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R22 Fuel Stick?


IceWater

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I was wondering if anyone could send me in the right direction with this. I did some research on the web and this site but didn’t find much information on Fuel Sticks. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place?

 

Does anyone know where I can find information on how to make fuel sticks for the R22? I don’t like to depend on the onboard Fuel gauges for initial checks since I’ve seen how accurate they can be, and eye balling the tank level is better than using the gauges but it’s still a bit difficult for me to determine how many “Gallons” there are unless both tanks are topped off.

 

As far as I understand it’s basically a tube attached to a stick with tick marks indicating the fuel level, but I’m not totally sure where each tick mark would be for a R22 with an aux tank and without.

 

Any ideas?

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Hey,

I have looked just out of curiosity myself awhile back. I never found a place to purchase one. So, seems like the gauges work pretty good. The only places I've seen a tank stick for an R22 are as follows.

 

Sporty's Video on helicopters. They dip the tanks on an HP with a wood stick. The school used in the video was

 

Cardinal Helicopter Training, Inc. 513.732.5852

Clermont County Airport

Batavia, OH 45103 USA

 

Second,

In the UK they made sticks madatory if I read the info correct in 99'. The company in the UK that supplied light weight metal sticks was

 

Helitech (Luton) Ltd

Prince Way

London Luton Airport

Luton

Bedfordshire

LU2 9PD

 

Tel: +44 (0) 1582 27828

Fax: +44 (0) 1582 37269

 

I have no way of knowing if the sticks are still offered??? I never called. I just always thought if I bought an R22 I might want one too..

 

Later

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The owner of the school I attended made his own from a wood dowel and bolt at one end to prevent the stick from dropping into the tank. I believe the way he did it was starting from a empty tank he added fuel, 2 gallons at a time into the main tank and marked the height of the fuel all the way to 28 gallons. This gave the combined fuel amount of both main and aux.

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We used to have a home made sight gauge made out of a piece of thin piece aluminum and clear plastic tubing. You would plug it into the main tank drain, push the sump it, and watch the fuel come up to the stamped gallon amount.

 

The aluminum was the height of the tank and about an inch wide (thick enough not to bend.) Holes were drilled down the vertical axis so the clear plastic tubing could be attached with zip ties. The bottom had a semi-circle cut out to set it on the fuel tank attachment bolt next to the main sump.

 

On the other end of the tubing, there was a double ended barbed brass fitting the same size as the fuel drain tubing. Then we drained the tank, filled it gallon-by-gallon (allowing time to xfer to the aux) on level ground, and stamped the aluminum with the corresponding gallon amount.

 

Worked great, fit under the seat, plus gave you a better view of the fuel than those little sump cups.

 

A $2 dowel rod will do the same......just make sure you use a paint pen rather than a Sharpie to mark the amount. It will last much longer tha way. Make sure the rod is long enough not to drop in the tank, but still fits under the seat.

 

Furthermore, if you make this thing, keep it for yourself, don't share, but encourage people to make their own. Not only will it get stolen or lost, but if somebody runs out of fuel and balls one up, they're going to tell the judge that, "IceWater's fuel stick said I had more fuel than that." Suddenly you're getting sued and will have to prove that they didn't allow the fuel to xfer to the aux after fill-up, didn't have it parked on level ground, whatever. Why do you think Robinson doesn't make one????

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I inquired Robinson about this issue. Pat Cox sent me some pictures on how they cross check the fuel gages. I tried to upload them but it won't let me for some reason. One is 384kb, the other is 472kb. I don't know if these are too large or wrong format (Type: File). If someone can walk me through it I'll post them.

 

--CM

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Thanks for the great responses everyone!

 

Delorean,

The home made sight gauge is what I was leaning towards, something that I could use to check levels withought the danger of dropping something in the tank lol.

 

CM,

Pictures would be great! I wish I knew how to post them here though. Maybe you can post them on www.photobucket.com and get a direct URL of the photo that Photobucket will assign the picture and paste that URL address here when you post your reply? Not too sure hmmm

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Thank you everyone for all the ideas!

