The tabs were added to the PA46 fleet as part of a SL which introduced supposedly more accurate fuel senders. Eventualy this became an SB.
In practise the new improved senders failed and yet another superdupa set were issued with yet another SB,
Hence why older airframes will not have any reference to them in the POH.
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@LimaVictor : to me they seem to mark every 10 USG. They are similar but not identical to mine. I cannot post a picture for a while, sorry.
Here they are :
They seem to mark 5 gallons each (45/50/55 Gallons, 60 gallons if full)
Thank you Denopa for the tip about filling alternatively to the top : it is said in the POH but I didn’t understood
Mine came with a sticker, which is now in my AFM, but maybe the owner of LV’s plane didn’t do that.
If they were after market, should they not have a AFM supplement coming with it? I mean, it is kinda pointless if you don’t know what they indicate…
Quite possible that the tabs were added as aftermarket (I don’t think they ever came factory installed). Mine where. The bottom of the tab is 25USG, the lower hole is 30, middle hole 40 USG, top 50 USG and full is 60 USG.
LimaVictor wrote:
Of course, but nothing about the tabs in it
Strange. There should be something either in the POH or in the annexes. I checked in the only one I found but exactly the pages where I’d expect that were empty on that PDF… I’d check in the limitations, ground operations (refuelling) and in the servicing section.
If you become a member of MMOPA which I strongly recommend to anyone flying a PA46, they have a convenient fuel measurer that they send to members.
One issue with the PA46 is the thin wing: even a couple of degrees slope messes up measurements by a few USG.
Also, to get to 60USG, you really need to get the tank to almost spill, and you have to do it on both sides otherwise the weight differential will make one side look full at 55-58USG. So fill one, then the other, then come back to the first one.
I can’t remember. Main tanks have 60usg usable. Fill to the tab and then measure the additional amount until full.
Ours did not have tabs but there are rivets visible as far as I remember 4. The top of the 3rd one was 40 USG per side which is a good fuel load for typical flights. Then 50 USG top of 4th, 60 USG full and 70USG including the outboard fillers. But better meter it at the fuel station using your plane… The performance really goes down with the fuel load so the PA46 was the first plane where I started to uplift only the required fuel while on smaller planes we used to just fill the tanks.
