Episode 376: The Yabbits Dilemma

Instructor, are you lazy? Is that why you just want to top the aircraft off every time there you want to go fly. Oh, but wait, I know. Yeah, but what? Yeah, but right? How many? Yeah, but are you going to give me yeah, but I'm going on across country. Oh, yeah, but I got to go, you know, pick my nose before I fly. I don't know, whatever it is. My point is, for the Abbots, I'm not talking cross country, I'm not talking about other circumstances. What I'm going to talk about is fueling. When you're getting ready to go out in the pattern for training, there's a tendency of people like, I'll give an example, I had a structure here this spring, I got a stupid ass fly that won't leave me alone here in the spring, helping me do some flying, was prepping like three people for check rides and he was going out to meet the fuel truck and he's getting ready to go out and do autos with students, right? Because we're prepping them, we're down to the wire, last minute, everybody needs autos, right? So when he goes to go out to beat the fuel truck, I go, how much fuel you're going to get? And he's like, I'm just going to top it off. I'm like, why? And he's like, well, why not? I'm like, well, there's a lot of good reasons to not go top it off when you're getting ready to do autos. Number one, because it helps you prevent an overspeed, right? Most of you, a lot of you probably think, well, I'm too good over speed is never going to happen to me. Well, guess what, it can happen to anyone. And if you're topping it off when you're getting ready to go out and do autos, there's more of a chance of having an overspeed during that auto rotation. In these circumstances, it's harder to fly the helicopter. You're going to use more power, there's more wear and tear on the aircraft. You may think, well, that's the owner's problem. Well, no, that's your problem too. Because of all the people that we have that come here frustrated because their flight school helicopter is broken, why do they break? A lot of times they break because somebody had an overspeed. And I'm guilty. You know, ours wasn't during an auto, it was during a startup. But overspeeds happen. Overspeeds are expensive. I'm not saying you can never top off. That's not what I'M saying for all you, you. Yeah, Butters, Okay. I'm talking about a normal training environment. When you're going out in the pattern and you're going to go fly for an hour and do some training, why top it off? I get it, R44, you can top this thing off and probably get almost three flights out of it and that's great. But. Yeah, but I'll be the. Yeah, Butter, you're being lazy. It's because you don't want to fuel it. Again. I think the benefit of going lighter during your flight, less chance of overspeed, less chance of over pulling the manifold pressure, easier to operate the aircraft. Your limit isn't as which way would it be? You're if you're worrying less about hitting your manifold pressure limit. And again, yeah, it is your problem too. As I stated. Don't think. Well, it's the mechanics problem, the owner's problem, the guy that pays the lease's problem. It's your problem when you put more wear and tear on the aircraft. You wear them out early, you damage them and then that affects you later when you want to go fly and rent as a private pilot and enjoy the day and oh, sorry, we just had overspeed. They were doing autos yesterday and they, they had an overspeed. There's a lot of good reasons to not just top it off. And I did this video because this happens a lot and it happens with other instructors. I have help in a lot of times. I'm like, what are you going to do? Well, we're just going to top it. Why? You're going to do autos, right? Yeah. Well then don't top it off. And really simply in the. We'll say the R44, we've gotten a habit lately just having them top off the main tank. Don't top off the ox because that's 17 gallons on that side. At 6 pounds per gallon approximately, that's 100 pounds. Does 100 pounds make a difference picking it up and setting it down and controlling the RPM? Absolutely it does. 100. 100 is a pretty big deal. If we just top this one, that's plenty of fuel for an hour, plenty of reserve, but you're saving £100. £100? Yeah, like £102 by just putting fuel in this one. Again, not talking cross countries for all the smart asses that want to argue the point. Talking about when you're going out because you want to do a good solid hour of training. That's what I'm talking about. And hey, we're nearing our countdown. Less than 30 days before we're going to be in Las Vegas with Taz Christman doing the book signing. Let us know if you're going to come or you're interested. Put a comment down below or text what'd you say earlier, Lindsay? Text what hogs Vegas. Yep, text hogs Vegas to 574-767-1797 and Heather can give you some of the details and you can talk about meeting us that day. We're going to have a supply of books that the first majority of we're just going to give them away so you can get the free copy Tazer. I will sign this for you and we'll put the link down below for top 10 checkride tips. So November 11, 2024 come meet us. And you know, we get people a lot of times say, why? How can I be like, I want to be a good instructor. You know, how do I do this? I want to be a good pilot. Well, there's a good tip for you. Don't make a habit of just always topping it off. And a lot of people do it when it's totally unnecessary. You're going to save yourself headache and heartache by just take the fuel that you need for the flight that you're going to do. Have at least your 20 minute reserve or more and then fuel again. Lazy. Okay. There's so many good reasons to go with the fuel you need for the hour and then fuel for the next flight. All right. Peace out.

When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the hogs no go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.