Enough to get your heart pumping for sure.
Been there {:>)
Early in my flying days, I was in a similar
type turn and was paying more attention to the buildings I had my wing tip
anchored to than I should have been. All of a sudden, the engine started unwinding
with a vengeance. I immediately leveled the air plane, where upon the
engine caught again – but I was down to the last gallon or less –
switched tanks and all was OK. I suspected that perhaps my “coordinated”
turn was not as coordinated as I had thought.
Both of my pumps can suck fuel from either
tank, so can’t help you there. I personally do not favor the one
tank- one pump approach due to the fact if you did lose a pump – you could
possibly lose access to a lot (perhaps a tank) of fuel. No problem flying
locally perhaps, but a different story if between the west coast and New Mexico
{:>). But, I realize there are advantages such as not needing a valve
to switch tanks, but similar to having two CPUs for the fuel injectors either
one of which can run the full set of injectors, I prefer both pumps having
access to both tanks.
Also, just for the heck of it you might
check the tank for water. I flew into Shady Bend one time with my left
tank dry. Sat out through a few rain shows, took off the next day and
landed at Waycross, GA and filled the left tank and topped of
the right one. About 30 minutes out, I decided to switch to the left
tank, within seconds of switching the engine started surging. Having
learned my lesson about switching tanks on my 12 mile glide a few years ago, I
immediately switched back to the other tank and thankfully, everything returned
to normal. I flew a bit further and go over a suitable air field and
switched back to the left tank, again the surging – but I left it on this
time an in about 20-30 seconds the surge disappeared. I thought I might have
picked up some bad fuel – but not the case.
Yep, you got it – should have drain
the tanks for water, which I failed to do that morning. I can’t
prove it was water, but I did discover my left tank cap was not sealing as it
should and I suspect the empty tank accumulated a cup or less of water.
It settled to the bottom by the time I had flow 30 minutes and when I switched
over all I got for the first 30 seconds or so was watery fuel which the engine
did not like.
So be careful – Mike. But,
then that is what this test phase is all about – find out what might bite
you while you are close to home.
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Mike Wills
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 9:49
PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] fuel supply
problem?
Was out boring holes in the sky today trying to accumulate
hours - finally a day off with no rain. About 2 hours into the flight, running
on the left tank, and making a gentle left turn (maybe 20 - 30 degrees of
bank), and the engine lost power. About 2 seconds later the engine monitor
alarmed that the fuel pressure was below limits. By the time the alarm sounded
I had already switched tanks and power was coming back up. My airplane is set
up with 1 pump for each tank, so switching tanks actually means switching pumps
too.
Needless to say I returned home immediately on the right
tank and the airplane ran OK all the way back. Once on the ground I did a full
power runup switching tanks repeatedly and everything was fine. I'm not certain
how much fuel is in the left tank, I'm guessing about 5 gallons. I'll find
out tomorrow when I top off the tanks.
The only thing I can guess is maybe the fuel in the tank
drained away from the pickup in the turn? The turn was coordinated so in theory
the pickup should have remained submerged. I might have to re-think the fuel
system.
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