Webb

Webb

Well Known Member
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I know this comes up from time to time but here's another angle.

If you look at the Van's performance differences between a 7 and 7A for a 180hp engine, it is 2 mph.

Using the same logic, if you built a belly pod tank, shaped like a wheel fairing, would you only lose 2 mph? Put 2 on, you lose 4mph.

Is this crazy ideal even doable? (What about it Frank?)

Buy 2 main wheel fairings (maybe 1 depending on what the volume is). Do the additional glass work to baffle and reinforce. Mount them upside down under the belly (or the wing). Make removable. Cost is $270 for 1

Or is this just another crazy experimenter's idealistic wish for longer range?
 
A wheel pant size tank will give you less than 2 Gal extra.

I have ability to carry a baggage compartment tank (16.8 Gal) and a passenger seat tank (60 Gal).

Steve
7A Flying
 
Mike Arnold sell a video that shows how he made a cargo pod that bolts to the wing tie down. Looks really cool. I bought the video and am thinking about building one, but shape it like a bomb, to go with the WW2 fighter scheme.


He has the plug so I guess you could contact him and see if he sells them. Or get the video and build it yourself.
http://www.ar-5.com/vidkit96.html Tape 4.
 
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sjhurlbut said:
A wheel pant size tank will give you less than 2 Gal extra.

I have ability to carry a baggage compartment tank (16.8 Gal) and a passenger seat tank (60 Gal).

Steve
7A Flying
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Only 2 gallons? I filled up the leaf blower today and the 1 gallon jug is TINY. 1 cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons so I was guessing the quantity would be a bit higher than 2 gallons.

Go with same premise. Use the pressure recovery design for the fuel tank, just a bigger.
 
Sam James Wheel Pant Capacity

I haven?t drilled or cut the wheel opening in my Sam James pants yet so I measured the capacity by filling with water.
Surprisingly one wheel pant will hold 7.61 gallons.
I weighted the water on a postal scale, came in at 63.4 lbs.
 
Wheel pants for tanks

Does anyone have RV-10 pants they could fill and check what they hold?, I would bet over 10gal.

RT
 
For reference

A cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. A gallon of water weighs about 8.3 pounds.

Calculate on!!
 
Earth Rounder?

Are you guys thinking about the exploits of Jon Johanson from Australia? I met him at the Van's Banquet for Oshkosh 2004. http://www.n2prise.org/osh2004e.htm Look about half way down the page for his photo and web links to articles on Van's web site. He turned his RV-4 into a globe-spanning airplane, making three trips around the planet. He made a trip East, another, West, and the third went over the north pole from Canada instead of crossing the North Atlantic Ocean. The longest open ocean he crossed was from California to Hawaii.

As for fuel tanks, he added header tank in the forward baggage compartment, two 15-gallon tanks in the wing tips, and a large ferry tank in the back seat of the RV-4. The details are in the web pages linked from my page.
 
Seriously

Serious Webb, how much fuel do you need? The max comfort level for me (and most I talked with), is no more that about 4 hours. With an additional 14 gallons of gas you are looking at potential range of 7 hours at altitude and running LOP. I personally plan all of my trip legs for 3-4 hours based on convenient fuel stops. Time to stretch the legs and visit the "Wizators" center. CRM will tell you that this is a "not to exceed," time. These are not easy planes to try to pee in a bottle.

Seven hours of range, wow. Maybe 7 hours of fun and frolic with Shania Twain but not sitting in a RV:cool:
 
Why you ask

gasman said:
A gallon of gas weighs 6 pounds........... so why would you carry water?...;)
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This wasn't about carrying water, it was about calculation of the volume of a wheel fairing to figure out how much fuel it would hold.

To safely perform this feat, I'm sure that water was a much safer choice and much less expensive than risking the spillage.

A wee bit of math and you can make the conversion from water to gasoline.
 
RV7Guy said:
Serious Webb, how much fuel do you need? The max comfort level for me (and most I talked with), is no more that about 4 hours. With an additional 14 gallons of gas you are looking at potential range of 7 hours at altitude and running LOP. I personally plan all of my trip legs for 3-4 hours based on convenient fuel stops. Time to stretch the legs and visit the "Wizators" center. CRM will tell you that this is a "not to exceed," time. These are not easy planes to try to pee in a bottle.

Seven hours of range, wow. Maybe 7 hours of fun and frolic with Shania Twain but not sitting in a RV:cool:
Click to expand...

Just one of those ideals you kick around. Not really interested in 7 hours. Like you, 3-4 is just about right. Heck, 7 minutes frolic with Shania would be fun.

Here's the reason.....I'm hangered at M16 and my parents live in Naples, FL (KAPF) during the winter. If I plan on a 4 hour flight time, I'm just guessing but I think it teeters on cutting the reserves a bit close. I'm not really sure what my burn will be but since I'm still in the paint shop, I'm just pondering right now. Ideally I would like to do it non-stop but direct across the gulf is a bit more than I have the nerve for.

Help me out here. At LOP and altitude (what altitude), what would you anticipate fuel burn to be and airspeed to plan on? 7A, IO360 (180hp), CS.

btw - a ziplock with the lining of a disposable diaper in it beats a bottle. No leak, easier to hit than a bottle, and throw it in the trash when you land. Also weighs almost zero when dry. Doubles as a vomit bag for passengers too.
 
160 knots

at 7 to 7.5GPH.Although I have seen TAS at 160 and fuel burn down to 6.6GPN at 14000'

Then again I am running a Hartzell C/S and a Sam James cowl

Sure its a good idea...autofuel (ok it does have ethanol) at less than $4 and nowhere between here an Colorado wher my in laws live for less than $6..

Yup I don't mind carrying 80 gallons of fuel.

Now does it make for a reasonable payback by the time you paid for all the materials and taken the airplane out of service for a few weeks?

Probably not.:)

Frank
 
L.Adamson said:
Yes................the weight of the plane.
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lol. :D Although I do not plan on modifying my plane for this, I think it'd be kinda interesting... How much do the tip tanks hold? Are they sold by vans or aftermarket? Do they have to be done during the build stage?
 
Trouble is, they are not available for the -9. :(

I'm guessing that's due to the lower strength (non acrobatic) and longer wing spars, any weight on the tips will increase the bending moment at the wing root during ground ops. Maybe they don't feel comfortable with the margins or don't want to take any chances. That's one of the main reasons I'm putting my additional tanks on the outboard leading edge versus the tips - to reduce the wing root bending moment during ground ops.
 
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