Fuel Stick

Skid

Skid

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Apr 23, 2017
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Skid
Looking to buy a fuel dipstick to start getting a little more accuracy with my preflight fuel checks. I know that "FuelHawk" is the go-to brand, but couldn't find a 20-gallon usable one. Most of the rental planes at the school are 1980 C172P's with 20 usable and it looks like the closest thing is a 19-gallon option. Maybe that's good enough, but it would be nice to have something specific since that's the end goal of all this. Any other alternatives I might look at? It'd be nice to get a universal one, but it'll be hard to run the tanks dry and calibrate it myself with a plane that isn't mine.

Thanks!
 
I got the fuel stick for my Cherokee from Aircraft Spruce. You might give them a call and see if they have what you need.
 
Hmm. Is there published anywhere the inches from the bottom of a stick, like say a paint stirrer, for gallons for various aircraft?
 
luvflyin said:
Hmm. Is there published anywhere the inches from the bottom of a stick, like say a paint stirrer, for gallons for various aircraft?
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That's a good idea, I'll start searching. I did find a guy on ebay that was selling them by specific model of plane, but it looks like he closed up shop.
 
I went through this when I got my 182. Without a specific calibrated fuel stick to your make/model/tank size fully draining the tank dry and measuring with the universal stick as you add fuel is the only way to be completely accurate to know how far from empty you really are as the tanks are rarely proportional in size as the level gets lower.

Just run one tank dry in flight then switch!:D
 
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Be careful. If you are suggesting running the tank dry (or completely draining it), and then adding a gallon, marking, (repeat), you're making a gauge that doesn't read from ZERO USABLE which is what you should be doing. What you need to do is make periodic measurements until the tank is full and then work backwards from what the FULL usable fuel is certified to be.
 
flyingron said:
Be careful. If you are suggesting running the tank dry (or completely draining it), and then adding a gallon, marking, (repeat), you're making a gauge that doesn't read from ZERO USABLE which is what you should be doing. What you need to do is make periodic measurements until the tank is full and then work backwards from what the FULL usable fuel is certified to be.
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Yeah. And be level when you do it. And don't have the fuel selector on Both
 
flyingron said:
Be careful. If you are suggesting running the tank dry (or completely draining it), and then adding a gallon, marking, (repeat), you're making a gauge that doesn't read from ZERO USABLE which is what you should be doing. What you need to do is make periodic measurements until the tank is full and then work backwards from what the FULL usable fuel is certified to be.
Click to expand...

Absolutely...that is part of the calibration process when charting what level on the fuel stick equals what level of usable fuel...but that still needs a dry tank to start with to be completely accurate on the lower levels gallon spreads which are the most critical marks in making sure you don't run out!
 
No each plane is different. Just get a pipette with markings and learn by doing it (and seeing how many gallons it takes at that place). Write it down so you develop your own scale. Some of the scales match (like Cessna 172), on common airplanes if you are lucky.
 
Get a 1" by 20" or largerwood dowel from Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

Drain the tank, and 2 gal at a time and mark it, be sure your wings are level

Once done take a dremel and go over the marks

Done and done, you'll also find its a lot harder to loose this type of fuel stick in the tank or misplace it.
 
I fly a lot of different planes.
Years ago I bought a no name brand that is 18 inches long. It's marked in Inches and quarters of inches. I then made a list of a bunch of different planes and how many inches of fuel equates to how much in gallons.
But easier than that: You know how many inches equals full. The rest is just goesintos.
If you are sweating fractions of an inch, you have bigger problems, like can you hack an airfield out of the jungle and get airborne before the cannibals kill you all off.
(Anyone get the reference?)
 
Shawn said:
Absolutely...that is part of the calibration process when charting what level on the fuel stick equals what level of usable fuel...but that still needs a dry tank to start with to be completely accurate on the lower levels gallon spreads which are the most critical marks in making sure you don't run out!
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No a dry tank is not needed. Just buy the generic fuelhawk stick and follow the instructions for calibration. Easy-peasey

Shep has it nailed. If you are worried about low fuel then don't fly until fuel sufficient for the flight plus reserves has been added.
 
Skid said:
Thanks, but I need 21.5 (20 usable) for the 172s I fly.
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The sick is calibrated in either 1 or 1/2 gallon increments and operates like a straw.
Put the stick in the tank.
Put your thumb over the top end.
Remove the stick, keeping your thumb over the end.
View the amount of fuel.

[snarky comment]

This aint rocket science.
 
murphey said:
The sick is calibrated in either 1 or 1/2 gallon increments and operates like a straw.
Put the stick in the tank.
Put your thumb over the top end.
Remove the stick, keeping your thumb over the end.
View the amount of fuel.

[snarky comment]

This aint rocket science.
Click to expand...

Haha yea I get what you're saying, but my feeling is the 26.5 tank may have a different measurement per gallon of fuel. So in other words the 21.5 gallon tanks may be 1" per gallon whereas the 26.5 is 1.25" per gallon, and not an exact match between planes. If not then yea, the 26.5 stick would be good so I could use it interchangeably between the nicer 172s.
 
Made my own from a universal and marked it at five gallon intervals. I can guestimate the between numbers. Checked it against the numbers in the book for the "tabs" and it works fine.
 
I've used paint stir sticks in my planes. Still do. Drain all usable fuel and mark it at 5 gallon fill intervals. I scratch a line and run a sharpie in the acratch. It lasts forever. It's so accurate I can set my FS-450 by it.
 
I'd like to do the drain method I just don't' think the flight school will be cool with it. Most schools I've been at are hesitant of people cramming things down in the tanks as is, so I'm feeling it won't be possible to do an entire calibration process.
 
flyingron said:
Be careful. If you are suggesting running the tank dry (or completely draining it), and then adding a gallon, marking, (repeat), you're making a gauge that doesn't read from ZERO USABLE which is what you should be doing. What you need to do is make periodic measurements until the tank is full and then work backwards from what the FULL usable fuel is certified to be.
Click to expand...
If you run it dry, why wouldn't it be at zero useable?
 
