Preflighting my plane - Video

" wrote in
:

On Sep 19, 5:00*pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
" wrote in news:7b0f558c-

epends on the type, but tin tanks are no kind of insurance against it.
Try
it sometime. Drain some fuel, if there's some water, drain it all out
and then shake the airplane. Pretty sure you;ll get some more.

BTW, you're tanks are more than likely aluminum. I could be wrong,
but I'
ve
never seen stainless tanks in any airplane.

Bertie

Surprisingly, I can count on one hand getting water in the fuel and my
bet how it got in there is my carelessness on taking the caps off
after a rain and the residual rain underneath the lever sneaks into
the tank. But I will give what you say above a try, nothing gain,
nothing loss but the adventure.


Yeah, it's rare enough. depends on the airplane and where you live.
We had an accident near where I live with an engine failure on takeoff
after some very heavy rain. The guys were OK, but the airplane was
destroyed ( Cherokee). There was no problem found with the engine. I think
thye might have had this problem.



Bertie

On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:43:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Sep 19, 3:28*pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

One, as you walk around, stand back every so often and look at the
airframe. You're looking for wrinkles in the skin or anything else that
might look strange.

Definately good one for the checklist. Never thought of this and
while I always step back after doing the entire check list for a last
once over (long video - part 2, you will see me do this at the very
end) I never thought about skin wrinkles.

I look and feel for these. What about places you can't either touch or
see?

On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:43:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

mounting holes and such, and perhaps more importantly, it will get any fuel
that might be hiding in the fuel tank away from the sump out of it's
depression and into the sump.

Not quite sure I understand the above??

Obviously has something to do with the sump jiggies, and mine are
"spring loaded" and pressed in using the outer edge of the fuel sump
diddy rather then a center piece like a Cessna.

Does the style of sump make any difference?

Yes, some sumps drop water to the bottom, don't know about your AC.

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
| " wrote in news:baaaeed8-05e4-498d-
| :
|
| Today's flight, figured to video how I preflight my plane. Comments
| here or on the video most welcomed. Always nice to hear input to make
| me a safer pilot!
|
|
| Very Good. i didn;t watch all of it, but it's thorough and you use the
| checklist.
|
| Two thins I'd add to it if they're not already in there.
|
| One, as you walk around, stand back every so often and look at the
| airframe. You're looking for wrinkles in the skin or anything else that
| might look strange.
| Second, you should grab the wingtip and give the airplane a good shaking (
| after the tiedowns are removed)
| this does two things. Reveals some kinds of damage, like elongated wing
| mounting holes and such, and perhaps more importantly, it will get any
fuel
| that might be hiding in the fuel tank away from the sump out of it's
| depression and into the sump.
|
|
|
|
| Bertie

You better start sucking up and acting like a contributor, you dumb ass.

Should have watched more of the movie though, it would have been more
convincing. Pretty clear you didn't see much it.

wrote in message
...


Not quite sure I understand the above??

Obviously has something to do with the sump jiggies, and mine are
"spring loaded" and pressed in using the outer edge of the fuel sump
diddy rather then a center piece like a Cessna.

Does the style of sump make any difference?

-------------------------------------------------------

It's hard to imagine were every divot, rib, baffle, fitting or fastener
might be in a tank. Although the drain is in the designed low point,
droplets of water can cling to imperfections elsewhere. Condensation also
collects in the tanks unwetted areas, and doesn't join the mix until
splashed.

Carefully rocking the wings, from the wing tip, sloshes the fuel around and
helps rinse trapped droplets to the drain area.

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
| " wrote in news:7b0f558c-1f70-462f-
| :
|
| On Sep 19, 3:47 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
|
| No, nothing to do with the sump drains themselves. The sump area is a
| small depession at the bottom of the tank. All water in the tank should
| go there by design. However most tanks have small imperfections in them
| where water can get into and stick there. You do a nice calm walkaround
| and drain your fuel and then when you start taxying, the water becomes
| dislodged and gets into a feed port. With some designs, this can add up
| to a lot of water...
|
| Gotchya, gotchya and gotchya, never thought of what you say, and makes
| perfect sense.
|
| Tanks I have are "stainless steel" and not bladders, so I **think**I
| have a lesser risk of water settling where it shouldn't be but like
| you say, a good shake would be prudent to better assure the water
| indeed does settle down to the sumps so it gets sumped out.
|
| Depends on the type, but tin tanks are no kind of insurance against it.
Try
| it sometime. Drain some fuel, if there's some water, drain it all out and
| then shake the airplane. Pretty sure you;ll get some more.
|
| BTW, you're tanks are more than likely aluminum. I could be wrong, but
I've
| never seen stainless tanks in any airplane.
|
|
|
| Bertie
|
|

