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MPPalmer(at)aol.com
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 Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:39 am Post subject: The story so far... |
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I had the tanks topped off and hooked a hose to the wingtip vents to blow them out with compressed air. Surprisingly, that blew fuel down the center section vents, much like a solvent wand does with suction. Which tells me I goofed during building. Obviously, my wing tip vents are not located in an air pocket in the wing. If they were, they wouldn't be sucking gas. Rats.
Anyway, the copious amount of fuel convince me that vent tubes that run along the back of the wing shearweb are not clogged. If they had been clogged, I wouldn't know it now. As I've disconnected all the fittings, fuel spilled all over everything in the fuselage and eventually drained out the hole for the vent. If there was a clog that blew out (or a bug), it's lost in the mess. (I also visually inspected the full length of the lines on the back of the shearweb. They appear to be intact with no stains anywhere.)
This experiment has got me wondering if my center section vent is too short. If it were in a low pressure area and the wing tip vents were higher, then that would mimic the test I just did, perhaps I'm siphoning fuel out the center vent in flight? The tube seems to have eroded a bit (not sure from what) and gotten shorter over time. I will plan to make the exit tube longer and see what happens. If we have any indication on the bottom of the fuselage of fluid leaking, this is where it looks to be.
The tanks took 20 gallons of fuel. The Totalizer said they should have taken only 18. The hangar has been "locked down." (No theft of fuel.) This 90% is the typical error we've been seeing for the past few months. It's just that we haven't been topping off all that time, nor making long flights. We figured our math was bad.
I'm still gritting my teeth, trying to mentally get ready to disconnect the Flowscan transducer to reverse flush it. It's located just aft of the 2nd rib in the front belly section, just under the leading edge of the wing. Lots of contortion required if the belly panel is on. And I don't feel like taking the belly panel off. Hmmm... maybe I'll wait on that until after flying with the longer exit vent to see if that fixed the problem. (The fuel flow numbers are consistent with the fuel burn we've always had, so I'm not thinking the transducer is the culprit.)
Mike Palmer <><
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Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
(http://www.tourtracker.com?NCID=aolmus00050000000112) [quote][b]
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Craymondw(at)aol.com
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:35 am Post subject: The story so far... |
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Make sure the FBO is pumping as many gallons you think you are getting. AVGAS fuel pumps don't receive the same scrutiny as auto gas pumps do.
Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!
[quote][b]
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