Greetings All,
I have accumulated the pieces necessary to install fuel drains and a
gascolator. The gascolator is an Andair 375 which was obtained some years
ago when they only had that one size. The tank components for the fuel
drains are from Bob Berube at Flight Crafters in Florida. The two tank drain
valves as well as the gascolator drain valve are Saf-Air CAV-110s. I should
mention that I am using Bob's conventional gear, but the location of the
main gear wheels provides for an aircraft-attitude on the ground that is
near-identical to the monowheel.
Over the past few years, I've seen numerous e-mails relating from other
builders regarding the mounting location they decided upon for the drains
and gascolator and now I'd like to get some feed back -- especially from
those builders who have used their drains and have had to maintain their
gascolators.
Here are some of the scenarios that I've seen or read about.
1. The drains were located directly on the tank outlets with a large access
hatch that is shared with the gascolator? The advantage of this
configuration is that it is probably the easiest to install and the large
hatch also allows you to easy access to maintain the hose clamps on the tank
outlets. However, when the wings are attached, this location will be under
the wings and perhaps difficult to get to. I also would think that reaching
into that hatch and removing the gascolator bowel for inspection would be
difficult and would subject the user to getting fuel in their eyes, or in
their ears as one writer reported. I've also experienced leaking
(occasional drips) fuel drains in the past and wondered if having these
drains located behind a hatch is problematic. Also, this location of the
drains appears to place them higher than the bottom of the fuel tank
(perhaps not an issue on a trike).
2. The drains are located behind the wings? This mounts them even lower to
the ground, but you don't have to crawl under the wing to access them. This
location requires a bit of additional tubing and some additional fittings
(which I already have). Someone suggested mounting them on the 'fuel
filler' side of the fuselage for easier access. That seems like a good idea
but where did they mount the gascolator.
3. Gascolator mounted under the cowling? Traditional location for most
airplanes that I've flown. But I'm also planning on utilizing a fuel-flow
sensor which I understand is ideally located after the gascolator. I would
have to configure the cowling to somehow support easy access to the
gascolator bowl which perhaps requires another hatch, or special
consideration to the way the cowling is mounted and attached so that it is
easily removable.
4. Gascolator mounted in the tunnel? Since I don't have that big
mono-wheel, there is plenty of room. And since I have electric flaps, the
manual flap drive mechanism is absent from the tunnel. Also this would make
it easy to locate the fuel-flow sensor after the gascolator. Access to the
gascolator would have to be provided from the top of the tunnel but this is
not a problem since I have the cut-down tunnel which is approved for
non-monowheel Europas.
Sorry for the length of this e-mail, but thanks in advance for your ideas.
Regards,
Bruce
XS142
Tracy, California
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