Q400
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory
Human Factors; Aircraft
Received aircraft and noted that the #1 fuel quantity had hashed lines. There was an MEL applied so we called Maintenance control and quickly determined that there was a new problem. We were boarding and my First Officer (FO) was not familiar with how to stick the tank so I asked the maintenance personnel to do so and give me the fuel load in #1 (the affected tank). As he was qualified to work on the system; my assumption was he was the most qualified to option I had. We were told it was 3;100 LBS.. We applied the correct MEL and had another as the external gauge was also not indicating correctly (no numbers on display).  We proceeded to taxi out and the gauge came alive and displayed a quantity significantly lower than we were told was in it. It also showed it was in excess of the 600 LB limitation. We contacted Maintenance control to see if the change of status and the new imbalance message required any further action. We concluded that the message was allowable under the MEL. We reviewed it further and made a second call to Maintenance control as the gauge was not specifically written up as being erroneous. Again we concluded that this was implied as a reading of nil was erroneous.  We continued to [destination] without incident.Upon post flight I took it upon myself to show the First Officer how to use the system. We did so initially before the fuel truck arrived and quickly discovered we have much less fuel [than] we were told. In fact the actual was approximately what was indicated on the gauge.  We promptly contacted Maintenance control.  I do not believe that the MX personnel were complacent; but made an error that resulted in an undesirable aircraft state. We also expected the amount of fuel in the tank we were told. The noted Maintenance control factor is not with control itself; but the mechanic that was working the flight that gave us the incorrect information.
Q400 Crew had a fuel indication MEL. Problem was compounded by Maintenance after manually checking the drip stick reporting the fuel quantity was greater than it was. This caused a fuel imbalance and incorrect weight and balance data.