I took these photos just before we left. Gary and Fred flew back to Cable and I took off for Corona, since I needed to get some fuel.
Last week or whatever, I did the test where I ran the right fuel tank dry (jeez, did I even mention it here on the site? maybe not). Last time I ran the right tank dry and found that there's 0.3 gallons unusuable. Today I had a low fuel load again, and this time I decided to run the left tank dry to test out how much unusuable fuel would be left. I climbed up to 8500' and orbited over Corona, as you can see here off my left wing.
In the end the gauge went all the way down and indicated 0.0, where it stayed for a few minutes before sputtering out. I was a little more prepared this time for how it would behave when running dry and taking a few seconds to start back up after switching tanks...but I can see how it's never quite a comfortable situation despite having been-there-done-that. There's always that question of whether something might go wrong and the engine might get stubborn as you try to get it going on the other tank. I found that instinctually as the engine died I pitched down slightly (even though speed was well over best glide) and turned toward the airport. I didn't really realize I had done this until the engine caught and I could peel my eyes off the fuel pressure gauge.
Anyway, at the pumps I put 20.7 gallons into the left tank...so just like the right side, there's 0.3 gallons of unusable fuel in normal conditions in each tank. Definitely good to know!