Sorry to get into this so late but on the subject of fiberglass tanks.
Grahm is correct about the carbon fiber. The tank needs to move with
the plane. I haven't had the courage to fill my four year empty tank.
Pray for me.
On the fiberglass resins for fuel tanks consider a hard lesson learned
by my friends at Tampa Bay Aerosport. They had to disassemble a wing to
remove the tanks after a gas station accidentally added ethanol to the
premium fuel. Even the vinyl ester is affected as it turns it into a
sticky sludge. Epoxy is worse. I never knew that the resins were so
intolerant to ethanol. If you use auto fuel rather than 100LL keep an
ethanol tester handy or only get auto fuel from a trusted fuel depot.
For normal gasoline and av-gas, you'll have no problem. If you are
unlucky like us in the green state of Florida many of our stations are
adding 10% ethanol to all blends, they are supposed to post it on the
pumps so be careful.
The boating industry up north has sealed all their tanks (mostly poly
and vinyl ester tanks) with a special coating for the inside of
fiberglass tanks which makes them impervious to ethanol. I'll see if I
can get a brand name and pass it on.
Bud Yerly
----- Original Message -----
From: craig bastin<mailto:craigb@onthenet.com.au>
To: europa-list@matronics.com<mailto:europa-list@matronics.com>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: Europa-List: Europaprecision?
<craigb@onthenet.com.au<mailto:craigb@onthenet.com.au>>
yes the one i intend to make as a test, will be glass an vinyl ester.
craig
-----Original Message-----
From:
owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com<mailto:owner-europa-list-server@ma
tronics.com>
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com]On Behalf Of Graham
Singleton
Sent: Monday, 31 December 2007 11:08 PM
To: europa-list@matronics.com<mailto:europa-list@matronics.com>
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Europaprecision?
<grahamsingleton@btinternet.com<mailto:grahamsingleton@btinternet.com>>
No problem with vinyl ester, but I would recommend to use glass
instead
of carbon. Carbon is too stiff and would stop the airplane flexing.
Graham
craig bastin wrote:
<craigb@onthenet.com.au<mailto:craigb@onthenet.com.au>>
>
> Steve
>
> just on the subject of tanks and making new ones, Have you
considered
making
> a tank out of carbon fiber and vinyl-ester resin
11:27 AM
11:27 AM
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