----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006
12:35 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re:
gauges
Kevin,
in regards to John Danver's crash - there was more than 1 thing
wrong
a) with the plane
b) with his airman ship for this specific flight
a) It is no secret that the tank selector "control access"
was awkward AND rusted (obviously there was a Vis-Grip on it to be
able to move it at all)
Though it was the selector the plans are calling for, there was
probably never any maintenance done to it.
The location of the selector is of no concern ( ... other than
preferred location for different reasons), but the location of the
selector CONTROL is very important.
As mentioned before: torque tube, push/pull cable, bowden-cables
whatever makes it move. Certainly keeping it MOVABLE is another part of
the game.
Not to critize John Denver's airmanship in general - he was
obviously an accomplished aviator - BUT for this specific flight and
leading up to it, he showed less then perfection, rather
negligence:
a) If you get into a new aircraft (as in never been in that
specific airframe), first thing is to get familiar with at least the
essential functions - fuel shut off being one.
b) IF certain functions are different than in same type/model
airframes you try them out - move them fro from your PIC position - if
he would have done that he would have found out that something doesn't
work there.
c) I understand John was asked if he needed fuel on 2 previous
stops and he declined, thinking he can "make it" with the remaining
fuel.
John of all had no reason to scrounge - so WHY not put in as much
fuel as you can carry at every occasion possible??
Again, nothing personal against John, he seemed to be a very nice
and likeable guy, but I think it is a wrong conclusion to blame a
certain airframe/installation/etc. for what is basically a gross pilot
error.
As a side note: We have a similar thing around my work area at this
time:
A good ol' boy (actually a really nice guy!) crashed and died,
because he was constantly flying with the low fuel light on!!
Short flights (2-3 nm), wanted to maximize External Load capacity
and was flying the MD-500 on TIME rather than fuel indication!! ( no
more than 20 min of fuel on take-off....)
Cynical thing was that he had two 55-gallon drums with
fuel hanging underneath when he ran out of fuel!
Now he was made into a martyr and semi-hero! Wrong move!
TJ
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006
12:25 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re:
gauges
I find it interesting that in
regards to fuel in the cockpit that the general consensus seems to be
the opposite of what all RVs use, i.e.. low and high pressure lines in
the cockpit. I would guess that Van gave his design a bit of a
thought, considering the millions of dollars he risks in lawsuits, and
has his proof with thousands of planes flying without problems.
it is my understanding that john Denver had a supposedly safe "no fuel
in the cockpit" system which ignored the practical aspect of being
easy to use. I do recognize that it would be difficult in an RV
to get fuel from the wings to the engine without going thru the
cockpit, but with, what, 4000+ planes flying, is this a perceived
problem, or a real one? some guys squeezed fuel pumps between
the wing and the fuse, but you still have to get thru the
firewall. what scared me was the T-craft, with that tank up
there behind the panel.. my trainer plane leaked a bit,
too.
I feel the same way about oil
pressure gauges. typically you've got a line to the sender or
the gauge.(I mostly see them mounted on the firewall, not the engine
block) people think "plastic" is no good, but I don't see mine
fatiguing. some guys have "plastic" brake lines, some use AL,
and some only use s/s lines. my only experience so far with
failure has been an electrical failure (alt shut down after hour of
peak demands and battery had dropped to 8 volts) in which case I had
no tach (had switched it to elec after drive shaft probs), fuel
gauges, oil temp, but I did have oil pressure and fuel pressure,
altimeter, A/S etc..... I was also glad that I had listened to
Jeff rose and kept one magneto (I was over crater lake in the cascade
mtns. at the time). so if you decide to go all electric,
many do, remember it also needs electric to run. same with
EFIS, no CPU, no display. kevin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006
8:31 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re:
gauges
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 01,
2006 9:17 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re:
gauges
Some DAR's require that you have a valve
and can reach it with your seat belt on. I assume an
electric one, as Ed mentioned would also do.
JohnD
The control valve could be outside the cockpit and operated
by a dash mounted pointer with a long aluminum tube shaft through
the firewall to the valve.
LYnn E. Hanover
Speaking of fuel valves, the original
Cozy plans call for a manual selector valve mounted
between the pilot and co-pilot with lines up to the seat-back and
then to the engine. This setup has several connections in the
cockpit that can leak.
As far as a fuel shut off valve, I don't
plan on using one, just turn off the fuel pumps. For maintenance I
plan on ball valves out of the tank (ahead of the sump tank) and
these could be remotely operated.
Thanks to all for the responses on the
gauges questions. I found some sources for the VDO units and
will look at the suggested ones also.
Any suggestions on water pressure gauge
senders? Can't find any yet.
Wendell