Brief Description: 1: Calibrating Fuel Tanks and Fuel Pump
Was a good day today as I finished off calibrating the fuel system. First up I filled the left tank in five litre increments and calibrated the gauge on Skyview. A couple of the readings seem a little dodgy, but I'll plot the curve on a spreadsheet later and adjust slightly to smooth it out.
Next I set myself up to run the fuel pump for the first time to verify fuel flows, and leaks. I figured this would be best managed by plugging my laptop into the VP-X and operating the fuel pump from outside the cockpit. I did waste an hour-or-so establishing comms to the VP-X, until I eventually worked out that I needed to turn off wireless on the computer for the wired ethernet connection to work. I've now added an info tag to the ethernet cable so I don't forget this next time.
With comms established I was all set. With a full right tank, I disconnected the fuel line at the injector servo and established open-flow. Gee, 170 litres/hr. I then made up a fitting to screw onto the end of the fuel line that would give me some back pressure (a bit of aluminium tube with the end squashed flat int he vice). I then recorded 47 litres/hr at 29 psi. Since the engine will only use a maximum of around 30 litres/hr, then I've confirmed that fuel flow will be more than sufficient.
I then ran the fuel pump open-flow until it started drawing air, at which point I turned it off and measured what was left in the tank. 0.7 litres of unuseabe fuel.
I repeated at the left tank with similar results.
Setting up to run the fuel pump for the first time
47 litres per hour at 29psi..... that'll do
Capturing the unuseable fuel..... 0.7L at each tank
