Re: Fuel system changes

[Barrington Tennant <Tennant@tonline.de>]

I went flying yesterday for the first time in about 2 months. 

On a very hotday in August(36degC)I landed at a grass field in the Eifel
mountains in Germany. 

I was forced to taxi around a lot in long grass before takeoff and as
soon as I was in the air I knew it was a bad idea!! The engine was
running rough and when asked for full power would cut out on 2
cylinders.

I managed to return to the field and made a safe landing.

I put it down to vapour lock - everything under the cowling was
extremely hot.

I was picked up with the trailor and at home I tried some full power
runs. Same effect!!

I fitted a clear plastic pipe to the feed to one carb and found about
20% air in the fuel flow. I isolated the problem to the pipes under the
cowling.

All the fuel lines have now been changed and the carbs cleaned and re
adjusted and the plane flies like new!

I dont know exactly what the problem was but I suspect that the original
fuel lines had become porous as I can see cracking on the ends of the
pipes. I also fitted pipes without the metal armour to be better able to
see any weeping in the future.

It was a scary experience and I am putting the clear plastic pipe check
for air in my 100 hpur check list.

Best regards

Barry Tennant
D-EHBT


tonyk@kaon.co.nz schrieb:
> 
> >>>> Four engine failures.  ( All Military)  All landed.
> 
> I'll rephrase that... how many people fly Europas have _actually_ had a fuel
> problem [in the Europa].
> 
> Tom,  I'd have given up flying military aircraft after the fourth engine
> failure :-)
> 
> Tony