Greetings all.
I've been pondering whether or not to use a fuel sight guage, using a
mechanical guage mounted in the top of the tank instead. And whether to just
forego the guage altogether and use a fuel flow computer/sight guage combo.
The time has come to make a decision and I'd like to solicit comments if you
have any.
Here's the problem. The mechanical guage I have (Tempo Products marine type)
would mount in the top of the tank on the left side. I can't seem to come up
with a way to make this mechanical guage work with a "clean" transition
between the tank top and the cockpit module top because of the way the tank
mounts to the cockpit module and the way these type guages mount into the top
of the tank. I've seen a couple capacitance types that have been mounted
inside the headrest area and into the tank, and a couple mounted in the area
between the head rests, closer to the left side headrest. A mechanical or
capacitance guage also means more holes (6 in this case) in the tank
resulting in more places to develop a leak and hard to get to if they ever do
start leaking. Add to that the hole in the top of the cockpit module needed
to access the guage (compromising the structural integrity of the cockpit
module? Not a problem though if mounted under the headrest since the hole
would be in the plywood floor of the headrest, but hard to get to) and it
just doesn't seem worth doing.
I don't like where Europa suggests putting the sight guage (left hand side
of the center tunnel). It seems like you'd kick it every time you get in and
out of the airplane. My thoughts at this point are to forget the mechanical
guage, install the sight guage in the right rear corner of the baggage hold,
where it would be visible before loading baggage, and use an electronic,
programmable fuel flow computer (such as Vision Microsystems VM1000). It
seems to me this significantly shortens the amount of fuel/vent line run
around the cockpit, significantly shortens the sight guage vent line length
and satisfies the FAA requirement for a sight guage on board. The only real
problem here is cost, but when you add up what all this little gizmo does
it's not all that out of bounds.
Comments? Suggestions?
John Lawton
Dunlap, TN
A-245
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