Fuel Management

Given

 

Cameron N-90 with two 15-gallon tanks and one additional 10-gallon tank non-manifold.

 

The burner has a red and a green handle.  The green always goes towards the instruments and the red is always on the side with the 15 and 10-gallon tanks.

 

Procedure

 

On initial hot inflation I have the left (red handle) on the 10-gallon tank and the right (green handle) on the 15-gallon tank.  I inflate off the red handle.  I then begin flying on the red handle and watch the needle very closely.  As you know on these 10-gallon tanks the gauge comes off the peg with 30% remaining.  Kind of gives me a funny feeling waiting for the needle to move off full.

 

Once the 10-gallon tank gets to 5% I start flying off the green handle and when I have time I change the hose from the 10 to the 15-gallon on the red handle side.  The 15-gallon tanks come off the peg at 60% which always makes me feel more comfortable. I then alternate tanks down to 15 % on each and then start planning for a landing.

 

As my balloon has a turning vent which actually makes it turn all the time the alternating between the red and green while flying becomes very natural as the balloon turns slowly all the time. One of those built in automatic fuel management systems.