Fuel Tanks over your lap

[skyfox1]

Hi could l have your opinion on fuel tanks placement ,l have been looking at a Zenith ch 701 the fuel tank is behind the panel are there any safety issues with this system l am not keen on having 36Lts of fuel in that area are there many other aircraft with this design.

 

cheers Geoff..

 

 

[facthunter]

Most Austers. Piper Pawnee Lots of U/L's

 

The DH82 has the tank above and between the two halves of the top wing, and above the engine. They often burn on crashing

 

I would prefer them in the wings, but there is a risk with fuel anywhere in a plane. Nev

 

 

[naremman]

Nev, the Tiger Moth that I flew at Narrogin in the 1970s has a long range tank fitted above the knees and behind the instrument panel of the front seat. It had a pump, and swing bar running down the right side of the cockpit accessible to both pilots to pump fuel up to the top tank. A bit crude, but effective. I had no overwhelming desire to sit in a Tiger for five hours to burn that lot of fuel though.

 

My late first wife was singularly unimpressed on her first Tiger flight to have Avgas dripping onto her leg!!

 

Flying an Airtourer you are sitting on up to 132 litres of Avgas, but its location between the spars and it being a rubber fuel cell has resulted in very few fuel fires in survivable Airtourer bingles. Cliff Tait experienced burns after an Airtourer crash, but that aircraft had a metal fuel cell and Cliff is a strong advocate for the original fuel cell.

 

In an aside, Richard Hillary and Geoffery Page, two Battle of Britain pilots experienced extensive burns when the header tanks in their Hurricanes behind the panel lit up. But they were dealing with someone from the Luftwaffe intent and capable of considerable harm, thankfully something we don't have to deal with.

 

 

[Yenn]

It is one of the trade offs in design. Everyone knows that fuel is safer in the wings, but the problem is getting it there. A lot of aircraft have the tank over the knees and mine is one of them, but the risk I see is more to do with the pipework being broken in a crash than the tank. Even those planes with tanks in the wingoften have pipes in the cockpit, usually low down, where they could get damaged. Have the tap easily reachable and turn it off if a crash is imminent.

 

 

[peter]

My Cobra has the main tank (55litres) behind the panel, above my legs, my side of the firewall. Even if you turn the main fuel tap off there are still multiple lines coming from( or going to) the tank that do not have taps in them - fuel return (only applicable with fuel injection) , fuel drain, inlet from wing tanks. It certainly worries me but there is not any alternative with the design. I also have a fuel pressure gauge which means there is a high pressure hose attached to the back of the panel.

 

Peter

 

 

[flindersflyer]

Most Austers. Piper Pawnee Lots of U/L'sThe DH82 has the tank above and between the two halves of the top wing, and above the engine. They often burn on crashing

I would prefer them in the wings, but there is a risk with fuel anywhere in a plane. Nev

Makes me want to leave the fuel in the ground tank.

 

 

[Guest nunans]

The main tank in my SupaPup (36L) is behind the panel, over my legs and it's fibreglass. I really think if i were to have any kind of incident that bent the tubes in the forward fuse area then my legs would be doused in petrol. Maybe it wouldn't ignite but a hot exhaust or electrical spark would do it I guess. When I looked at a J3 cub, moth etc, they are all in the same boat and no doubt if one was to have a really serious crash then the fuel wouldn't matter as the impact would kill the pilot not the fire...

 

The thought of being seriously burned and surviving a crash is a very sobering one, the fuel in the forward fuse is hard to ignore as a risk factor especially when reminded that homebuilts crash twice as much and have three times the fatalities compared to the rest of Aviation.

 

Mostly though it's the nut behind the lever that causes the plane crash so making good decisions and being careful when flying will do more to keep you safe than putting the fuel in the wings rather than the fuse..

 

By the way can I ask why you'd be swapping from the fox to the 701?

 

 

[skyfox1]

The main tank in my SupaPup (36L) is behind the panel, over my legs and it's fibreglass. I really think if i were to have any kind of incident that bent the tubes in the forward fuse area then my legs would be doused in petrol. Maybe it wouldn't ignite but a hot exhaust or electrical spark would do it I guess. When I looked at a J3 cub, moth etc, they are all in the same boat and no doubt if one was to have a really serious crash then the fuel wouldn't matter as the impact would kill the pilot not the fire...The thought of being seriously burned and surviving a crash is a very sobering one, the fuel in the forward fuse is hard to ignore as a risk factor especially when reminded that homebuilts crash twice as much and have three times the fatalities compared to the rest of Aviation.

 

Mostly though it's the nut behind the lever that causes the plane crash so making good decisions and being careful when flying will do more to keep you safe than putting the fuel in the wings rather than the fuse..

 

By the way can I ask why you'd be swapping from the fox to the 701?

Hi l have a 200mt runway l fly the drifter in and out but l had to transport the fox to a longer runway ,with STOL of a 701 l wouldnt have to do that.

cheers Geoff