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Wing Tip Fuel Tanks

Freightpilot27

Freightpilot27

Member
I'm sure this has been beat to death. But i ran across a picture of a wingtip fiberglassed in to create a fuel tank. I am toying with the idea of extra fuel in my -8 and was wondering how much fuel each tip would hold. (old style or newer style)
thanks
 
good idea

I have looked at the safe air tanks. i was hoping the tips may give me more fuel at the same or less empty weight increase.
 
50 Litres

A Sheared Tip of a -7 (8) holds 50 litres each without any baffles.

Mine have a baffle parallel to the Nav Light recess at the front and one at the rear where the tip becomes too shallow to easily install the fuel drain.
Mine hold 40 Litres each, so a total of 80 litres at 30 litre/hour gives me more than 2:30 extra endurance......... which you need in Aus. as it is so far from one airport to another.
Pete.
PS. One litre equals 3.78541 Yankee Gallons.
 
fodrv7 said:
PS. One litre equals 3.78541 Yankee Gallons.
Click to expand...


I may be wrong but 1 liter equals about 0.264 US liquid gallon.

40 liters about 10.6 US gallons. That is a lot of fuel.
 
Both right

We are both right.
1 liter = 0.264 172 051 gallon [US, liquid]
http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm
So the reciprocal is 1/0.264172= 3.785412

I agree it is a lot, but that is what mine hold. The huge chord is what does it. 5' from LE to TE. My mate's Glasair tip has a 2' chord and holds very little fuel.

It also is a great figure for planning.
Mains = 160 litre (40US GAL) TOTAL
Tips = 80 litre (20US GAL) TOTAL between them.

I need a pee before I run out of fuel.
Pete.
 
i like it

fodrv7 -

i like your idea. pictures and construction notes would be great if you have em. how do you transfer fuel? sending unit? guage? vent system?



im thinking- burning enough out of the mains and then transfering the tip fuel into the mains. using no fuel level info in the tips.
anyone see any flaws with this?
comments, concerns, notes?

thanks
 
Selectable tips tanks

I looked at converting the Van?s tips to tanks, but they were so flimsy and not a good fit on the wing. They also have a tendency to go concave in the flat sheared section. So I used them to make a mould, and produced two tanks from the moulds.
But converting the tips by adding glass to the inside is pretty common in Aus. You need to use Derakane vinyl ester resin which is AvGas proof.
A lot of blokes plumb the tips into the Mains (Gravity) but having spent my life flying multi-tank RPT heavy metal, I believe it is important to know where the fuel is so I plumbed the tanks to a Four way Andair valve. (With the gravity system you don?t really know if the fuel is transferring).
One variation is to put solenoid valves between the tips and the mains, but that requires burning 1 hr out of the mains before you can transfer 1 hr out of the tips. The up shot of this is that to use 2 hrs of fuel from the tips you need to be on a four hr flight, as you ought not to land with fuel in the tips.
I take off on the mains, switch to the tips airborne and 2 1/2hrs later have empty tips and full mains and can make a intermediate stop where there is no fuel available..

Plumbing the lines from the tips to the cockpit did test my patience, but it was worth the effort. If you go ahead with this system I can send you more info.
Regards,
Pete.
fuelselector1aj9.jpg

tiptanksplumbingeq4.jpg

peterjamesthrottlequadrantio8.jpg
 
My tip tanks hold 17 gallons

My tip tanks extend the wing span another 1.5 ft on my RV-6A. Contrary to Van's position on the subject, I need it here in the USA as well.

Bob Axsom
 
Reminder

Bob Axsom said:
My tip tanks extend the wing span another 1.5 ft on my RV-6A. Contrary to Van's position on the subject, I need it here in the USA as well.

Bob Axsom
Click to expand...

Every time you answer Bob; I'm reminded I can't get a set like yours. :)
Sure wish I could.....
 
Aussie flying site?

fodrv7 said:
which you need in Aus. as it is so far from one airport to another.
Click to expand...

Are most of the airports along the coast? Is that why they're so far apart? Sorry, all I know about Australia is from watching the Discovery Channel!

Yeah, I know...typical Yank!

Cheers,
Martin
 
Empty Continent

Yes. All major cities are on the coast; except Canberra, the National Capital; which doesn't count for much.
The rest is empty but for a few oasis like Alice Springs 26,000 pop.
Total population of 20,000,000 is a lot less than California.... and Australia is almost the size of the USA.
I flew to the Birdsville races and only passed two towns in 5:30hrs. Mildura Pop 28,000 and Broken Hill Pop 20,000. Only fuel stops.
Birdsville pop 200 swells to 6000 for the races.
I hear some people went to the races. The other 5,900 hung around the pub.
Pete.
PS see also my post "No Turbo or Oxy Reqd. An Aussie Geography Lesson"
birdsvillevx7.jpg

auscitiesvl9.png

birdsvilleaerialnd5.jpg
 
Yeah I Know

Somebody has to know about Farn Reed and his Bladderr Buster tanks. I'll start a new thread and ask.

Bob Axsom
 
JJ

Jon Johansen had 1150 litres for the Antarctic trip. c. 300US Gal.
Great bladder.
Pete.
 
fodrv7 said:
Yes. All major cities are on the coast; except Canberra, the National Capital; which doesn't count for much.
The rest is empty but for a few oasis like Alice Springs 26,000 pop.
Total population of 20,000,000 is a lot less than California.... and Australia is almost the size of the USA.
I flew to the Birdsville races and only passed two towns in 5:30hrs. Mildura Pop 28,000 and Broken Hill Pop 20,000. Only fuel stops.
Birdsville pop 200 swells to 6000 for the races.
I hear some people went to the races. The other 5,900 hung around the pub.
Pete.
PS see also my post "No Turbo or Oxy Reqd. An Aussie Geography Lesson"
Click to expand...

Thanks for the geography lesson! I gotta go there some day.
 
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