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Still no culprit in "The case of the missing fuel"

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MPPalmer(at)aol.com
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: Still no culprit in "The case of the missing fuel"

Basically, nothing found. 

 

I pulled the inspection panels this evening and peered all around the inside of the inner and outer bays. (I felt like a cancer surgeon, trying to make sure he hadn't missed anything.) The closest evidence I could find to a leak was two spots near each other on the roof of the wing, adjacent to the main spar cap, that I call a "ring spot." You know, like you see in acoustic ceiling tile when there's a rain leak in a roof. But in my case, the stain is white, not blue. And there's no corresponding stain on the wing floor. 

 

Hint: When inspecting the wing internals for fuel leaks, do NOT use a new fangled LED flashlight. Use a conventional bulb. The "white" in an LED flashlight is too blue. In addition to making the whole wing look like one big fuel leak, the blue light may actually hide a bona fide leak, as you may not be able see the blue dye in 100LL. I prefer to use a mini-Mag light with the old hi-intensity bulb. You can unscrew the lens cap to put the thing in "candle" mode and put it in the wing to flood the interior with broad spectrum light. (Don't forget to take the flashlight out when you're done! I left one in once. Fortunately, I caught it before buttoning up, but it had been a day later and the battery died. May be best to leave a long string on these things... ) 

 

I also inspected the seat pan areas for leaks, with particular attention to the wing attach fitting bolts. No leaking evident. 

 

I did not detect the smell of fuel anywhere while sniffing around the panels. This is getting stranger and stranger.  

 

I checked the fuel level in the mains today again visually. It's gone down a bit more in one day, but nothing like the first time. On the assumption I may have made a bad assumption about the wing being full the first time, I will plan to top it off again on Monday and see what happens with the level after that. If it goes down, I must have a leak. 

 

I left a sample cup of fuel out on the wing yesterday. It's one of those old style ones - 1 1/2" diameter, about 1 3/4" tall. To my amazement, a full sample cup was nearly empty in a little over 24 hours! 

 

Still, that's not 4 gallons in 2 day and I suppose if AvGas were suddenly evaporating more than it used to, then all sorts of people would be falling out of the sky due to fuel exhaustion. 

 

I don't know if this indicates a medical condition on my part, but I can't smell the fuel fumes more than 3 inches away from the sample cup. It doesn't seem as strong as it used to.  (I'm not a smoker, nor have I ever been.) 

 

If the fuel level goes down after a second top off, then my leak must be in one of the middle bay. (Murphy's Law.) But before cutting into the wing, I'll plan to do what John did and buy/borrow a propane sniffer and confirm/find the leak that way before cutting. 

 

My question to those who have had wing leaks... were you losing enough fuel to where it cut your endurance by an hour? 

 

 

Mike Palmer <><

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douglas.dodson(at)pobox.c
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:34 am Post subject: Still no culprit in "The case of the missing fuel"

Its entirely possible the wing was not full.  If the baffle cutouts are too small, then fuel migrates slowly to the various bays.  Many owners of older Glasairs have this problem.  The instructions were changed to make the cutouts bigger along the way.  Also, I don’t recall if you have any fuel in aft wing bays.  This could also make it difficult to know how much fuel is actually on board.  

   

You could put the plane on scales and see if it get lighter overnight.  

     

- Doug  

  

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