On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 23:54:34 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Do you guys carry a bucket to catch the gas you drain if you remain
overnight somewhere? Eleven seconds minimum for each tip and six
seconds for each main spills a lot of gas.

Where did you get those numbers?

Never heard that before -- we sump them into the clear plastic tube, check
for debris and water, and go on our merry way...

Bear in mind ours is a '69.

While going through old W&B stuff, I found this Piper document that
says it's supposed to be kept with the aircraft. The last page and a
half contains a description of how to drain the tanks through the
belly so that you collect all the water that might be in the gas lines
between the tanks and the sump. Goes: start with the selector on OFF,
then left-tip, left-main, right-main, right-tip, 11-seconds,
6-seconds, 6-seconds, 11-seconds. The times are minimums, for when
the tanks are full -- it says it might take more time if the tanks
aren't full.

Makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it. You can have
gas in the belly-drain sump and water in a tank line where the water's
below the level of the tank drain, but is blocked from entering the
selector valve by its check-valve. When you select a new tank, the
check-valve is opened, and yes water will flow down the line and into
the sump, displacing the gas that's there, but it won't happen
instantaneously.

The procedure should apply to all Cherokees with four tanks. I'll
look up chapter and verse tomorrow. I bet the procedure isn't well
known, and it wouldn't be well liked, because you wind up draining
close to a pint of gas -- onto the ramp if you don't have a bucket and
a Gatt jar.

I'll bring it up on the 235 BBS after I see what responses come up
here on the NG.

Don