tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
Before yesterdays 421 flight, had an interesting preflight. The left tip tank sump showed some water. in fact it showed a lot of water. on a standard 5 or 6inch tall fuel sampler i bet there was an inch and a half of water. had to walk outside the hangar to dump it so i decided to sump the right wing since it was closer to the door. right wing was totally clean. back to the left wing but did the inboard sumps first. first sampler filled up. no demarcation line between water and fuel, but dang it just didnt look quite right. smelled it and i could smell avgas but shoot that sampler reeks of avgas anyway. showed it to my copilot and we both concluded that, in fact, the entire sampler was full of water!
dumped it and sampled again, another full sampler of water. i think there may have been a third full sample of water before finally a layer of gunk (copilot described it as a "goober") came out and then blue fuel. after a couple more samples from that sump it was clean fuel. the next some outboard had a little water but was quickly clean. back out to the tip tank and only a small amount of water was found which was quickly cleaned up. all in all we took a hell of a lot of water out of the sumps!
since it was only in the one wing i suspect that the problem was at the truck. our guys sump the truck regularly but i suspect with the rainy weather lately contamination found its way in. IMO leaky caps on fuel tanks is the biggest contributor to water in the fuel.
Interesting point is that it seems like every time I sample the 421 at least one of the sumps has a little water or dirt in it. The 172s and 182RG, fueled from the same source, seem to always be clean. I think the 421 must just have better placement of fuel sumps to collect the water and debris.
dumped it and sampled again, another full sampler of water. i think there may have been a third full sample of water before finally a layer of gunk (copilot described it as a "goober") came out and then blue fuel. after a couple more samples from that sump it was clean fuel. the next some outboard had a little water but was quickly clean. back out to the tip tank and only a small amount of water was found which was quickly cleaned up. all in all we took a hell of a lot of water out of the sumps!
since it was only in the one wing i suspect that the problem was at the truck. our guys sump the truck regularly but i suspect with the rainy weather lately contamination found its way in. IMO leaky caps on fuel tanks is the biggest contributor to water in the fuel.
Interesting point is that it seems like every time I sample the 421 at least one of the sumps has a little water or dirt in it. The 172s and 182RG, fueled from the same source, seem to always be clean. I think the 421 must just have better placement of fuel sumps to collect the water and debris.