by R Rinker » Mon Dec 25, 2017 7:47 pm
Every pilot (that doesn't buy all of his fuel at an FBO pump), has a never ending interest in building a better mousetrap for fueling up. I used to have a Cessna that had a baggage compartment 18 gal tank. It had a filler neck coming out the side of the plane about waist high & was a joy to fill without ladders etc. All of my fueling was out somewhere without electricity available. Now that so many engines have to have a fuel pump to supply the engine regardless, there's no advantage to having wing tanks other than the fact that there's a lot of empty space in the wings. The Cessna baggage tank had an auto type fuel pump that pumped the 18 gallons into the wing tank so it could be gravity fed to the fuel system.
These are just some random thoughts here & not pushing any particular agenda. For a lot of rec type pilots that often only put a few cans of fuel in for an hour or so of local flying, I wonder about a system that had a 20/25 gallon tank down low somewhere with a filler neck like that and would also have the ability to pump into the wing tank. Normal operations would not require more fuel than that, meaning normal operations would not have all tanks full. But on an occasional long cross country you would have the option to fill everything for extended range, with proper planning for weight & balance, runway length etc. My 182 holds 105 U.S. gallons, but I never used all of that unless I really needed to, and planned accordingly. Fuel management & planning is an area that no one truly understands until they have years of experience in real world operations. It's impossible to understand the importance & reality of fuel constraints until you've 'been there done that'....no matter how hard you try to reason it all out. And that is in regard to how it relates to all areas of operations, not just long, remote flights.
Rodger Rinker - Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
Super Stol build/January 2014
NL7AL & VE6RWR