Tri-Pacer fuel question.

[pmanton]

Does anyone have a fuel dip-stick for the 18 gallon tri-pacer fuel tanks?
I had one flown in here for an annual. I dipped the tanks and found the right tank bone dry and 1-1/2 inches of fuel in the left tank.
I'm curious how many gallons are in that 1-1/2 inches of fuel. The nearest public fuel is 50 miles away.

 

[idahoflier]

Does anyone have a fuel dip-stick for the 18 gallon tri-pacer fuel tanks?
I had one flown in here for an annual. I dipped the tanks and found the right tank bone dry and 1-1/2 inches of fuel in the left tank.
I'm curious how many gallons are in that 1-1/2 inches of fuel. The nearest public fuel is 50 miles away.

If one tank is dry, it sounds like you have an excellent opportunity to make and calibrate your own stick...

Edit: Unless you're wondering if you can make the 50 miles to fuel???

Edit: Still providing no help, but I see Univair sells new tanks, perhaps ask for the dimensions? The tanks are roughly cubical and look to be ~ 9" high. If that's the case then a SWAG would be < 3 Gal...

 

[pmanton]

Not my plane. I can't for the life of me understand running that close to empty. I finished the annual filling the tanks isn't on the PA-22 check list. :-(

 

[Dana]

Bring two 5 gallon cans of avgas to the airport. Pour into the empty tank one gallon at a time, and calibrate your own wooden dipstick.

 

[3393RP]

Bring two 5 gallon cans of avgas to the airport. Pour into the empty tank one gallon at a time, and calibrate your own wooden dipstick.

Read the post above yours.

 

[RyanShort1]

That's scary. There are times us pilots don't get along with A&Ps, but this is a time when the A&P should have the right to demand the plane be adequately fueled before leaving the premises...

 

[Bell206]

but this is a time when the A&P should have the right to demand the plane be adequately fueled before leaving the premises...

Sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Lawsuit Madness - OMG

Or... why Aviation costs so much... a recently-trained pilot (CTsw) was on a cross-country flight that encountered serious headwinds. Fearing that his flight fuel planning didn’t consider the winds, he stopped short of his destination, only to confirm he was very low on fuel. Figuring he had...

www.pilotsofamerica.com

a recently-trained pilot (CTsw) was on a cross-country flight that encountered serious headwinds. Fearing that his flight fuel planning didn’t consider the winds, he stopped short of his destination, only to confirm he was very low on fuel. Figuring he had enough for, maybe, 30 more minutes of flying, he took off trying to make it home. Several minutes later, he crash-landed in a field, fuel starved. Luckily, there were no injuries reported.

Our pilot (lawyer) friend has filed a $10 Million lawsuit against Flight Design, the place he bought his aircraft from, his flight instructor, and several un-named John Doe’s…. for not specifically telling him he shouldn’t fly when you are very low on fuel!"

And, there you have it. Pipers fault for not placarding the aircraft properly.

 

[Magman]

What were fuel gages telling him?

Many folks are aware of fuel consumption rate in cruise.

However; fuel is used at a very much higher rate during take-off

and climb. A guy I know found out about this the hard way with

a 250 Comanche.

 

[mondtster]

If you’re curious, you could drain the remaining fuel into a 5 gallon gas can and see how full it gets. I bet you won’t need more than one can for the job.

 

[geneseib]

Does anyone have a fuel dip-stick for the 18 gallon tri-pacer fuel tanks?
I had one flown in here for an annual. I dipped the tanks and found the right tank bone dry and 1-1/2 inches of fuel in the left tank.
I'm curious how many gallons are in that 1-1/2 inches of fuel. The nearest public fuel is 50 miles away.

Can't tell you how much fuel that is, but I have confirmed that a TriPacer will not stay airborne without fuel.

 

[Magman]

It’s not wise to have too much air in the tanks

 

[pmanton]

I measured the height of the tank. He had enough to meet the 1/2 hour VFR reserve. 3.857 gallons + - my measuring.

 

[idahoflier]

Off by 0.857 gallons! ;-)

 

[Will Kumley]

Does anyone have a fuel dip-stick for the 18 gallon tri-pacer fuel tanks?
I had one flown in here for an annual. I dipped the tanks and found the right tank bone dry and 1-1/2 inches of fuel in the left tank.
I'm curious how many gallons are in that 1-1/2 inches of fuel. The nearest public fuel is 50 miles away.

Do you still need this? I can check the sticks for my Colt which uses the same tanks but it'll likely be closer to the end of the week.

 

[pmanton]

Not needed. Thanks for offering. I did the math and he actually had the 1/2 hour reserve with the inch and a half of fuel in the tank. He brought fuel in cans before he picked up the plane.

 

[Stewartb]

Measuring fuel in 3-point doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t reconcile that airplane’s 3-point to level flight fuel indications. And then hope you don’t have unusual attitudes that interfere with fuel feed. Especially with fuel in only one tank!