Dear subscribers,
I noticed a phenomena on my 4P that I thought might be
worth sharing to see if it is unique or may be others experienced something
similar:
When my ball is significantly out of center over a longer
period of time (>30 sec), my fuel selector is on left, and I have less than
15 gals in my left tank my engine will quit due to fuel starvation.
It happens mainly when I am practicing approaches: on the
missed go around, when I am busy applying power, getting gears and flaps up,
selecting my next way point in the GPS, changing my approach plates… if I am
on the left tank with low fuel and I forget to retrim the rudder for the
changed power setting my engine will shut down due to fuel starvation. My fuel
indicator will then show zero for the left tank. Switching the tanks and
applying high boost brings it back to life within seconds. After 30 seconds or
so I can see the original amount of fuel again in the left tank. It is not a
big deal anymore because I know how to fix it but it certainly caught my full
attention the first time.
In climb with full fuel I can also notice that I am loosing
fuel out of the left vent on the wing tip if I don’t keep my ball in the
middle.
In straight and level flight I can run this tank dry with
the exact amount of unusable fuel to which I calibrated my fuel indicator on
the ground.
The only explanation that I have for this phenomena is that
this uncoordinated flight situation must create some kind of vacuum on my wing
tip around the vent port that sucks the fuel out towards the wing tip away
from the fuselage. I have the regular wing tips and not the
winglets.
Any input or advice is appreciated.
Ralf