I have a sensor located in the line after the fuel selector in my IVPT. This is the line that feeds the center tank from the wing tanks. If the fuel from selected wing tank is not flowing adequately a light comes on. I'm told the sensor is optical and reacts to air in the line. I think I got this sensor from Mike Custard. Might this sensor be usable any point in the plumbing?

 

Dave.

 

We sent off the fuel pump for inspection and overhaul. Due back late next week. Still no causal chain isolated....  Lancair inspected the photos and they believe we have 1/2" lines. Anybody know the best way to access to inspect these lines for both diameter and number of 90 degree turns?  As I reviewed the data, it is difficult to determine whether MAP or FF fails first. It occurs to me that some intermittent failure of the turbocharger MAP feedback control might also cause this pattern, though far less likely than FF. On the ground failures, the turbos were spooling up from idle. At FL 220 they were at full power < critical altitude.    (anybody know their IV-P crit alt from flt test?)  Since vapor lock remains mysterious and we have all this on-board data monitoring capability, I wonder if there's a way to monitor for bubbles in the feedline to the low boost and to the engine driven pump. In monitoring pilots for the bends (space suit prebreathing was used this week on the Hubble Mission), at Brooks AFB, we could early detect micro-bubbles in the blood with ultrasound before the symptoms were experienced by the "astronaut". As the bubbles get bigger you start to see problems as big bubbles lodge in important places like joints, heart, brain etc. Some kind of acoustic or optical detector might give us early warning.  Has anyone seen a takeoff mishap attributed to vapor lock? Particularly in the IV or TSIO-550B? Thanks Bill Miller