Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "Peter W Johnson"
Subject: Pietenpol-List: Fuel Tanks & Flying Story.In a message dated 1/30/04 11:55:41 PM Central Standard Time, vk3eka(at)bigpond.net.au writes:>Peter, The beauty of a Pietenpol is in it's simplicity. Keep it simple. If it isn't there, it can't break or leak. Bernard Harold Pietenpol maintained this strategy throughout. He simply valved the line from the wing tank to thecowl tank. Use 3/8" aluminum fuel lines and 37 flaired aircraft grade 'B' nuts throughout. You also need a 'Finger Screen' in the outlet of each tank. Thisis your third line of defense against getting crap in the carb. First line of defense is use clean fuel, during re-fuel operation, and during storage, you also need to cap the L shaped vent, with a flag that says 'Remove Before Flight'. For some reason, wasps and other bugs don't seem to mind the odor of fuel. Fourth line of defense is the fine mesh screen in the gascolator, and finally the Very Fine screen in the inlet of the carburetor. The Cowl tank is in fact the main tank. The Wing tank simply replenishes the cowl tank, when you see the level of the wire / cork get low enough. In flight, there is no need to see the quantity of the wing tank. This system does, however, require fuel management during flight, because you can overflowthe cowl tank during an in flight re-fuel period. Ya gotta keep an eye on thewire, during re-fuel. Pre-flight fuel quantity indicator is a dip stick, one end for the cowl tank, the other end of the stick is for the wing tank. To make the stick, havethe plane on level ground, and tail down. Start out with an empty tank, and add 1 gallon increments, dip and mark the quantity on the stick at each gallon line. During each pre-flight, record the 'Fuel Onboard' in your pre-flight log, along with the time, date, hour meter, etc. Check all this again at post flight, and this enables you to determine your fuel burn rate. I have a flying story about this system:On my way back from Oshkosh last year, I was 30 miles southeast of Kansas City, and the wire in the cowl tank showed me I was low enough to add some fuel.Any time you move any fuel valve in any airplane, you should be within gliding distance of an airport. I had a small airport within sight, so I reachedup and turned the wing tank valve on, and settled back to enjoy the scenery and unparalleled beauty of flying an open cockpit plane. It takes over 6 minutes to empty my wing tank, and although I glanced at the wire as it came up, I thought the entire contents of the wing tank, would fit in the cowl tank. NOT !! A 1/4" stream of fuel began squirting out of the cowl tank vent, and instantly covered my windshield with FUEL ! I squinted my eyes, reached up andturned the valve off, went full power climb to try to use more fuel. Ducked downin behind the windshield, with eyes squinted, I watched the left wing tip to maintain wing level, and watched the airspeed to maintain a steep climb rate. I was afraid of getting fuel in my eyes, which would have been DISASASTEROUS !! It took about minute or so, before the fuel stopped covering my windshield. Whew !! That was a close one !! Lesson Learned !!Chuck GantzerNX770CG________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: owner-pietenpol-list-server(at)matronics.com
Chuck,Sounds like fun!!!As I noted, a mark on the cowl fuel tank contents level to show when thereis enough space in the tank to take the contents of the wing tank would beuseful.Thanks for the suggestions.Peter.-----Original Message-----

Original Posted By: Rcaprd(at)aol.com
Michael,For years, I used a metal cover over the front cockpit in cooler weatherand, when the a/c was hangared, keep out pests of various kinds. The sheetmetal covers were fine, but I had leave them at home when I went anywhere,so I had covers made from fabric material used for sailboat sail covers.Snap fasteners hold them in place and they can be rolled up and taken withthe airplane in the wing center section which has always been the smallbaggage compartment on my Pietenpol (I have only the fuselage nose tankholding about 15 US gallons of fuel).I have never flown really long distances with my Pietenpol, but on occasionhave removed the front stick and secured stuff onto the front seat using thelap belt and shoulder straps. I have thought of making a canvas sling,similar to yours, but never got around to doing so. I find the Pietenpoluncomfortable after about an hour "in the saddle" and like to land for alittle "walkabout" after perhaps 1.5 hours. If some extra fuel is required,I strap a 5 gallon container onto the front seat and empty it into the fueltank during such a stop. I have always preferred to use only the top half ofthe fuel in the tank, and to not makeserious demands on the lower half. So these stops fit my philosophy nicely.At one time I was inclined to fly my Pietenpol to Oshkosh and/or Brodhead,but never got things arranged so that I could get away. Nowadays, I am tooold for such an undertaking (Hint: I am the same age as the Pietenpoldesign) and the distance issimply too great. If I lived closer, say within 500 to 600 miles, you wouldsee me there, but 1600 to 1700 miles is at this stage a bit much. Besides,border crossings have become a hassle and clearing Canadian Customs whenreturning is awkward because many airports of entry are no longer availableon this side. With the Piet's limited range there could be problems and Ijust don't need that sort of thing! Many years ago (It now seems to be inanother life) I used to fly old Bell helicopters from Edmonton to thenorthern Yukon, Northwest Territories and Arctic coast, and back again.Those Bell 47s were even slower than my Pietenpol, but we had practicallyunlimited places to land and didn't have to play the Customs game. It wassomewhattiresome going north in the spring, but much more pleasant when returning inthe autumn. Today, people like Ted ("Iron Butt") Brousseau can do the honorsin my place!Thanks for the tips, Mike. Cheers,Graham (Pietenpol CF-AUN in chilly Alberta, where we now have LOTS ofsnow for ski flying.)________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By:
Why don't you guys just hard-line between the wing tank and fuselage tank,but NOT have a filler opening on the fuselage tank. It would just be aflow-through tank, but you would have the added capacity without having toworry about overfilling the tank or plumbing each separately to thegascolator.Gene----- Original Message -----

Original Posted By: Michael D Cuy

Original Posted By: Wizzard187(at)aol.com
Subject: Re: Pietenpol-List: Fuel Tanks & Flying Story.In a message dated 2/3/04 6:21:29 AM Central Standard Time, rambog(at)erols.com writes:>Gene, The drawbacks of eliminating the filler neck in the cowling tank are:1) You couldn't monitor your fuel in flight, unless you added some type of sealed float monitor in the cowl tank.2) Re-fueling an almost empty system would require the time period to re-fuel the cowl tank from the wing tank. On my system, this takes over 6 minutes. I have a 9.8 gal wing tank, 10.7 gal cowling tank.3) If the wing tank should ever develop a leak, I can always leave that tank empty, and use only the cowl tank. As Mike C. pointed out, the simplest and most efficient system would be one tank, preferebly the 17 gal cowl tank location (plenty of fuel). As we allknow, there are pro's and con's for any system. One drawback for that much fuel in the cowl tank, is the pitch trim change, as fuel is consumed. Mike, I don't see how you squeezed that much fuel in your cowl tank (17 gal.). We both have the 'Short Fuselage', and I used every nook and cranny upthere, and could only get 10.7 gal. For my plane, I started out with just the wing tank, then added the cowl tank when I did the engine conversion last spring. I am completely satisfied with how my system performs, and overflowing the cowling tank was my own fault. It won't happen again !! Another note of caution (while we're on the subject of fueling), is refueling with one of those huge hoses, with the nozzels that doesn't shut offwhen the level touches the tip. Those things belch a HUGE quantity of fuel when the handle is fully squeezed. Even dipping the tank to know how much fuel to add, twice I've spilled fuel all over the cowling !!Chuck G.________________________________________________________________________________