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Fuel gauges or not with g3x

G

Gizmos

Active Member
Using two g3x, what would you suggest for fuel management? Stock gauges plus flow meter with g3x? Or another on board fuel management gauge? I used stock gauges plus another gauge that would how usage,time remaining.....
What are you using? I will be using my plane for lots of cross country trip.
This is the one I used in my rv6 and I loved it
FP-5-60 - Fuel Flow w/HP.
Includes FT-60 Flow Transducer
(for aircraft with up to 350 HP and an engine driven fuel pump
 
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The G3X displays EIS data all of the time so separate gauges would be redundant. I have the stock floats senders and they are just about useless for all but he the most rudimentary fuel indications. I personally rely on the G3X's fuel totalizer feature that gets it's data from a "Red Cube" fuel flow transducer. That setup is accurate to less than a tenth of gallon. What it doesn't do it is separate the consumption by tank so I do that manually on my flight log just so I know what's in each tank.
 
Auburntsts said:
The G3X displays EIS data all of the time so separate gauges would be redundant. I have the stock floats senders and they are just about useless for all but he the most rudimentary fuel indications. I personally rely on the G3X's fuel totalizer feature that gets it's data from a "Red Cube" fuel flow transducer. That setup is accurate to less than a tenth of gallon. What it doesn't do it is separate the consumption by tank so I do that manually on my flight log just so I know what's in each tank.
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I am surprised by the above comment. I have a different read out system (GRT EIS +HS/HX) but I would say the float gauges are very good, not at all useless. Not as good as the totalizer but good to 1 or 2 gallons per tank, rock steady (due to software) and easy to read out left-right differences. Of course they cannot measure the top 5 gallons when, due to wing dihedral, they are "under water".
 
Stock fuel level floats and wiring and the "red cube" that comes with the G3X is accurate and adequate.
 
Redundancy is good

Redundancy is a good thing when it comes to fuel management. There is a calibration routine that must be performed when using the stock float senders with G3X, but if done correctly, the floats should be reasonably accurate once the fuel level is below 3/4 or so. Mine are (G3X system). When running down to the last hour or so, I really like to see that the floats agree with the fuel totalizer based on the flow sensor. Can't imagine doing it any other way.
 
BobTurner said:
I am surprised by the above comment. I have a different read out system (GRT EIS +HS/HX) but I would say the float gauges are very good, not at all useless. Not as good as the totalizer but good to 1 or 2 gallons per tank, rock steady (due to software) and easy to read out left-right differences. Of course they cannot measure the top 5 gallons when, due to wing dihedral, they are "under water".
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The gauges on the G3X are fine --it's the float senders that are mediocre IMO. Mine are no where near 1-2 gal accuracy, but then I grew up with Cessna guage which were never accurate so I've always trusted my flight planning as a result and now my fuel totalizer whose accuracy boggles my mind. YMMV......
 
Auburntsts said:
The gauges on the G3X are fine --it's the float senders that are mediocre IMO. Mine are no where near 1-2 gal accuracy, but then I grew up with Cessna guage which were never accurate so I've always trusted my flight planning as a result and now my fuel totalizer whose accuracy boggles my mind. YMMV......
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As noted in post #5, the senders don't need to be accurate, just repeatable. The calibration is done in whatever black box you choose to use to read them out. If you just feed them to an ammeter, like Cessna does, then they won't be accurate.
 
I'm using the gauges in the SkyView along with capacitance senders and it is accurate that I don't even look at the fuel totalizer.

For the totalizer to separate left and right tanks, it would have to know which tank you are drawing from, so a micro switch on the fuel valve for each tank setting would be required. That is IF the system is designed so the totalizer would work with separate tanks. Me thinks there might be a reason why it is call a TOTALizer.
 
BobTurner said:
As noted in post #5, the senders don't need to be accurate, just repeatable. The calibration is done in whatever black box you choose to use to read them out. If you just feed them to an ammeter, like Cessna does, then they won't be accurate.
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That's great if the senders work well. My don't, at least not enough to bet my life on in IMC even though I calibrated mine at 1-gallon intervals.
 
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