Fuel Quality & Contamination Checklist
Interactive fuel quality checklist — grade verification, sampling discipline and source hygiene with progress saved locally.
Misfuelling — Jet-A into a piston — remains aviation's most lethal fuel error, and it's defeated at the nozzle by thirty seconds of verification that this checklist makes habitual.
Every fuelling
Every preflight
Storage & source hygiene
⚠️ Not for operational decisions. This is a record-keeping and planning aid only — not certified avionics, not a source of regulatory truth. Always verify against official sources (FAA) and your operator's approved documents before flying.
Free interactive fuel quality and contamination checklist: grade verification at the nozzle, sampling discipline per preflight, and source hygiene — the layered defence against aviation's most preventable killers.
About Fuel Quality & Contamination Checklist
Misfuelling — Jet-A into a piston — remains aviation's most lethal fuel error, and it's defeated at the nozzle by thirty seconds of verification that this checklist makes habitual. Beyond misfuelling, the same checklist discipline defeats the quieter threats: water from cap seals after rain, sediment from tired self-serve filters, microbial growth in long-stored Jet-A, and the drum-fuel risks of ferry and bush operations. Each section here maps to a moment — fuelling, preflight, source selection — and each item is a layer in a defence that only works when it's habitual. Progress saves locally; the reset readies it for every fuelling day. The cost is under a minute per flight; the alternative appears in accident reports with dismaying regularity.
How to use Fuel Quality & Contamination Checklist
- 1Run the fuelling section at every uplift — grade verification first.
- 2Run the preflight section at every sample.
- 3Apply the source-hygiene section when fuelling anywhere unfamiliar.
Why use Fuel Quality & Contamination Checklist?
- ✓Layered defence: nozzle, sample, sumps, source
- ✓Misfuelling verification built in as the first habit
- ✓Rain, storage and drum-fuel scenarios covered
- ✓Tick-off progress saved in your browser
- ✓Free, private, no account
Frequently asked questions
How does misfuelling still happen and how is it prevented?+
The chain is always similar: a turbine-looking piston (turbo-normalised, 'TURBO' titles on the cowl), a busy line tech, restricted-nozzle defences absent or defeated, and a pilot not present at fuelling. Jet-A in a piston engine detonates under load — failures typically come at takeoff power. Prevention is layered and cheap: grade stated when ordering AND verified at the nozzle (decals, nozzle type, colour), pilot present for fuelling where possible, and the post-fuelling sample smelled and inspected (Jet-A's kerosene odour and oily feel are detectable in a mix). Thirty seconds, every time, no exceptions — that's the entire defence.
What am I looking for in a fuel sample?+
Four checks in ten seconds: WATER (clear bubbles or a distinct layer at the bottom — drain until gone), SEDIMENT (specks that don't dissolve), COLOUR (100LL is dyed blue; Jet-A is straw-clear; a faded or wrong colour is a stop-and-investigate), and SMELL (kerosene odour in what should be avgas means possible misfuelling — do not fly). After rain or a long sit, sample more generously; water arrives in batches, not molecules.
Why sample after fuelling AND before flight?+
Different threats: the post-fuelling sample (after a settling pause) catches what the truck delivered — wrong grade, water from the supplier's tanks; the preflight sample catches what arrived since — cap-seal rain, condensation, sediment stirred by the tow. The first-flight-of-day sample is the most diagnostic because everything has settled overnight to where the drains are. Skipping either check leaves one threat unguarded.
What happens to my entries if I clear my browser?+
Clearing site data deletes locally stored entries — that's the price of a genuinely private, server-free design. Protect yourself with the one-click CSV download before any cleanup, OS reinstall or device change: re-importing history later beats reconstructing it from memory.
Can I get my data out if I switch systems later?+
Always — the CSV export is a complete, lossless dump of your fuel quality record, generated locally in one click. Import it into commercial software, archive it with your files, or post-process it in a spreadsheet. No lock-in is deliberate: data you can't take with you isn't really yours.
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