Decent fuel pump

I got so tired of leaking electric fuel pumps that I went mechanical. Then I got bored with always having to fix them. I finally resorted to gravity feeds which don't stress the mechanicals I keep as back ups for when it fails.. It takes a while with a big tank, but part of the fun at the flying field is visiting with friends.

YMMV

Jim Branaum AMA 1428

"Six_O'Clock_High" < wrote

If you have 12 volts at hand for your starter, or field charger, or what-not, I may have another solution for you, and you will never have a leaking fuel pump.

I had a friend that flew a lot of gassers, and he had a novel way to get around the fuel pump problem.

He got a rubber air pump bulb off of a blood pressure cuff, along with the check valve from it, and the pressure release thumbscrew.

He had the pump hooked up to his one gallon fuel jug's vent opening, and when he wanted to fill up, he would pump a little air pressure into the tank, then open a small valve on the fuel line coming out of the tank, with which he could precisely control the fuel flow going into the plane. It worked like a charm.

I have always thought that if I did something like that, I would use one of those tire pumps that plug into your cigarette lighter for the air supply, and perhaps rig a small sensitive air pressure valve (perhaps it would not even be needed, since you can monitor the amount of bulge in the plastic gallon fuel jug) onto the gas tank to monitor the pressure. I think a few seconds of the pump running would probably fill it with enough pressure to fill the average tank, pretty quickly. Fish tank valves, tubing and check valves could be used, and if you have a spare tire pump sitting around, (seems like I always have at least two spare ones cluttering up the garage) the whole rig would be pretty darn cheap.

While that is all true; gravity is in my price range, doesn't take monitoring (other than for full tank), and has little risk of excess except for some wasted fuel. I started out using it on my gassers and then expanded it to my glow birds. : ^ )

"Six_O'Clock_High" monitoring (other than for full tank), and has little risk of excess

Wow. That puts new meaning to "thrifty.'

If you had the battery already, and had a spare air pump, the rest of the stuff couldn't run more than 5 bucks, and could be used on multiple fuels, all except the outlet valve.

Myself, I could not be bothered to monitor the slow process of gravity, for that long, or to stand holding up a fuel can, or else find something to sit it on to get decent height.

For now, my auto parts generic fuel pump works fine, but when that goes, I'll go to the pressure system.

But, different strokes for different folks is what makes the world go 'round.

Thrifty? Nah, just cheap!

Finding something to hold the can above the aircraft is fairly easy. Even top of the plane sometimes works.

I have all that stuff and it works, I just get tired of wasting precious flying and visiting time repairing it or building it. Call me lazy.