Think of the Fuel Scan 450 as your personal flight engineer; always there, working in the background, constantly monitoring you fuel consumption while you concentrate on flying the aircraft. The JPI Fuel Scan 450 features a dual display, always showing your fuel flow rate on the upper display and other parameters on the bottom. Every FS 450 will interface with your panel mount or hand-held GPS. There are no extra options to purchase. All the features of the FS 450 are standard and no additional options need to be purchased. The Fuel Scan 450 is advisory only and is not approved as a primary instrument.

Without a means of measuring fuel flow, you must rely on the aircraft fuel gauges or total time of flight. Aircraft fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate (they are only required by the FAA to read accurately when displaying empty). And measuring time of flight is only an approximation, and assumes a constant fuel flow rate for each phase of flight.

The Fuel Scan 450 relies on a very reliable fuel flow sensor. Higher fuel flow causes the transducer turbine to rotate faster which generates a faster pulse rate. Because the transducer turbine generates thousands of pulses per gallon of fuel, it can measure with high resolution the amount of fuel that the engine has consumed. Prior to engine start you inform the FS 450 Fuel Scan of the known quantity of fuel aboard, and it will keep track of all fuel used. The transducer is mounted in the fuel line prior to the fuel distributor or carburetor and measures the actual fuel flowing through the line. Inside the sensor is a turbine wheel that rotates at a rate proportional to the instantaneous amount of fuel passing through it. The rotating turbine interrupts a light beam and an optical sensor counts the pulses of the interrupted beam. A microprocessor in the Fuel Scan 450 counts the pulses and converts the count to fuel flow. The Fuel Scan?450 will also track the total fuel used and the fuel remaining.

The Fuel Scan 450 displays up to six fuel related parameters. Some parameters will be available only if you connect the Fuel Scan 450 to your GPS. The upper display always shows your current fuel flow rate in the selected units. You may select gallons, liters or pounds as the fuel units. Normally the Fuel Scan 450 will automatically index through all the parameters.

The small indicator lights at the bottom of the display tell you which parameter is being shown on the lower digital display. If you tap the STEP button, you can manually step through each parameter. There is a digital display for numeric readouts and messages: top display is fuel flow per hour and the lower display is for all other parameters. The indicator lights are there to show what information is being displayed on the digital display. Only two simple front panel operating buttons (STEP and AUTO) control all the features of the FS 450.