[widgeon13]

You don't always need full tanks but you do need to know how much you have in those tanks and what your plan is. Once again, it's stupid to not know and so easy to make sure what you have will get you where you want to go plus the appropriate reserve.

I preflight my plane every time I fly, no matter if it's around the pattern or cross country. I's the little things that will kill you. I'd rather be going over a checklist on the ground than trying to do an emergency restart not knowing how much fuel was in the tanks while trying to set up for an emergency landing in the trees.

I am aware of a guy at DXR that never, never drained his sumps. Cost him his life along w/ a passenger in a J-3, no reason in the world for that stuff to happen.