#x52

Well here we are at Palatka for fuel.  “Wait” you cry, you left Vero without full fuel.  “Yes” I reply because I had enough!. Also, there is no fuel available at New Hibiscus, and if I had needed fuel I would have gone to a different airport. 

As you review my planning below you’ll see that I plan fuel based on time not gallons.  This has two advantages.  The first is that time is what I care about.  How long will it take me to get where I am going?  The other reason is it means the fuel gauges, which are believed to be accurate, are advisory.  If they happen to be inaccurate it won’t matter because I’ll be tracking my fuel burn based on time.

I filled the fuel before I left Lakeland.  The total fuel is 25 gals. and the aircraft burns 4.5 gallons per hour.  This means N62925 holds 5.55 hours of fuel and I round that to 5.0 hous.  The flight from Lakeland to Vero Beach will take 1.1 hours leaving me with 3.9 hours of fuel.  I like to land with at least an hour of fuel remaining so that leaves me with 2.8 hour of flight time.

My next leg after X52 is 1.8 hours long.  This means I’ll land with 1.0 hours of fuel and I still have the half hour I rounded away at the start.  Plenty of gas.

Note: I have not ignored the increased fuel burn during climb.  I’ve rounded away half an hour of fuel partly to account for that slight increase in consumption. When you get into bigger, faster, thirstier airplanes the climb fuel can be significant.  With a low and slow bird like the Luscombe, not so much.