GrayHawk
Well Known Member
Not wanting to hijack the 'RV-6A Flips & Burns' thread; but still wanting to ask a fuel starvation type question triggered by the Sonix fuel starvation incident:
I have a fuel flow transducer mounted as per manufacturer instructions; which puts it after the gascolator & actually after the mechanical fuel pump. The easiest way to detect any leaks in between this and the tanks (while in flight) is to have accurate fuel level measurement at the tanks. However my tank float sending units are garbage. As originally built, the plane had a flop tube in the left tank and therefore the float was installed from the back bulkhead. The right tank float unit is installed at the wing root. The differences in mounting geometry as well as who know how the float wires are bent, result in very poor readings. One unit saturates at the upper end, the other saturates at the lower end, and I have little confidence in either one reading correctly.
If I were to rework the tanks or replace them, mounting both float units at the wing roots, new units, wires correctly bent, and take some care in calibrating my (programmable) dual fuel gauge; can it be expected to get reasonable readings. I realize that you want the floats to top out at the upper full fuel range and then accurately measure when the fuel level in a given tank gets down a few gallons.
I have a fuel flow transducer mounted as per manufacturer instructions; which puts it after the gascolator & actually after the mechanical fuel pump. The easiest way to detect any leaks in between this and the tanks (while in flight) is to have accurate fuel level measurement at the tanks. However my tank float sending units are garbage. As originally built, the plane had a flop tube in the left tank and therefore the float was installed from the back bulkhead. The right tank float unit is installed at the wing root. The differences in mounting geometry as well as who know how the float wires are bent, result in very poor readings. One unit saturates at the upper end, the other saturates at the lower end, and I have little confidence in either one reading correctly.
If I were to rework the tanks or replace them, mounting both float units at the wing roots, new units, wires correctly bent, and take some care in calibrating my (programmable) dual fuel gauge; can it be expected to get reasonable readings. I realize that you want the floats to top out at the upper full fuel range and then accurately measure when the fuel level in a given tank gets down a few gallons.