Peter wrote:
The classic case is G-OMAR (google for the AAIB report) where some other “classic” factors came into play e.g. pressure from instructors to not put in too much fuel. This is where the school/club environment doesn’t always serve people well.
The main reason for this accident was the pilot’s total confusion about his fuel calculations and failure to make a correct fuel plan. Sure, if he had simply filled the tanks to the brim the flight would have been fine but he would still have been confused. And sometimes you really can’t fill the tanks full for w&b reasons.
Certainly he would have made it to the runway (with nearly empty tanks) had he not made the fuel calc error, but the real issue was that 14 preceeding flights (IIRC) were done without the fuel level ever reaching the visual inspection level – due to pressure to always be able to carry whichever customer(s) turned up to fly it the following day.
I knew that school; I did the first 20hrs of my PPL there 
Talking this more generally, on the topic, it is more difficult to exercise as much responsibility as one might like, if one is renting the plane. Even if just sharing it with a few others, there isn’t always an agreement on the maintenance policies.
" Even if just sharing it with a few others, there isn’t always an agreement on the maintenance policies."
That is a gross understatement. Change to “is hardly ever”.
I agree, but it gets hotly debated
