Jay Honeck wrote:

Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on
the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it?
Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots
on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the
push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges).
Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly
where it
belongs.

Amen, Ray!

Because of the absurd location, we simply don't drain the main sump as often
as we should. (We, of course, sump the wing tanks before each flight.)

Unless you've got another person who is willing to lay on their back in the
snow, that central sump is darn near impossible to check. Sure, you can
just "pee the plane" and dump it on the tarmac, but that ruins the asphalt
and ****es off the Greenies. If the sump actuator were on the bottom of the
plane near the drain, I'm sure we'd do it before every flight.

More often, yes. Before every flight....somehow I doubt it.



And the LEAST that Piper could have done was design the sump door properly.
As it is now, the door isn't even held on with a hinge -- it's simply got a
tab that is stuck through a slot in the plastic trim piece, and then held in
place with a piece of spring steel.


When the spring weakens over time, the door hangs open a tiny bit, which
catches a back-seat passenger's shoe when they're stepping down into the
plane. That puts an impossible bending force on the plastic, and tears the
door right out.

Amen, Brother, Amen. Those doors must be getting scarcer then hen's teeth
these days. I've managed not to mangle the second one since I've owned the
plane (10 yrs, ~1000 hrs). The trick seems to be being careful to only open the
door the minimum required to get your finger in there so that the springs don't
get sprung. As long as the door closes fully, it doesn't seem to catch feet.
Still, if someone came up with an STC for a belly actuator, it would also get
rid of that annoying door inspection AD. Still would have the 50 hour valve
check one though, but it sure would be easier. Can't tell you how many times
I've missed while trying to get the plane to pee in the cup for the 50hr drug
test.

Any takers for developing an STC'd sump drain lever? If not that, then how
about a threaded nipple that you could screw a collection bottle onto? I've
tried clear hose, but it never wants to stay put on the nipple.


--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759