what is the cut down tunnel which is approved for non-monowheel Europas pete
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce" <bruce@justbruce.com>
Subject: Europa-List: Fuel Drains and Gascolator Locations
>
> Greetings All,
>
> I have accumulated the pieces necessary to install fuel drains and a
> gascolator. The gascolator is an Andair 375 which was obtained some years
> ago when they only had that one size. The tank components for the fuel
> drains are from Bob Berube at Flight Crafters in Florida. The two tank
> drain
> valves as well as the gascolator drain valve are Saf-Air CAV-110s. I
> should
> mention that I am using Bob's conventional gear, but the location of the
> main gear wheels provides for an aircraft-attitude on the ground that is
> near-identical to the monowheel.
>
> Over the past few years, I've seen numerous e-mails relating from other
> builders regarding the mounting location they decided upon for the drains
> and gascolator and now I'd like to get some feed back -- especially from
> those builders who have used their drains and have had to maintain their
> gascolators.
>
> Here are some of the scenarios that I've seen or read about.
>
> 1. The drains were located directly on the tank outlets with a large
> access
> hatch that is shared with the gascolator? The advantage of this
> configuration is that it is probably the easiest to install and the large
> hatch also allows you to easy access to maintain the hose clamps on the
> tank
> outlets. However, when the wings are attached, this location will be
> under
> the wings and perhaps difficult to get to. I also would think that
> reaching
> into that hatch and removing the gascolator bowel for inspection would be
> difficult and would subject the user to getting fuel in their eyes, or in
> their ears as one writer reported. I've also experienced leaking
> (occasional drips) fuel drains in the past and wondered if having these
> drains located behind a hatch is problematic. Also, this location of the
> drains appears to place them higher than the bottom of the fuel tank
> (perhaps not an issue on a trike).
>
> 2. The drains are located behind the wings? This mounts them even lower
> to
> the ground, but you don't have to crawl under the wing to access them.
> This
> location requires a bit of additional tubing and some additional fittings
> (which I already have). Someone suggested mounting them on the 'fuel
> filler' side of the fuselage for easier access. That seems like a good
> idea
> but where did they mount the gascolator.
>
> 3. Gascolator mounted under the cowling? Traditional location for most
> airplanes that I've flown. But I'm also planning on utilizing a fuel-flow
> sensor which I understand is ideally located after the gascolator. I
> would
> have to configure the cowling to somehow support easy access to the
> gascolator bowl which perhaps requires another hatch, or special
> consideration to the way the cowling is mounted and attached so that it is
> easily removable.
>
> 4. Gascolator mounted in the tunnel? Since I don't have that big
> mono-wheel, there is plenty of room. And since I have electric flaps, the
> manual flap drive mechanism is absent from the tunnel. Also this would
> make
> it easy to locate the fuel-flow sensor after the gascolator. Access to
> the
> gascolator would have to be provided from the top of the tunnel but this
> is
> not a problem since I have the cut-down tunnel which is approved for
> non-monowheel Europas.
>
> Sorry for the length of this e-mail, but thanks in advance for your ideas.
>
> Regards,
> Bruce
> XS142
> Tracy, California
>
>
>
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