Economic Girly Man wrote:
: I've taken the usual precautions to keep dirt and moisture out of the
: Gerry cans but lately encountered something a bit unexpected: as I was
: preparing to fill the cans, I happened to glance inside one and noticed
: several patches of what appeared to be mold or fungus. These were dark
: brown in color, from 1/8 to 1/2 inches in diameter; there were 4 to 7 or
: so of these on the bottom inside surface of each can.

I'm not sure what to think about your "diagnosis," but I know I felt a lot
better running mogas after rigging a water-absorbing filter into the pour-spout of the
cans I use. I found just a a bit of water, rust particles, in the fuel sample before
I did this. Now, with the spin-on filter ($25 + some clever engineering to make it
into a pour spout), I never see anything. I don't care what crap is in the can (I see
some particles/water/etc on the bottom).... it never makes it into the tank.

I'm not sure how to deal with the fuel bladders, but I drained and redrained
my Cherokee tanks a few times after I found a bit of contamination in it. If you
truly have slugs of growth, that could be hard to get out (for the same reason it's
bad to leave it it... it'll plug holes/lines). If I had to guess, I'd say your cans
got their growth while sitting empty for awhile with some water in the bottom. I
wouldn't think it would grow in the airplane's bladders (but I could be wrong).

-Cory

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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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