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I reluctantly made a decision to not trust sealing a gas tank to any petrochemical that is shipped to me in a liquid
form. You never know what all those petrochemical engineers in Congress will decide mandate to be put into our fuel
next. So I welded a fuel tank and glassed that into the place that was designed for a fiberglass tank. I would have
preferred buying a premade poly-ethylene or aluminum racing tank, but I couldn't find one that even came close to fitting.
Aren't the Cozy tanks just big cubes sitting inside the wing roots? Would it be safer, and possibly easier, to buy a
tank, sit it in the, and glass it into place?
Bill Schertz wrote:
There are two areas that may influence this.
On my plane,
1. I did the Jeffco coating, but when you glue the closeout piece in
place, the seam is not covered, so I worried that that would be a point
of attack.
2. Another builder and I did a test, I coated samples of fiberglass
with Jeffco and the structural epoxy, and he did an immersion test in
gasoline with ethanol. The regular epoxy (Aeropoxy) flaked off rapidly,
the Jeffco did not, however it DID swell, and gain weight, which
indicated to me that it was letting some of the solvent through to the
underlying epoxy, therefore I decided that I could not trust it with
ethanol.
Bill Schertz
KIS Cruiser #4045
N343BS
Phase one testing Completed
*From:* Steve Brooks <mailto:cozy4pilot@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, December 01, 2011 2:51 PM
*To:* Rotary motors in aircraft <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
*Subject:* [FlyRotary] Re: Steve Brooks Cozy
Bill,
Apparently I did get some Ethanol. I had used the Jeffco sealant on the
tanks - 3 coats, when I built it. Supposedly it is impervious to most
anything, but apparently that is either not correct, or I missed a
pinhole somewhere.
Steve
*From:* Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]
*On Behalf Of *Bill Schertz
*Sent:* Thursday, December 01, 2011 7:18 AM
*To:* Rotary motors in aircraft
*Subject:* [FlyRotary] Steve Brooks Cozy
Steve,
Were you running Auto fuel with Ethanol in your tanks?
Bill Schertz
KIS Cruiser #4045
N343BS
Phase one testing Completed
*From:* Steve Brooks <mailto:cozy4pilot@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, December 01, 2011 5:29 AM
*To:* Rotary motors in aircraft <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
*Subject:* [FlyRotary] Re: Rotary Plane on Mythbusters
Hi Kelly,
Yeas, I've been quiet for a while, but still lurking. It has been 2
years since I last flew the Cozy. I had an engine issue, and I had the
plane in the garage for almost a year swapping the engine, and adding
the EM3. I ended up changing jobs and moving about an hour away, so I
moved the plane back to the airport before I was quite ready, and then
while tuning, I noticed that I had developed a leak in the left fuel tank.
At this point I need to get the plane moved to my new house, so that I
can open up the tank, and repair any damaged foam, and re-glass and
paint it. I should already have done it, but between work, and home
projects, I haven't taken the time. I also need to arrange with a
wrecker company or someone to move it.
I did buy another plane though, a Socata Tampico, so that I could still
do some flying. The plan is to fix the Cozy, and then sell one of
them. I prefer to keep the Cozy, but the wife really like the Socata,
so I'm not yet sure how that will work out.
Steve Brooks
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