Moose fuel tanks
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:04 pm
Wanted to run an idea I had past everyone... I originally placed the order
for my Moose kit with 80 gallon tanks... it was tempting to order the 120
gallon tanks, but the thought of keeping 720 lbs. of fuel on board to keep
the tanks full just didn't seem like the way to go. But Alaska sure is a
big place, and I'd love to be able to carry that much fuel.
Then I had a thought... what about splitting the wing tanks in two? Why
couldn't you just leave the middle rib whole, and put a check valve in it at
the bottom rear corner, to allow fuel to flow from the outer compartment to
the inner compartment, but not back out. You could use the typical ram air
fed into the outer tank to provide positive pressure. This way you could
normally fly only filling the inner tanks which would give you 60 gallons.
But on those occasions when you wanted the extra fuel you could also fill
the outer tanks to get the full 120 gallons. This could easily be split
80/40 or any other combination also since all the ribs start out solid, and
you would drill out only those you needed.
Having the ram air feed into the outer tank should cause the outer tank to
drain completely into the inner tank before the inner tank level started to
fall. Once the outer tank was empty air would start passing through the
check valve and the inner tank would
empty normally so your site gauges would still be accurate from the 60
gallon point down. I suppose an electronic sending unit could be installed
in the outboard tanks for monitoring, or with a little additional plumbing a
second set of site gauges.
I've drawn a simple picture of what I have in mind and loaded it to the web
site in area 58, Super Rebel Wing, or click here:
http://rebel:builder@www.dcsol.com:81/f ... altank.jpg
I'd love some feedback from everyone... let me know if you think this would
work alright. I've sent the idea to Murphy too, and will let you know what
they think. I think it would be great to keep it full at 60 gallons, and
still be able to load it to 120 for that big moose hunting trip.
Mike
195SR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
for my Moose kit with 80 gallon tanks... it was tempting to order the 120
gallon tanks, but the thought of keeping 720 lbs. of fuel on board to keep
the tanks full just didn't seem like the way to go. But Alaska sure is a
big place, and I'd love to be able to carry that much fuel.
Then I had a thought... what about splitting the wing tanks in two? Why
couldn't you just leave the middle rib whole, and put a check valve in it at
the bottom rear corner, to allow fuel to flow from the outer compartment to
the inner compartment, but not back out. You could use the typical ram air
fed into the outer tank to provide positive pressure. This way you could
normally fly only filling the inner tanks which would give you 60 gallons.
But on those occasions when you wanted the extra fuel you could also fill
the outer tanks to get the full 120 gallons. This could easily be split
80/40 or any other combination also since all the ribs start out solid, and
you would drill out only those you needed.
Having the ram air feed into the outer tank should cause the outer tank to
drain completely into the inner tank before the inner tank level started to
fall. Once the outer tank was empty air would start passing through the
check valve and the inner tank would
empty normally so your site gauges would still be accurate from the 60
gallon point down. I suppose an electronic sending unit could be installed
in the outboard tanks for monitoring, or with a little additional plumbing a
second set of site gauges.
I've drawn a simple picture of what I have in mind and loaded it to the web
site in area 58, Super Rebel Wing, or click here:
http://rebel:builder@www.dcsol.com:81/f ... altank.jpg
I'd love some feedback from everyone... let me know if you think this would
work alright. I've sent the idea to Murphy too, and will let you know what
they think. I think it would be great to keep it full at 60 gallons, and
still be able to load it to 120 for that big moose hunting trip.
Mike
195SR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------