Fuel Gauge Inop VFR Day

I have scheduled a plane for this weekend and reviewed the squak sheet. I
noted that the Fuel Gauge for one of the fuel tanks is Inop. I originally
thought this to be no big deal, but, upon further review of the FAR section
91.205, have found that it is a required peice of equipment for a day VFR
flight. Is my understanding of 91.205 correct? Without operative fuel
gauges for both tanks the plane is not air worthy?

--
Mike Flyin'8
PP-ASEL
Temecula, CA
http://flying.4alexanders.com

Yes, plane is not airworthy. We talk a lot about airplanes having bad
fuel gauges but most will read correctly at empty, they just don't
always read right at full. Its good to know if you are leaking fuel. I
had a quick drain develop a pretty bad leak at one point. If this had
been a Cessna (with a "both" selector) it would have drained both
tanks!

-Robert

Ok. I was almost sure that was the case and saw no way of simply marking
the indicator as INOP and flying. I understand the "Both" fuel selector
and can see how you could end up draining both tanks due to a leak.
Something as seemingly minor as a fuel gauge leaving an otherwise air
worthy plane on the ground... sigh...



"Robert M. Gary" wrote:
Yes, plane is not airworthy. We talk a lot about airplanes having bad
fuel gauges but most will read correctly at empty, they just don't
always read right at full. Its good to know if you are leaking fuel. I
had a quick drain develop a pretty bad leak at one point. If this had
been a Cessna (with a "both" selector) it would have drained both
tanks!

-Robert

--
Mike Flyin'8
PP-ASEL
Temecula, CA
http://flying.4alexanders.com

Something as seemingly minor as a fuel gauge leaving an otherwise air
worthy plane on the ground... sigh...

Little things can become big things in a hurry.

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Something as seemingly minor as a fuel gauge leaving an otherwise air
worthy plane on the ground... sigh...

Little things can become big things in a hurry.

Forgive me if I'm being really stupid, but I would say flying with a
broken fuel gauge is more than a little thing? :-/

If you run out of petrol in a car, most likely you stall and get stuck
somewhere, if you run out of fuel when flying, the possibilities are
far worse.

Something as seemingly minor as a fuel gauge leaving an otherwise air
worthy plane on the ground... sigh...

Little things can become big things in a hurry.

Forgive me if I'm being really stupid, but I would say flying with a
broken fuel gauge is more than a little thing? :-/

If you run out of petrol in a car, most likely you stall and get stuck
somewhere, if you run out of fuel when flying, the possibilities are
far worse.

No arguement from me. It just seems that a fuel gauge is not as important
as the attitude indicator yet the attitude indicator is not required.
Though fuel is a major part of keeping you in the air as opposed to in the
ground.

--
Mike Flyin'8
PP-ASEL
Temecula, CA
http://flying.4alexanders.com

It's a "minor" thing because no one should take off without having measured
the fuel (high wing or low wing) using a stick of some sort to determine as
close as possible just how much fuel is in a given tank. (Unless you just
gassed up and saw the fuel level at full.)

Then one should be keeping track, in some fashion, just how long one has
been in the air and how much fuel is being consumed.

Anyone who believes a fuel gage, no matter how many FAA rules say they have
to work, it a fool waiting to run out of gas. And it sure happens a lot.

My 2 cents worth ...


"Ice blonde" wrote in message
oups.com...
Something as seemingly minor as a fuel gauge leaving an otherwise air
worthy plane on the ground... sigh...

Little things can become big things in a hurry.

Forgive me if I'm being really stupid, but I would say flying with a
broken fuel gauge is more than a little thing? :-/

If you run out of petrol in a car, most likely you stall and get stuck
somewhere, if you run out of fuel when flying, the possibilities are
far worse.

As far as I can tell, the regs say that a fuel gage is required and
operable. It doesn't say that it has to be accurate.

My entire primary training (some years ago) was done in ancient 150's,
152's, and 172's whose fuel gages were notoriously unreliable. Unless
the regs (or their interpretation) have changed since then, it's
probably okay to fly with an inaccurate gage.

You may want to check with the FBO/mechanic/owner to find out what they
really mean by "inop." If it's not reading the correct value, you're
probably ok. If something is broken, then the plane's probably
unairworthy.

rps wrote:
As far as I can tell, the regs say that a fuel gage is required and
operable. It doesn't say that it has to be accurate.

It says it has to report the quantity of fuel in the tank. It cannot do that if
it is not accurate. A broken gauge certainly doesn't meet this requirement.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

George Patterson wrote:
rps wrote:
As far as I can tell, the regs say that a fuel gage is required and
operable. It doesn't say that it has to be accurate.

It says it has to report the quantity of fuel in the tank. It cannot do
that if it is not accurate. A broken gauge certainly doesn't meet this
requirement.

But to what precision? My guages are at best accurate within 10%.