>On the
subject of backup fuel switching: If you have a
ganged mechanical valve, why bother with the
electric one? :-)
Two expensive three-way switches vs a single on-off
valve. After sending that last email, I realized it
was pointless to make a crossover for return side.
Here is my analysis:
You're flying along and at some point the electronic
fuel goes tits up. It is now stuck on one tank.
You won't know until you go to switch. You can:
A) Do nothing. The fuel will continue to pull from
the one tank. This would be the sensible option if
you're close to landing, or if the tank has plenty
of fuel.
B) Open the crossover valve. This effectively tees
the fuel supply lines. This would make sense if the
active tank was extremely low. The high, inactive
tank should now flow fuel into the low one. The
return line will still be routed to the low tank,
also filling it back up somewhat. It will not be
possible to overfill the active tank unless you
opened the crossover prematurely. IE, open the
crossover valve to pull fuel from both tanks and
return fuel to the active one. You could even close
the crossover once the active is half full.
The part seems to be readily available from auto
parts stores, so a precautionary landing and
replacement should be simple.