Seth

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Gets your attention over trees, rocks, or water, doesn't it?

Jim



Then I restarted my heart, turned east and landed at Skagit to fill up.

Greg Copeland wrote:

In September 2004 issue of AOPA Flight Training, Mark Cook has an article,
"No Fueln' Around". Under the "Selector boy" side article, he mentions
that he runs some of his tanks dry in his Bellanca Viking. In at least
one of John Deakin's articles
(http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182044-1.html), he not only recommends
running tanks dry but puts forth a powerful argument that it's a
responsible fuel management strategy. Furthermore, Deakin also offers
that he has never found an NTSB accident report related to a failed engine
start when running a tank dry and switching to the next. Both guys
recommend setting a timer a couple of minutes before the tank should run
dry; which acts of both early warning and as validation of your
anticipated fuel consumption.

Is this common? How many run their tank(s) dry as part of their fuel
management strategy? If you don't run dry, why not? Aside from the heat
beat skipping which is sure to follow the first couple of times, what's
the down side to this strategy?

Yes, as usual John Deakin is right on the money. Just ran the tanks dry
today, in fact. I do a commute to work two to three times per week and
have found that by carefully managing my fuel consumption, and by
completely utilizing the aux tanks, I can avoid an extra stop for fuel
every third trip.

There is nothing I can think of relating to running a tank dry in cruise
that would cause any difficulty or concern other than psychological. Go
ahead and do it... the article you read gave you all the right data,
and all the right reasons.

That is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read in these newsgroups.

IMHO, proper fuel management means never even coming *close* to running a
tank dry, let alone doing it intentionally.

And now you expect us to call you names, too?

Readthe other posts here, and you may learn that it is not as simple to
judge
as you make it.

I'm sorry, was I calling someone a name? I thought he was quoting an
article?

I have read all the posts in this thread with great interest. Nothing said
here has come close to explaining how the minimal utility you might get from
running a tank dry could possibly overcome the very real danger that the
engine might stop.

My statement stands -- it's a dumb idea.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

They should stop being cheap *******s and just buy the damn fuel
computer. Then you know how much fuel is in each tank. You back woods
pilots worry me.

-Robert

I have a real airplane and as such, I could see if my caps developed a
leak in flight. My caps also get new seals every 12 months per AD.
And yes, ,my gauges can tell the difference between 30 minutes of fuel
and none even in turb. Fuel gauges can be VERY accurate, you just need
to spend the money to keep them in good repair.

-Robert

So, you're ok over the Sierras without the motor running?

I have run the tanks dry on both sides about three times each so I
know my gauges are accurate and can predict to within about 0.2 to 0.3
gallon useage when the engine will stumble.

Not once did the engine quit.

To be honest about the first time I was circling over an unused runway
and for some unexplained reason the circles became tighter (smaller
radius) as the tank got closer to zero. Obviously I had planty of
altitude.

Ron Lee

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message ups.com...
I have a real airplane and as such, I could see if my caps developed a
leak in flight.

-Robert


No way the sumps can leak, eh? ;-)