nomadpete

Ask your trusty insurance broker. My Lightwing costs around $2k for $48k cover. It also d3epends significantly on your pilot hours.

PeterT

For an affordable introduction to unusual attitudes, try a visit to your local gliding club. Before you go solo, you are trained in recovery from fully developed spins, etc. It also gives you a slightly slower rotation,etc which gives you a better oportunity to come to grips with why the world is turning and why it is so suddenly went from under you to above you.

Gliding won't be breaking the bank and gliders are allowed to do aerobatics (with the right training and endorsements of course).

I think an Trial Instructional Flight would give you exposure to some aerobatics so long as you had a chat with the instructor first.

PeterT

My only experience with a glass cockpit was not at all reassuring. As a result of this experience, combined with a lifetime of working with electronics, I would only consider a glass cockpit when it was fully duplicated, along with a fully redundant power supply. I know that I could land my aircraft without an ASI, altimeter, tachometer, and all the less important indicators, but it qould be intimidating to be halfway to somewhere and have to complete a cross country trip into a strang place without these instruments.

My experience was in a new aircraft with a glass cockpit. Just as we rotated to take off, the screen had a glitch and the operating system had to be rebooted. Sure, we could get along without the rolling map, but what worried me was that the PIC had to start entering commands on the touch screen to get it all going again. A couple of minutes later he proudly showed me the system working again. But we had gone quite a long way with no instruments and the PIC's head down, staring at a blue screen during those couple of minutes. Not a good feeling, I must say. One glitch and you've lost the lot.

PeterT

Well, I cannot be sure which brand - I have used a couple over the time. So I don't know who to blame. Anyway, since it takes time (usually) before such things as leaks occur, it is impossible to nail it down to a particular tank of fuel. There is also the other problem of an immediate fuel blockage which could be caused by a fuel contaminant or incompatibility. I am concerned about our safety in the long term. Maybe it is simply best to go back to avgas and do the Rotax maintenance more often. I have heard reports of carby damage to small engines (mowers, motorcycles, etc) which has stopped them. So the risk is always there when you use mogas.

Thanks OZZIE for the link. Will check it out.

Was trying to stir up any info about the mogas problems, since the fuel giants are not likely to be much help!

PeterT

I recently had a problem with fuel leaking from holes in my fiberglass fuel tanks. It transpired that there were small holes developing in them. Close examination of the inside of the tanks revealed some soft spots of about 3mm diameter, as well as the pinholes that went right through. The soft spots were dark in colour and this colour vanished when the fuel had evaporated. These tanks are over ten years old, but why did they leak? I have been using mogas, and it is possible that I had accidentally got some fuel with e10 in it. I go out of my way to avoid that stuff but maybe some servo operator just did not tell me the truth.

The problem is this: How can we be sure that the fuel companies won't put some additive into their fuel which will cause a chemical problem with our fuel tanks or fuel system?

Note that even so called fuel resistant epoxy may not actually be fuel PROOF!

Check out this web article. Allow that it mostly refers to polyester fiberglass, but note that they did some tests on specifically ethanol resistant epoxy and it did not look good.

BoatUS.com - Seaworthy Magazine

Does any body know if there has been any objective research done on fuel effects on GRP?

PeterT

Thanks Ross for the comment on surface tension, but the size of the fuel line should not be a problem. It is 5/16 I think. However there is a level section of the pathway up near the tank and I assumed that was the cause. Anyway, it was not a great problem, if I noticed that one tank was going down (standard crosscountry check), and the other one staying full, it was a simple matter to turn off one for a little while. All part of inflight fuel managenent.

Still trying to figure out where to put a header tank. Even a small one would make a difference. ALW did caution me not to mess with the fuel system.

Biggest issue though is about the really serious hazard of new fuel chemistry eating away at our fuel tanks or other parts of our fuel systems. Check out this site for some analysis. I know it is a boat site and that might be heresey to mention in these forums, but they did some real analysis on so called 'fuel resistant' epoxy. And that is the product that we are hoping will keep our composite aircraft in the air.

Go to website for full page BoatUS.com - Seaworthy Magazine

Maj,

That's curious, I was not aware that ALW used alloy tanks. I assumed that since mine are glassed, then they all would be. The construction is a moulded 'handbasin', and that is pop rivetted (and glued) under the top skin of the wing. So the tank sits between two alloy skins of the wing root torque box. I still have not figured how those twin outlets work - the way I see it, as soon as one pickup sucks air, then the other one cannot suck fuel? I do get an air lock sometimes and that stops one tank from flowing until I shut off the other long enough to suck the airlock through. The whole fuel flow process seems to be more complex than it first appears. Many other a/c use a small header tank to make up for the occasional gulp of air.

Peter

My GA-912 developed leaks in both fuel tanks. The most dramatic was three pinholes half way up the aft face of the tank. The largest hole was almost 3mm diameter. Was this a result of a chemical reaction from the fuel? Has anyone heard of similar problems with any aircraft? Has anyone heard of anyone installing fabricated alloy tanks to replace fiberglass ones? Anyone who knows Lightwings would appreciate how much work is involved in replacing the integral fuel tanks.

Safe flying,

Peter