Fuel

We had to have plenty of gasoline to complete these flights. Small airplanes with a piston engine use 100 Low Lead, a form of aviation gasoline or avgas. You can get it at airports. Some airports even have a fuel tank that airplanes can taxi up to and fill up, self-serve style. At other airports, you can get avgas from a fuel truck that drives to the airplane.

You can never exactly predict how much gasoline you will use on the trip. Air traffic controllers can re-route your flight and you might end up traveling several miles out of your way before you reach your destination.

The winds play a role in flight fuel efficiency. Headwinds can cause drag on an airplane in flight, causing it to slow down. This requires more thrust to offset the drag, and that requires more fuel. Most pilots carry more fuel than they think they will need as a safety precaution.

Let’s practice.

1. If the plane burned 15.5 gallons per hour of fuel, how much fuel did we use up on the Tarawa flight?

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2. On the Kenya to Oman flight, how much fuel would you plan for assuming your average fuel economy was 10 nautical miles per gallon and you add 31 extra gallons of fuel for safety measures?

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3. If you used 187 gallons on the Portland flight, what were the miles per gallon on that flight?

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4. What happens if you run out of fuel before you reach your destination?

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5. In countries outside the U.S., fuel is measured in liters instead of gallons. A gallon contains more volume than a liter by a factor of approximately 3.79. What would the equation be to find how many liters are in one gallon?

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6. In Oman, a country in the Middle East, fuel was measured in imperial gallons, which vary a bit from gallons. An imperial gallon is smaller that a gallon by a factor of .83. What is the formula to solve for imperial gallons if you know how many gallons you have?

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