How often do you time your flight?
Part of any basic Private Pilot cross-country syllabus involves a detailed flight log including estimated time en-route and estimated time of arrival for each leg.
Too often once we pass the check ride and start flying on our own we get complacent about the tedious things. Usually filling out a full flight log is one of those.
We lose too many pilots each year to fuel starvation, many of which could have been saved by accurately computing an ETE on the ground for fuel planning.
Checking those ETE’s in the air is also critical to make sure that un-forecast headwinds and other performance limiting conditions are not eating away at your reserve.
So each time you go fly, whether a quick hop to the next town or a long multi-state trip, I challenge you to figure out your time en-route and regularly check up on it.
Hey, it also has the added benefit of being able to answer “are we there yet?”
En-Route Timing
When flying a new type I always inquire someone with more experience in the plane about an average fuel burn per hour. To find on my own ,I top off the tanks, fly for one hour , land and top off again. Fuel burn will vary somewhat depending on how much the mixture is leaned, I wouldn’t stretch the planes endurance too much though based on aggressive leaning. Safety first.