So I did my first solo in the PA28R and I accidentally left the fuel pump on for about ten minutes. Now I know that I'm the first person who's ever done this, but how long is an auxiliary fuel pump rated to operate over the course of it's life span? How much damage did I do to the aux pump? Not that I'm going to make this a regular occurrence- I'm just trying to understand the real impact of what I think was as a minor mistake. Other than that it was a great flight to the ocean and back.
I can't find anything that says that having the fuel pump on damages other components. You're definitely not the first person to do this. On one hand, don't worry about it. Any damage from 10 minutes is going to be so small as to not even be traceable. After all, you keep the pump on throughout the climb, so it's on for a pretty long time already. On the other hand, dedicate yourself to using the checklists, including the cruise check list that tells you to turn it off.
You didn't do any damage. There may be additional wear on the pump. I've always wondered if anyone has actually done an analysis or test to determine if it is really better to turn off the aux/boost pumps on light aircraft. Wear from the pump operating may not reduce the pump life as much as twice the on/off cycles.
Mine fuel pump switch is the illuminated when on type. I've still managed to leave it on for several minutes unintentionally. No big deal. 0 The bigger deal to me was leaving my landing lights on and forgetting to turn them off, placing unnecessary load on electrical system. Those switches are now illuminated when on types too. I fly under KMEM Class B and from a small field within KOLV Class D which can get busy, so like to turn on landing lights for visibility in vicinity of the airport.
My own aux fuel pump is rated for continuous duty and has a pressure relief bypass. I can leave it on all the time if I choose to. Sometimes I forget to turn it on, sometimes I forget to turn it off. I've thought about adding an LED status indicator. Not a priority. Maybe this winter. Leaving landing lights on won't harm the electrical system. Mine are on wig wag 100% of the time the master is on. Everyone I know does the same.
It is a small amount of wear and tear on the pump but I believe the main reason to turn it off is so you know whether the engine driven pump has failed or not. A failure of the engine driven pump is an emergency and you wouldn't want to be flying around without it working unaware as such.
I leave it on when doing T&Gs in the pattern, an hour or more. I do stress turning it off to check the engine driven pump departing the pattern. Easy item to forget. We have an Arrow and 140.
I thought you were supposed to cool it off with that water hose next to the gas pumps? Should be pretty easy to do it next time you hose down the hot engine.
