Dear John,
I was not a little concerned to read your posting on the forum today. I'm
relieved
that you discovered the fault before you had the tank fitted. Clearly you
shall be sent a new fuel tank (as soon as we can get one over to you if the
Florida facility has none in stock.) Have you already informed John?
The tank is moulded integrally in a split mould, hence the seam, rather than
made
in two halves then later joined. Due to the mould construction, it may be
that the heating of the seam area is different to the main body of the mould,
resulting in the anomoly you found, although this is not a fault that we see
normally.
Following de-moulding, we are informed by the manufacturer that each tank is
then
leak tested using low pressure; this is the reason that the 2" diameter boss
has a hole in it. Can you confirm that your tank had this hole when you
received
it please. If it was still closed, then it couldn't have been pressure
tested.
Would you please do me the service of photographing the tank indicating the area
where the hole is and then cut the piece out - 6" square would be great - and
send it to me. I'll need to show this to the manufacturer to a) ensure that
this can't happen again and b) provide the evidence that the fault is theirs.
Apologies for the inconvenience and delay to your build.
Best Regards
Andy Draper
Technical Director
e-mail andy@europa-aircraft.com
>>> <TELEDYNMCS@aol.com> 01/14/03 09:58pm >>>
In preparation for glassing in the gas tank into the cockpit module today I
was cleaning out the tank when I discovered a hole on the top seam, left hand
side, just before the corner. It appears that when the tank halves were
"welded" together in manufacturing they left a hole approximately 3mm x 5 mm,
large enough to stick a pencil through with room to spare. Fortunately, I had
not yet bonded in the vent and fuel fittings. I would encourage everyone to
thouroughly inspect the seams of the tank for flaws. Had this been bonded
into place it would have been a real bear to fix. I'm returning the tank to
Europa for a replacement. I wonder how many months this will delay my
progress?
John Lawton
A-245
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