Today's Message Index:
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1. 07:33 AM - Re: passing lane (Mark Blackwell)
2. 12:01 PM - fuel tank measurements (Oscar Zuniga)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Re: passing lane |
Getting passed by a 150 isn't embarassing. At least its an airplane. You should
have seen some of the old school busses though. lol
----- Original Message -----
From: Dick Navratil
To: pietenpol-list@matronics.com
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: Pietenpol-List: passing lane
Mark
I have bad news for you - You will get passed by 150's in a Piet. I sometimes
fly with a friend, he in his Cub with an A-65. We match speed pretty closely.
Once in a while I fly race track patterns at 700 ft over some of the local freeways.
It's amazing how traffic slows down.
Dick N.
Message 2
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| Subject: | fuel tank measurements |
--> Pietenpol-List message posted by: "Oscar Zuniga" <taildrags@hotmail.com>
The fuel tank for NX41CC is out of the airplane and is easy to measure and
photograph and I'll be glad to do it, but I'll tell you this- it might not
fit many (any?) other Piets. For example, if you have a Ford "A" engine, it
won't work because the Ford uses the shelf space for the magneto to extend
into while the A65 doesn't. This fuel tank also extends very nearly from
longeron to longeron in the port-to-starboard direction, and I've already
found in rebuilding the firewall that anything other than very flexible
wires that go through the firewall, have to be snug up against the sides of
the fuselage or they won't clear the fuel tank. This is fine if you are
able to route your controls and cables to the extreme sides of the fuselage.
That said, the fuel tank on 41CC is very well constructed (welded aluminum),
simple, lightweight, and I have seen no evidence of leaks or repairs... and
NO sloshing compound. The inside is shiny clean. It holds about 16 US
gallons, has a J-3 style float-and-rod quantity indicator that Corky marked
in 1-gallon increments with very small notches filed in the brass rod. I
checked calibration of the float and rod and found it dead-on.
I intended to paint the indicator rod with the last 3 gallons' worth being
painted red as a "you'd better find a level place to land this thing", the
next 3 gallons to be painted yellow for, "you'd better find a field with
fuel within 20 miles of here", and the rest of it green. And although I did
this (epoxy paint), I found that Corky, always Mr. Conservative, did not
figure the last 1.5 to 2 gallons in the tank to be usable. When the
indicator rod bottoms out, there can be a gallon or two of fuel still in the
tank.
However, that remaining fuel really shouldn't even be considered part of a
30-minute reserve because when the fuel level is that low in the tank, the
fuel valve outlet could become unported in a turn from downwind to base or
base to final. So... only the top 1" or so of the indicator rod is painted
red and I hope never to be tempted to fly into the 2 gallons that supposedly
remain when I run out of indicator rod. But it's there and I've measured it
and in level flight it will feed into the finger strainer and fuel valve.
PS- I've decided to install a small mirror for the front cockpit as well.
It will allow the rear-seater to see the face of the passenger and
vice-versa. Could be useful. Now I have to empty a Pabst 12-pack carton to
generate some material to make the template for the mounting bracket from
;o)
Oscar Zuniga
San Antonio, TX
mailto: taildrags@hotmail.com
website at http://www.flysquirrel.net
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