Bryan Wood
Well Known Member
Van claims the 9A to hold 36 gallons of gas with each tank holding 18 gallons. Lately I've been doing endurance testing to see just what the plane will give me for differing settings. Today for the first time I ran a tank dry and the engine let me know that something had to change or we would be landing soon. This is the first time that I've ever done this in anything that I've flown and had the big eye waiting for the engine to sputter. Well, there was no sputter! The sound just changed and the plane rapidly slowed. As quickly as I could move the fuel selector to the other tank and turn on the boost pump the engine started running. In fact the boost pump might have played no part in returning the engine to life. This was no big deal and if there is a need to have all of the fuel in one tank on a long trip this would not bother me at all to do again. There was no warning of a fuel starvation by a fluctuation in fuel pressure, just simply the fire going out.
So, how good are Van's numbers on fuel capacity? With all usable fuel burned off the tank took 18.1 gallons to the bottom of the filler neck. Just another example of Van providing real numbers.
Best,
So, how good are Van's numbers on fuel capacity? With all usable fuel burned off the tank took 18.1 gallons to the bottom of the filler neck. Just another example of Van providing real numbers.
Best,