Fuel contamination and other basic survival instincts

An Instructor once told me that it takes 5 minutes per inch of fuel in the
tank for all the water (if any) to show up in the sumps. Don't know where
he got that from, but I thought I'd pass it on.

In rec.aviation.ifr lardsoup wrote:
An Instructor once told me that it takes 5 minutes per inch of fuel in the
tank for all the water (if any) to show up in the sumps. Don't know where
he got that from, but I thought I'd pass it on.

CRC Chemistry.

I believe the settling rate of water in 100LL is 1" per minute.
Figure your tanks are 9" deep... check after 9 minutes.
Adjust for the depth of your tanks.

Best regards,

Jer/ "Flight instruction and mountain flying are my vocation!" Eberhard

--
Jer/ (Slash) Eberhard, Mountain Flying Aviation, LTD, Ft Collins, CO
CELL 970 231-6325 EMAIL jer'at'frii.com WEB http://users.frii.com/jer/
C-206 N9513G, CFII Airplane&Glider, FAA-DEN Aviation Safety Counselor
CAP-CO Mission&Aircraft CheckPilot, BM218 HAM N0FZD, 228 Young Eagles!

Actually, it will take a lot longer for all the water to settle to the
bottom. Tiny droplets of water setlle at an extremely slow rate, and even a
small agitation will disturb them back into the fuel. The basic idea of the
sump drain is not just to remove water, but to indicate that there is a
problem with the fuel. Once you detect water in the sumps, it's going to
take a lot longer than 5 minutes to get going.



"lardsoup" wrote in
:

An Instructor once told me that it takes 5 minutes per inch of fuel in
the tank for all the water (if any) to show up in the sumps. Don't
know where he got that from, but I thought I'd pass it on.