Brief Description: Final Fuse Assembly – Fuel filter & pump
So, today was one of those weird build days. I was almost not looking forward to it as it was outside my comfort range. You see, now that I have received the aux fuel pump and the fuel filter from Airflow Performance, I need to bend the fuel tubing, the vent tubing, and the brake tubing for those functions while I have the maximum amount of access space in the forward fuselage. This access space will go away as soon as I rivet on the forward side skins. Initially, I planned to dive into the fuel tube bending and so the first order of business was laying out the fuel filter and aux fuel pump and re-installing the fuel selector valve. The first thing I noticed was the new standard aux pump from AFP is different from the Old style aux pump – so the tube plumbing is different on the plans. I also like the idea of a purge valve which recirculates the fuel going into the engine to help with hot starts – but I don’t fully understand where that purge plumbing fits in…so I need to delay the fuel tubing. Then I pulled out the tube bender and started reading up on the functionality as I decided I would start with the bending of the fuel vent lines. They are simple as the go from the tank into the fuselage, loop up into the top of the landing gear boxes and then loop back down and exit the bottom of the landing gear boxes into the landing gear bay and into the airstream under the fuselage. But – with the fact that I am using a modified landing gear (a one-piece Grove gear) I may need to change the exit point of the vent tubes… so with all these unknown and with so much “research left to do” I decided to “punt” and go with some other work today. That’s the nice thing about building an airplane – there is always something to do! So – after 2+ hours of head scratching and walking around the shop – I moved on.
