Ran a tank out of gas

I have run my c-210 tanks dry to verify the true usable on fill up and since it has the header tanks which feed from the front and back virtually all is actually usable. However, if my semi-reliable gauges suggest any danger of running out of fuel (I calibrated the floats to be accurate at empty) I will switch a tank at about 1/8 full so that if the other should go dry I will still have about 20 minutes to land under power.
 
Bill Watson said:
I just took the tanks out of my RV10 after 1200 hours as part of my effort to add a bit of tankage. Interestingly I could barely find a thing. No sludge, no debris, the only stuff that looked like bit of debris contamination turned out to be bits of tank sealant that remained adhered to the tank skin.

I clean a fuel filter every year and only find a few specks of stuff. Seems like if I never cleaned it, it would still be passing fuel without a problem.

No experience or opinion here, just a share.


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I have taken the tanks out of 40-year-old Cessnas that have obviously never been out before. There's nothing in them.

An airplane that might have been left to sit for ten years with a full or nearly-full tank might get some varnish in that tank that flakes off once the fuel has all evaporated and it's dry, and that stuff can cause problems. People fuelling at night can have moths, attracted by the light and by the fuel fumes, getting into the tank so they up with dead bugs and bug parts in the tank, especially if they fill one side and go fill the other side while the first cap is off because they want to come back and top it up or dipstick it or something. Don't do that. Cap it. Insects love aromatic chemicals, which is why bugs land in your paint in the summertime. At the flight school I frequently had to take fuel sump drains out and drain some fuel because the valves were clogged with bug bits or those bits interfered with the seal and the valve leaked.
 
Dan Thomas said:
The 150 tank is an outlier. Most tanks are properly configured to direct crud to the sumps. Cessna bladders sometimes develop wrinkles that can trap some debris, but there are ADs and SBs and service kits to fix all that.
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Ok
 
Have run my TwinCo's aux tanks dry for twenty years when switching. It's a non-issue.
 
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