fuel tank plumbing

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 13:14:41 -0500, " jls"
wrote:

Well, maybe, but wing tanks on a Taylorcraft are vented with ram-air
tubes
on the caps and so is the header tank. In flight those tubes make
positive
pressure on the 6-gallon wing tanks and the 12-gallon header tank.

I've seen a few times, too, that the wing tank gets balky emptying into
the
header tank during flight, despite the ram-air tubes.

Well if the header tank is below the wing tanks, and the header tank
is vented, what's preventing the wing tanks from overfilling the
header tank as Ed Sullivan suggested?

I never saw Ed's post, but I can tell you from my own experience that if you
haven't run at least six gallons out of the header tank before you open the
valve on a wing tank, you're going to get overflowing gas sprayed from the
vent tube all over the windshield.

Does the header tank vent have a checkvalve?

No. I've never heard of one. Taylorcrafts are made to fly, not to be
overly complicated.

I was picturing the header tank being downstream of the wing tanks and
not being vented. In effect, the header tank is simply a distorted
downstream fuel line.

That very well may work, Corky, but I think I'd want the header tank vented.

Thanks, Corky Scott


Thanks to you too.

This thread reminds me of the two guys flying a Taylorcraft cross-country
from East to West Tennessee. They stopped near Knoxville to refuel and had
the lineboy fill the wing tanks. As they flew along enjoying themselves,
counting cows in the green pastures below, the wire gauge dropped and they
decided to refill the header by dumping the contents of a wing tank. The
trusty copilot opened a valve and no gas. He opened another valve and no
gas. They began to look for a landing strip to put down, but the engine
quit they landed and nosed over in a muddy cow pasture. The lineboy had
screwed the lids on the wing tanks with the ram air tubes backwards. Low
pressure caused all the gas to be sucked out and emptied the tanks.