2.60 REPLY_TO_EMPTY Reply-To: is empty
On Raimo's invitation: In my understanding there is a gascolator in the
Cessna's,
the drain of which is connected to the pulling knob next to the dip stick.
Please let somebody correct this when i am wrong.
I assume water in fuel has 2 primary sources, the first one being there before
delivery to the tank, and the second one from condensation from humid air in the
tank.How does it get there? High up means lower temperatures, below dew point,
in the wing tanks, cooling the air on top of the fuel, forming condensation.
To prevent buying contaminated fuel is the outstanding advice to buy fuel
---From a frequently used source. My home airport, efiv, has a very low turnover
of 100LL. But, as i have witnessed, there is a fuel/water separator on the pump,
and that is checked on at least a weekly bases. Sofar i have not seen a single
drop of water in the fuel samples of the club planes! Maybe on busy airports
there is no time to do those checks? A second reason for this absence of water
could be the averagely low humidity we enjoy here. In practice that would
eliminate the second source, condensation. During my training period in Florida,
there was water contamination on about 30% of the
samples. Believe me, a very high turnover of 100LL! on the airport. And a very
high humidity there. In the Europa there is no metal tank and the tank is inside
the relatively warm fuselage so my educated guess is, that the condensation
problem is non existent. I was told the Europa fuel drain mod is a demand from
the PFA. And since i guess this again is a relic from the metal tanks only
past, it is maybe not really nessecary. As Graham put it: Those drains fulfull
no other purpose then causing drip. Would (condense) water not be running back
to the lowest point in cruise? That is the tank, not the drain. A gascolator
on the other hand filters even small droplets from the stream, effectively
preventing
a water build up in the carburettor bowls. All of the previous is assuming
the use of 100LL, which is not the Rotax preferred fuel. Mogas contains
water binding additives. That's why water in fuel does not seem to be a problem
in cars. In winter here we add an extra additive to
100LL as well as to mogas, because water is bad, but frozen water, in the form
of massive ice on fuel drains or in the form of ice crystals blocking filters
and injectors is even worse. My choice: A gascolator, drainable.
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