Tank half empty

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you’re all starting this year like Chuck: Full of optimism and with a can-do attitude that extends beyond the imagination of mere mortals! Looking forward to a great year 2015 and hope to see all y’all (or is it “all y’alls”? Somebody from Texas, please help out) around our online premises often!

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9 comments on “Tank half empty
  1. Claudio says:

    Happy New Year, guys!
    People say that there is only too much fuel when there is fire on board.

  2. JP Kalishek says:

    a Pilot I worked with used “There is nothing more useless than Fuel in the Fuel Truck, and Runway behind you”

  3. RG2Cents says:

    Happy New Year, y’all! (in SC, “y’all” is considered the shortened form of “you all”, Stef) 😉

  4. Fbs says:

    The question is : is it the short range (144 liters) or long range (196 liters) cessna 172 ?.

    Two hours to go with the first one and half tanks leaves not very much, indeed (30l / hour used by this bird in principle)

  5. mike says:

    That is a great question Fbs. Let me see if I can explain this right.

    Our chickens are based in the States so you’ll have to do the conversion, sorry. The “standard” tanks (I don’t believe Cessna would call anything “short range”) hold 43 gallons. IF the thing uses 8 gallons (roughly 30L) per hour as advertised at altitude and leaned out, that would leave Chuck 21 gallons at half empty. Which after an additional 2 hours at 8gal/hr (maybe even less in a descent) will leave him enough of a reserve to cover the FAA 91.151 VFR requirement of of 30 min during the day.
    Chuck always tops off the tanks (if he thinks about it) since a Cessna even when it’s fully loaded with chickens and topped off will always make the 2,400 lb take-off weight (except with Hans and at altitude of course)

    Of course that is cutting it very close and doesn’t allow for wind changes and other unforeseen issues, but I am sure we can assume Chuck did a proper flight-planning and is fully aware of all the regulations and limitations regarding this flight. 😉

    So, with all that being said, we know from 10 years+ of experience of flying with Chuck that even though that engine probably runs very well thanks to Julio, there is always a chance of Chuck completely forgetting to lean the engine at all (or do it improperly) so at Roost Air we have been calculating the fuel burn with 10 gallons per hour. (That is what the weaker engines we have flown seem to run at)
    And if you take a closer look at the strip again, and past ones, you will notice that my brother always draws a 172 with a long range tank (without the in integral tanks, of course) which will give Chuck 5 hours of flying, even at 10 gallons per hour. Hans bought the long range version because a longer fuel range will equal fewer stops and therefore equal more profit in his mind.

    So, as you can tell, we don’t just draw “some cartoon with chickens in it”. There are hours of research (mechanical, aerodynamic, regulations, G-force testing on real life chickens) that go into every single one of our strips. And you get to read the result here online, for free!
    😉

  6. JP Kalishek says:

    oh, and it will depend on how effected you want your y’alls to be.
    Y’all covers pretty much everything Texas east, and Ohio south. All Y’all is used in clusters, and some of the time only Y’all is needed.
    But what do I know … I’m actually from Michigan (A Yooper no less), though I’ve lived in the south longer than I did where I was born. Been in Texas for almost 11 years now. The Nawlins area of Louisiana for 19 years until escaping here.

  7. Fbs says:

    Mike, I love your post. This is all I had in mind

  8. Wheelie says:

    Native Texan here; Y’all is plural already, so no need for the ‘s.

  9. stef says:

    Thanks, Wheelie! I just discovered that there’s a Wikipedia page on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%27all

    Very interesting!

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