On Mar 15, 11:47 am, wrote:
On Mar 14, 10:23 am, Mxsmanic wrote:



I'd prefer a system that allows me to draw fuel symmetrically from tanks on
both sides of the aircraft. That way imbalance is one less thing that I'd
have to worry about.

In my plane, that imbalance is not an issue. I start by flying 30
minutes on one side, then switch to the other side for 60 minutes,
then back for another 60 minutes. 30 minutes of imbalance is about 5
gallons (30 lbs) and not noticeable to me. A bigger worry is not
remembering to change tanks and then running a tank dry at low
altitude, might be on the ground before figuring out what's wrong.


On my Garmin 96 there is a built in fuel timer - set it for however
many minutes you want between changes and it somehow knows when you're
flying and when you're not, and lets you know when a tank change is
due.

2. Condensation rarely is the problem. The real problem is poorly
sealing fuel caps.

You just said they couldn't be sealed, so how is this a problem?

I think he means rain being driven into the tank past poor seals on
the fuel caps. I see this occasionally on my plane. But I get very
little, if any, condensation. All tanks that I know of on small
planes have a vent somewhere to let air in, so that the fuel will come
out.

One of the club planes I fly must have a dodgy seal on one of the fuel
tank caps - I always seem to get a bubble of water when sampling from
one tank but never the other..