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dweyant

Well Known Member
I wasn't planning on ordering my fuselage kit for a few months, but with the price increase coming on April, 1. I think I will likely go ahead and place my order.

I'm going to go slow build 9A, and I "think" I've decided to go with a slider.

What options should I get/other things should I order with the fuselage kit?

External Step Kit
Dual Break Kit
Electric Trim

Those are the easy items. What else should I order/consider upgrading, etc?

Thanks,

-Dan
 
dweyant said:
I wasn't planning on ordering my fuselage kit for a few months, but with the price increase coming on April, 1. I think I will likely go ahead and place my order.
**clip**

Those are the easy items. What else should I order/consider upgrading, etc?

Thanks,

-Dan
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Depending on the person, your build, and your long term intent... I never pass up the opportunity to add a few long sticks of angle and some large sheets of material since they are shipping a big crate anyway. But that is just me (hardly). I like having material on hand when I get an idea.
 
I found a 4x8 full sheet locally, but a good sized section of .032" unpunched alclad will come in handy for a variety of things as you get into the final portion of the build. You'll end up making all manner of small brackets for electronics during the panel portion.
 
Yep ....shipping size is the key priority

Any of the small optional items (trim stuff, brake kit, etc) you can order anytime with little shipping "penalty". But the big stuff, like a sheet of Al as mentioned, is hard to find locally and costs a TON to ship. I ordered an extra 4x4 piece of .032 with my kit and it turned out to be all I needed. Glad I did it.
 
VA-161

If you plan to install gascolator order the bracket VA-161 for it. Much easier to rivet to firewall during fuse building.
 
Thanks for the input on the fuselage order. I'm about ready to get the order placed by the middle of the week.

I'm trying to build the plane so that I will have the option of running ethanal laced mogas. Along those lines I'm thinking that a return fuel line is something I should do.

It seems like the dual Andair fuel valve is the simplest way to do this? Is it as simple as it sounds?

Thanks,

-Dan
 
The ability to run E10 and a return line are not necessarily the same issue.

E10 carries 2 problems with it that you need to address. First, the ethanol will attack any rubber components in your fuel system, so the rubber needs to be replaced with another material or eliminated entirely. This means sump drain O-rings, hoses, pump parts, carb/injector parts, etc. Secondly, the Reid Vapor Pressure of E10 is a bit higher than 100LL which makes it more susceptible to vapor lock - and one of the ways to avoid vapor lock is to put an orifice downstream of the fuel pump to bypass 4-6 gph of fuel into a return line back to the tanks, which sounds like what you are referring to. Another way is just get rid of the mechanical fuel pump altogether, and eliminate the source of the problem rather than put a bandaid on it.
 
airguy said:
Another way is just get rid of the mechanical fuel pump altogether, and eliminate the source of the problem rather than put a bandaid on it.
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If you eliminate the mechanical fuel pump do you use two electric ones? How do you minimize the risk of loss of fuel flow if you lose the electrical system?

Thanks,

-Dan
 
Several builders are now flying with dual electric pumps and no mechanical pump. One pump pulling fuel from each wing tank, installed either at the wing root or in the standard pump tunnel area, fuel is pumped forward under pressure and not exposed to heating in the FWF area. The automotive world has only been doing it for about 30 years, I think it might catch on eventually. :D

Switching tanks then becomes an issue of turning on the other pump, and turning off the current one. If one pump fails you've still got the other one for power for quite some time to get you to a good airport before the fuel imbalance in the wings becomes an issue.

Search the archives for my name and FrankH's name on this subject, you'll find a lot of material to read through.
 
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Dan,

To more directly answer your question... You minimize the possibility of total loss of electrical power. I am doing this in my build's design. I already have to build in a full-pressure return line into each of my tanks, as I intend to use the EFII injector/ignition system with my engine. This is a fully electric setup, no mechanical pump. So, to be safe, I will put a second alternator on the vacuum pump pad, maybe with its own emergency bus - not sure yet. Something like the Plane Power FS1-14. Enough to keep the pump pumping and the sparks flying. The EFIS can run off its own backup batteries. Everything else can be shut down.
 
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