Wing Tanks
Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2019 3:13 pmI've been flying with my new wing tanks for a couple months now, and am happy with them so far. It's nice having the extra fuel on board, even though I haven't been on a long enough flight to really need it yet.
I don't even notice the fuel in the tanks while flying. The "black sponge" seems to be doing it's job keeping the fuel from sloshing around too much.
I timed the transfer time to empty the wing tanks into the main tanks at just under 11 minutes. Assuming 10 gallons total, that's a very good transfer rate. It filled the main tank faster than the fuel could pour out of the curtis valve of main take. The redcube reported ~19GPH draining from the main tank.
There are still some teething pains though. After draining the wing tanks, and verifying that they were empty, I filled the main tank way up. A couple days later while doing a the preflight, the fuel in the main tank was lower than I remembered it being.
After I flew, I added fuel to the wing tanks first to verify their capacity. The right tank took about 4.7 gallons, but to my surprise, the left tank would only take about 3 gallons.
I'm guessing that since I'm running the fuel line from the transfer pumps to the top rear of the main tank, the fuel was able to drain into the left tank. Maybe I should have taken the advice of others and installed a check valve...
Anyway, I'm still investigating. I've had voltage regulator issues that have slowed me down, but hopefully I'll get these issues worked out soon.
I don't even notice the fuel in the tanks while flying. The "black sponge" seems to be doing it's job keeping the fuel from sloshing around too much.
I timed the transfer time to empty the wing tanks into the main tanks at just under 11 minutes. Assuming 10 gallons total, that's a very good transfer rate. It filled the main tank faster than the fuel could pour out of the curtis valve of main take. The redcube reported ~19GPH draining from the main tank.
There are still some teething pains though. After draining the wing tanks, and verifying that they were empty, I filled the main tank way up. A couple days later while doing a the preflight, the fuel in the main tank was lower than I remembered it being.
After I flew, I added fuel to the wing tanks first to verify their capacity. The right tank took about 4.7 gallons, but to my surprise, the left tank would only take about 3 gallons.
I'm guessing that since I'm running the fuel line from the transfer pumps to the top rear of the main tank, the fuel was able to drain into the left tank. Maybe I should have taken the advice of others and installed a check valve...
Anyway, I'm still investigating. I've had voltage regulator issues that have slowed me down, but hopefully I'll get these issues worked out soon.