Lindberg said:
If you run it dry, why wouldn't it be at zero useable?
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Because you may have burned some of the unusable fuel. Unusable fuel universally unreachable, it just isn't necessarily available in all flight regimes.
 
flyingron said:
Be careful. If you are suggesting running the tank dry (or completely draining it), and then adding a gallon, marking, (repeat), you're making a gauge that doesn't read from ZERO USABLE which is what you should be doing. What you need to do is make periodic measurements until the tank is full and then work backwards from what the FULL usable fuel is certified to be.
Click to expand...

How is that going to be any more accurate than starting from a drained tank and adding 50% of the total unusable? Its easy to overfill the tank, so how is working backwards going to be more accurate?

Example, drain one tank from the strainer outlet till it stops running then hit sumps till it stops. That's close enough to dry.

Dry + trapped + drainable + unusable = total unusable or something like that.

Maybe I'm not reading your post correctly.
 
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flyingron said:
Because you may have burned some of the unusable fuel. Unusable fuel universally unreachable, it just isn't necessarily available in all flight regimes.
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So? Are you really saying you can't look up how much the tank holds and how much is useable? Can you not record how much fuel it took to fill the tank? Can you do simple arithmetic? Why go on and on about a non-problem?
 
Skid said:
I'd like to do the drain method I just don't' think the flight school will be cool with it. Most schools I've been at are hesitant of people cramming things down in the tanks as is, so I'm feeling it won't be possible to do an entire calibration process.
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First, how does your school have you check the fuel level??

Second, if think they'd be more worried about people not verifying fuel and running their planes out of gas.
 
I use to use a wood hardware store yardstick in a B-25. Over a few fill ups, I was able to determine what inch mark corresponded to what gallons. Before long, I was able to accurately determine the amount of fuel onboard just by dipping the tank. On my Starduster Too, I had a piece of quarter round which was marked by adding 5 gallons at a time...and measure in a three point attitude rather than leveled since I didn't expect to be "sticking the tank" too many times in flight. :D
 
In some Cessnas, if you get too low (my 172M POH says < 1/4 of a tank) the engine could stop running dn your descent to the runway.
Had it happen on a steep approach going into Wurtsboro a number of years ago.
 
James331 said:
First, how does your school have you check the fuel level??

Second, if think they'd be more worried about people not verifying fuel and running their planes out of gas.
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Visually checking it. Not accurate, but it prevents fishing out sticks. I'm with you, I'm just saying from the schools perspective I won't be able to drain the tanks and do this on a Saturday with the plane in and out.
 
Stick the tank. Mark the gas line. Top off the tank, stick again. Now you know the full level and you know the level of full minus however many gallons you put into it. Do that a few times and you'll get some ideas. If you can fly around and burn off one tank, then stick afterwards, you might be able to get some lower readings without having to figure out how to drain and refill. Eventually, you'll decide that "if the gas is ever lower than this line, that means I have less than x gallons, and that's not enough for my comfort."

I really like those Fuelhawk dipsticks when you can find one that's factory set for your tanks.
 
I bought one of those dipstick things and I never use it. Operationally speaking I usually just fill the tanks or if it's a short flight and the fuel level is at or above the tabs then the fuel quantity is "enough"... or 1.7hrs per tank/3.4 total. If one is close or suspects they might be close to their max gross weight I can see needing to know to the gallon but for most practical purposes in a basic light single I think most of us are fine to verify we have "enough".

YMMV I am not an expert on every aircraft/type so read your POH/etc/etc.
 
Clark1961 said:
So? Are you really saying you can't look up how much the tank holds and how much is useable? Can you not record how much fuel it took to fill the tank? Can you do simple arithmetic? Why go on and on about a non-problem?
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No, I didn't say that, but it's far from a non-problem. If you're going to go to the effort of sticking a tank to the gallon you should do it right. Rather than starting from bone dry and going up (which is going to count unusable fuel), start from the decared usable fuel (Full tanks) and go down. Ain't going to take more than a few minutes more to do it right. In your average skyhawk, there's 1.5 gallons of unusable fuel in each tank. If you don't account for it, why bother sticking the tank. Just use the fuel gauge.
 
Well, when you get right down to it, you could use an unmarked stick to get an idea whether the fuel gauge is accurate. Pretty easy to tell quarters with it.
 
Its called a pipette. Did anyone as a kid play with a straw and try and figure out why the water didn't fall out?
 
Skid said:
I'd like to do the drain method I just don't' think the flight school will be cool with it
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If it's a flight school maybe they can do it once and produce a stick for their students to use.
 
Stewartb said:
I've used paint stir sticks in my planes. Still do. Drain all usable fuel and mark it at 5 gallon fill intervals. I scratch a line and run a sharpie in the acratch. It lasts forever. It's so accurate I can set my FS-450 by it.
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That's the high tech device we used in the Seminole. Worked well.

Of course, the turbo Seminole is pretty much a "two flights and fill it" fuel hog anyway, and the tanks are essentially just fancy 55 gallon drums on the nacelles, so missing by a couple of gallons isn't going to mean much.

You could have used a stick with only three markings...

3/4, 1/2, and FILL. You can tell if it's full.

LOL.
 
GlennAB1 said:
Doesn't meet his specifics.
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Yeah, I'm trying to figure out if the specifics are correct.

What model variant of the Skyhawk had 21.5 gallon tanks?

Anyone have that massively cool, but not yet in my collection of books, Cessna maintenance manual compilation book handy?
 
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