hauling fuel in cabin?

alaskan9974

alaskan9974

Pre-takeoff checklist
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alaskan9974
Just curious how you folks who haul fuel do it, I have 80 gal tanks, but I usually toss a couple 5gal cans in the back. How do the 15 gal cans work out. I usually stay under 1k, I don't know how high I'd have to go to end up with tops blowing off from expansion but I don't want to find out.

I know the float guys have it easy with the compartments. A buddy wraps his in trash bags but that sounds like static to me.
 
Fuel is the last thing I want in my cabin.
But I can understand you taildragger bush flyers needing the load to keep that grocery-cart steering caster from trying to beat the main gear home under hard braking on one of those minuscule runways you folks are brave enough to touch down on. ;-)
 
Never had any fuel in the cabin personally yet, but have friends who have needed ferry tanks with resulting cursing, crying, pleading, and sometimes winning via sheer willpower when the friggin things decide, even after being carefully tested somewhere there’s good places to land... not to flow any fuel to the main tanks. Hahaha.
 
alaskan9974 said:
Just curious how you folks who haul fuel do it, I have 80 gal tanks, but I usually toss a couple 5gal cans in the back. How do the 15 gal cans work out. I usually stay under 1k, I don't know how high I'd have to go to end up with tops blowing off from expansion but I don't want to find out.

I know the float guys have it easy with the compartments. A buddy wraps his in trash bags but that sounds like static to me.
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I never had a problem with fuel jugs coming apart at altitude, but I tried to stay below 5000 as much as possible. I also left room for expansion of the fuel from heat. I did not worry about it in winter.
 
denverpilot said:
Never had any fuel in the cabin personally yet, but have friends who have needed ferry tanks with resulting cursing, crying, pleading, and sometimes winning via sheer willpower when the friggin things decide, even after being carefully tested somewhere there’s good places to land... not to flow any fuel to the main tanks. Hahaha.
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I've always associated "ferry" tanks with the potential need to conveniently hail one of those waterborne craft immediately after the events you describe above...
 
GRG55 said:
I've always associated "ferry" tanks with the potential need to conveniently hail down one of those waterborne craft immediately after the events you describe above...
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Anytime you have to trust you a $100 pump you could have picked up at Tractor Supply to get fuel into the mains over an ocean, you’re always one small stupid mechanical failure away from going for a very unwanted swim. Haha. Just the nature of that biz.
 
denverpilot said:
Anytime you have to trust you a $100 pump you could have picked up at Tractor Supply to get fuel into the mains over an ocean, you’re always one small stupid mechanical failure away from going for a very unwanted swim. Haha. Just the nature of that biz.
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IBM? It's Better Manually. :p
 
FWIW, if you haul car gas or diesel that comes from an underground tank try to fill your drums the day or two before so they can come up to ambient temperature. Cold fuel will expand as it warms up and will puff up the containers. I don’t like the containers to vent fumes in the plane. I let the fuel temp normalize, then squeeze the drums to reduce head space and seal the containers with a little negative pressure. The less air in there the better, but I do want some expansion space. It works with fives and fifteens. The more air is in a fuel container the more it’ll pressurize. Empty fuel containers are the worst. You really need to collapse those a little prior to sealing them tight.

BTW, I'm replacing my round drums with 15g fuel cubes. They're easier to handle and more secure when tied down.
 
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Ferry tanks are distinct from just fuel as cargo. A ferry tank takes an STC (or at least an approved 337).
 
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