If you've been around either the CorvAircraft or Pietenpol groups for any length of time, you've more than likely heard about William Wynne's experience with fuel in the cockpit. The original design for the high-wing parasol Pietenpol Air Camper has the fuel tank in the centersection of the wing, directly over the cockpits, with a fuel line leading down into the cockpit from the tank, along one of the cabane struts, and then forward to the engine through the firewall. Most builders end up with something like 12-14 gallons of fuel capacity up there, and it provides great gravity feed to the engine for a simple fuel system and a couple of hours of endurance. William was the passenger in his aircraft (front cockpit) when the pilot stalled it in a low-altitude turn and it spun in and crashed. In the crash, the wing shifted forward and the structure collapsed enough to rupture the fuel line coming down from the tank, and William and the plane were doused in fuel with no way to stop the flow. Despite having his clothing on fire, he got out of the airplane somehow, pulled the pilot out of the rear cockpit and away from the plane, rolled on the ground enough to stop his clothing from burning, and survived the crash but spent a lot of time in hospital and with many skin grafts and rehabilitation. The airplane burned to a crisp, although William later recovered the engine after the FAA and NTSB had their time with it.
My Air Camper has a 16 gallon fuel tank up in front of the passenger, under the cowling behind the firewall. So, while a fuel leak from my tank wouldn't normally get on me till it flowed aft to the pilot's cockpit, it really won't matter because gasoline burns hot and fast, and so do glued-together wooden airplanes with fabric covering. For somewhat of a simulation of that kind of scenario, view a little 1:30 video of a fellow splashing some gasoline on a brush pile and lighting it off. The link is below. My Air Camper would most likely burn as rapidly as the brush pile in the video. Notice the quantity of gasoline that is splashed onto the brush pile and on the little "fuse" that he sets fire to. Couple of gallons tops, right? Isn't that just a little 2 or 2.5 gallon jug he has?. My airplane holds 16 gallons and will make a big, hot fire if it gets out of the tank and catches fire. How much will your KR's fuel tank hold? Here's a link to the video- https://youtu.be/Hi7tZVV-o8A . Notice that it's not just where he pours the gasoline that burns... it's where the vapor gets out to, and if there is any wind or any motion around spilling gasoline, the vapor can be burning energetically a fair distance away from where the liquid is. The stuff is unforgiving, you won't do much to it with a little portable extinguisher or even with one of the larger ones that they tote around on golf carts at fly-ins. As has already been written here, educate yourself on the risks, choose how you will arrange your fuel in your airplane, know the upsides and downsides, and most of all- treat gasoline with a lot of respect. And as a disclaimer about why I am interested in this, I am a fire protection engineer. I fly a plane with what amounts to a bomb up in the cockpit in front of me but it's a welded aluminum tank with a brass shutoff valve and braided 3/8" fuel hose feeding out of it through a stainless steel firewall to the gascolator up front. No barbed fittings, no plastic fittings, no plastic tubing. I understand my risks and you should understand yours. Oscar Zuniga Medford,OR _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected]
