If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
faith in the fuel delivery infrastructure
I'll probably need an airport tour to answer this to my satisfaction, but I
thought it merited a discussion here anyway. It seems pretty standard that, after an airplane is refueled, you wait 10-15 minutes and resample the fuel to check for contaminants (water). I recently witnessed a situation where the fuel was checked during preflight, but not after refueling. The reason given was that at this particular airport, the fuel supply is replenished/recycled daily, if not more, and so there isn't time for water, or perhaps *enough* water, to collect in the storage tanks and end up in an aircraft's fuel tanks. I'm not convinced. Work experience with mechanical things tells me that mechanical things malfunction. Could water get into the fuel truck's tank? Could water get into the storage tank? Could water get into the tanker bringing fuel to the airport? Could there be water in the fuel at the depot? Etc... I really don't know enough to answer this. It seems that the most likely causes of water contamination would be condensation in an airplane's fuel tank, or a leak in the airport's fuel storage tank. If the fuel doesn't sit in either for long, then that probably would reduce the risk to near zero. I would imagine that there's some other failsafes in place to prevent water from getting to the aircraft - perhaps the refueling trucks are individually checked before they are sent out. Still, if water gets into the system at ANY point, seems it's going to wind up in SOMEBODY's gas tank, no matter how often the supply is recycled? While we're at it, are these types of fuel checks standard procedure for ALL aircraft, or just the little piston-powered ones? |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Replacing fuel cut-off valve with non-a/c part??? | Michael Horowitz | Owning | 46 | January 15th 05 10:20 PM |
Cessna 172 with Wild Fuel Gauge Needle | jls | Owning | 26 | February 20th 04 05:56 AM |
Yo! Fuel Tank! | Veeduber | Home Built | 15 | October 25th 03 02:57 AM |
Hot Starting Fuel Injected Engines | Peter Duniho | Piloting | 23 | October 18th 03 02:50 AM |
Pumping fuel backwards through an electric fuel pump | Greg Reid | Home Built | 15 | October 7th 03 07:09 PM |