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
|a wrote in
| :
|
| On Sep 19, 6:00 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
| " wrote in
| news:7b0f558c-1f70-462f-
| :
|
|
|
| On Sep 19, 3:47 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
|
| No, nothing to do with the sump drains themselves. The sump area
| is a small depession at the bottom of the tank. All water in the
| tank shoul
| d
| go there by design. However most tanks have small imperfections in
| the
| m
| where water can get into and stick there. You do a nice calm
| walkaroun
| d
| and drain your fuel and then when you start taxying, the water
| becomes dislodged and gets into a feed port. With some designs,
| this can add u
| p
| to a lot of water...
|
| Gotchya, gotchya and gotchya, never thought of what you say, and
| makes perfect sense.
|
| Tanks I have are "stainless steel" and not bladders, so I
| **think**I have a lesser risk of water settling where it shouldn't
| be but like you say, a good shake would be prudent to better assure
| the water indeed does settle down to the sumps so it gets sumped
| out.
|
| Depends on the type, but tin tanks are no kind of insurance against
| it. T
| ry
| it sometime. Drain some fuel, if there's some water, drain it all out
| and then shake the airplane. Pretty sure you;ll get some more.
|
| BTW, you're tanks are more than likely aluminum. I could be wrong,
| but I'
| ve
| never seen stainless tanks in any airplane.
|
| Bertie
|
|
|
| Big design flaw on the early M20J (Mooney 201) was the fuel tanks were
| wet wing, and the seam sealant failed. If one smells gas in flight it
| is NOT good, and we did. Huge pain in the ass to reseal. The other
| thing about those tanks is the fuel caps were a little tricky to put
| back right (this was back in the old days when the fuel truck would
| come to the airplane) and if they were not put on right rain got in
| big time. Nothing like draining a tank in a rain storm while wearing a
| suit!
|
|
| Yeah, I know the caps you're talking about. They were a bitch to get on.
| I sem to remember a lot of Mooneys having bladders, though. Earlier ones
| maybe? Maybe wood wing airplanes?
|
|
| Bertie
|

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
| " wrote in
| :
|
| On Sep 19, 5:00 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
| " wrote in news:7b0f558c-
|
| epends on the type, but tin tanks are no kind of insurance against it.
| Try
| it sometime. Drain some fuel, if there's some water, drain it all out
| and then shake the airplane. Pretty sure you;ll get some more.
|
| BTW, you're tanks are more than likely aluminum. I could be wrong,
| but I'
| ve
| never seen stainless tanks in any airplane.
|
| Bertie
|
| Surprisingly, I can count on one hand getting water in the fuel and my
| bet how it got in there is my carelessness on taking the caps off
| after a rain and the residual rain underneath the lever sneaks into
| the tank. But I will give what you say above a try, nothing gain,
| nothing loss but the adventure.
|
|
| Yeah, it's rare enough. depends on the airplane and where you live.
| We had an accident near where I live with an engine failure on takeoff
| after some very heavy rain. The guys were OK, but the airplane was
| destroyed ( Cherokee). There was no problem found with the engine. I think
| thye might have had this problem.
|
|
|
| Bertie

On Sep 20, 1:11*am, Gezellig wrote:

I look and feel for these. What about places you can't either touch or
see?

Heh heh, you do more then I did regarding looking for the wrinkling of
the skin as I never thought about it until Bertie brought it up,
soooo, you probably will have to "trust" what you don't see, don't
hurt.

Getting some good stuff out of this latest video to add to my "tool
kit" of being a safer pilot from here and a couple other forums I
shared the video with.

"Mick" @_#`~#@.^net wrote in :


"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
| " wrote in
| news:62dfd245-3863-4a15-90c1-a645f988c237
@y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com
| :
|
| On Sep 19, 5:00 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
| " wrote in news:7b0f558c-
|
| epends on the type, but tin tanks are no kind of insurance against
| it. Try
| it sometime. Drain some fuel, if there's some water, drain it all
| out and then shake the airplane. Pretty sure you;ll get some more.
|
| BTW, you're tanks are more than likely aluminum. I could be wrong,
| but I'
| ve
| never seen stainless tanks in any airplane.
|
| Bertie
|
| Surprisingly, I can count on one hand getting water in the fuel and
| my bet how it got in there is my carelessness on taking the caps
| off after a rain and the residual rain underneath the lever sneaks
| into the tank. But I will give what you say above a try, nothing
| gain, nothing loss but the adventure.
|
|
| Yeah, it's rare enough. depends on the airplane and where you live.
| We had an accident near where I live with an engine failure on
| takeoff after some very heavy rain. The guys were OK, but the
| airplane was destroyed ( Cherokee). There was no problem found with
| the engine. I think thye might have had this problem.
|
|
|
| Bertie




Thanks, Wasn't sure if this propogated fully.



You're performing a public service afer all by ensuring my wisdom
reaches around the globe.


Bertie