blaplante
Well Known Member
This is mostly a brainstorm that probably won't ever get to the front of the list
Feel free to (politely please) poke holes in this.
Goal: ways to add significant temporary extra fuel to the RV6 (could work in the 7 etc. as well). Significant being 12-15 gallons. Not required when flying with a passenger. It seems to me that a solution could be as follows:
Take out the passenger seat pads. Build a tank to sit on the floor and lean back on the seat back. Dimensions could be 15.5" wide, 27" high, and around 8.5" fore/aft. Weight all up is about 100 pounds. Use the harnesses to retain it. Probably additional hold down mounted to the seat cross-bar.
Vent overboard via hose and a new vent (location TBD).
Ground strap from tank to airframe.
Use a small electric fuel pump to pump from the tank into a Tee in the feed line from the right tank to the selector valve.
Use: Once the right tank is down (let's say to 6 gallons), switch to the left tank.
Engage the aux tank pump, verify the number of gallons pumped by looking at the right tank gauge. Most likely you'd do this in two rounds - pump 7 gallons to the right tank, and repeat later with the remainder.
Some advantages I see:
By pumping into the right tank we can drain the aux tank. Any un-porting of the fuel pump only interrupts flow to the right tank, not to the engine.
Pretty simple to install.
Weight is located at a fairly good position for w&b.
No need for fuel sender or gauge as the gauge in this scenario (dipstick to record starting fuel is all that's needed).
Downside is that I can't find a suitable size pre-made tank, so it would need to be scratchbuild, similar to an RV12 tank.
Some inspiration at https://www.kitplanes.com/adding-an-auxiliary-fuel-tank-to-an-rv-8/
A low mounted tank like in the link above is another possibility, but strikes me as harder to tie down in the RV6.
Feel free to (politely please) poke holes in this.
Goal: ways to add significant temporary extra fuel to the RV6 (could work in the 7 etc. as well). Significant being 12-15 gallons. Not required when flying with a passenger. It seems to me that a solution could be as follows:
Take out the passenger seat pads. Build a tank to sit on the floor and lean back on the seat back. Dimensions could be 15.5" wide, 27" high, and around 8.5" fore/aft. Weight all up is about 100 pounds. Use the harnesses to retain it. Probably additional hold down mounted to the seat cross-bar.
Vent overboard via hose and a new vent (location TBD).
Ground strap from tank to airframe.
Use a small electric fuel pump to pump from the tank into a Tee in the feed line from the right tank to the selector valve.
Use: Once the right tank is down (let's say to 6 gallons), switch to the left tank.
Engage the aux tank pump, verify the number of gallons pumped by looking at the right tank gauge. Most likely you'd do this in two rounds - pump 7 gallons to the right tank, and repeat later with the remainder.
Some advantages I see:
By pumping into the right tank we can drain the aux tank. Any un-porting of the fuel pump only interrupts flow to the right tank, not to the engine.
Pretty simple to install.
Weight is located at a fairly good position for w&b.
No need for fuel sender or gauge as the gauge in this scenario (dipstick to record starting fuel is all that's needed).
Downside is that I can't find a suitable size pre-made tank, so it would need to be scratchbuild, similar to an RV12 tank.
Some inspiration at https://www.kitplanes.com/adding-an-auxiliary-fuel-tank-to-an-rv-8/
A low mounted tank like in the link above is another possibility, but strikes me as harder to tie down in the RV6.