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Now, if someone can tell me why the fuel always seems to flow from my right
tank to my left, with the plane parked on level ground, even with the fuel
selector OFF, I'd be very interested!
Charles,
You may have a leak path in your fuel selector.
Ten years ago, just before my first flight, I discovered that my Andair
selector was leaking. I have a 3-position selector -- right, left, header. I
do not transfer fuel. I use the header as the reserve tank and can use the
mains down to almost zero without worrying about unporting. One day when I
returned to the hanger, 5 gallons of fuel were missing from the header.
There was no stain on the floor, so where did the fuel go? I checked the
other tanks, and the right main was up 5 gallons. I removed the valve and
determined that there was a leak path when the valve was in the center-tank
position. Normally I had been leaving the valve in the right or left
position.
For an installation with only right and left positions, you might not even
notice such a leak because we normally don't have much of a fuel imbalance.
It could be dangerous, however, because you could end up sucking air from an
empty tank in a situation with critically low fuel.
Mike Reinath
LNC2 360 @ 1150 Hrs
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