Username Protected wrote:
what i don't get is why anyone cares about useful load with full tanks. It's been a very rare occasion that I've had full tanks. Maybe twice a year at most.
an airplane that lets you fill the seats and the tanks at the same time would be a poor design. it needs more seats or more tanks.
I guess it depends on the plane. With my Baron I fly with full tanks many times a year, and still fill it with four average (today's average) people and luggage.
1) Going to the Bahamas - I can carry enough fuel to visit several islands that don't have fuel.
2) Long cross-country flights - at full throttle and LOP I tend to burn 26 and hour. With 136 gallons useable that's 5.25 hours (without having to run at economy settings). I like to land with over an hour so that gives me the perfect 4 hour legs when needed.
Now if my plane had 200 gallon tanks then yes, I'd probably never need more than 140.
For my flying, a 7 hour fuel capacity wouldn't be useful and so I would evaluate a plane based on UL left with 5 hours fuel.