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