 

Delorean,

The home made sight gauge is more along the lines of what I'm looking for. I'll have to try that out with some experimentation.

 

CM,

Pictures would be great! The file sizes you mentioned wouldn't seem to be a problem though. I think if you upload your pictures to www.photobucket.com (It's free) the site will store your photo and assign it a URL address. I think if you paste the assigned URL address on a reply the image will show up (I think?). It's worth a try?

 

I wonder why I don't see more people using a device like this knowing how inaccuarate the onboard fuel gauges can be.

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I have used dowel rod with gallons marked on in the past.

 

Didn't ever fear dropping it in...I figured only a fool could do that!

 

My concern was contamination of the fuel...bits of dowel, dust etc..etc..

 

Delorean's solution seems quite good, but pretty complicated.

 

Here's a possible solution.

 

What about a long thin transparant piping (rigid)...about the diameter of a drinking straw. Made from plastic, this can be wiped clean before and after use. It is dipped in the fuel. Finger placed over top end, and then lifted out. Fuel level inside pipe is read off. Simple!

 

Just an idea...I have no clue whether this would work.

 

Joker

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I will try to explain the picture.

 

There was a graph which appears to be made out of posterboard which hangs from the fuel fill point (which would have to be manually made).

 

Then where you sump the fuel, you will have a clear, flexible tube attatched, run it horizontally until directly under fuel fill point, then run vertical to fuel fill point. Once you push in the sump, the fuel will run up the tube to the fuel height equal to the level inside the tank.

 

I would start with unusable fuel and add 5 gallons at a time marking the posterboard at each level. I would also use a 5 gallon gas can to do so to get it as accurate as possible.

 

I'm sure you could run the tube to the fill point however you wanted to, but would just have to be sure you check it exactly the same way each time to assure accuracy. I would plot the tube route on the graph hanged from the helicopter.

 

Another point, I would give time between filling and marking each point to assure the fuel has completely transfered between the two tanks.

 

This may be too confusing. If you want, pm me your e-mail and I will send the pics to you.

 

--CM

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We use fuel sticks at my flight school. There is one stick for the single tank ships, and a different stick for the aux tank ships. You just plug it into the drain on the passenger side, hold it up to the rivets and press in on the drain, there are markings on the stick and where it stops is how much fuel you have. I am pretty sure these are home made. I imagine the way they calibrated the measurements is like someone else said, put one gallon in, make a mark, put a second gallon in, make the second mark and so on and so forth.

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What about a long thin transparant piping (rigid)...about the diameter of a drinking straw. Made from plastic, this can be wiped clean before and after use. It is dipped in the fuel. Finger placed over top end, and then lifted out. Fuel level inside pipe is read off. Simple!

 

That's what Diamond Aircraft included with the Katana (and possibly others). It clipped behind the seats in the baggage area and was removed at preflight. The tank was on the pilot's side of the a/c with the filler mounted vertically like a car or 206. You'd open the cap, lay the stick on the lip of the filler, slide it back as far as it would go, put your thumb on the end, pull it out [are you getting turned on yet?], and read the amount. Unfortunately the gas and cold wx would take its toll on the plexiglass and they wouldn't last through the winter.

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The type of sight hose level indicator you guys are talking about is a type of water level. I have a friend that moves mobile homes. He built one out of a milk jug and surgical tubing to level the I Beams on the mobile homes when he blocks them up. Its very similar to the link below. He puts the milk jug up on blocks at the height he wants then pulls the end of the tubing around and holds it up to each section of the frame while they are jacking and shimming. So simple and works perfect.

 

Water Level Gauge

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The type of sight hose level indicator you guys are talking about is a type of water level. I have a friend that moves mobile homes. He built one out of a milk jug and surgical tubing to level the I Beams on the mobile homes when he blocks them up. Its very simular to the link below. He puts the milk jug up on blocks at the height he wants then pulls the end of the tubing around and holds it up to each section of the frame while they are jacking and shiming. So simple and works perfect.

 

Water Level Gauge

 

Yeah, you use a water level to rig a new tail boom in the R22 as well. Attached the hose up the side of the door frame, then use the other end to set the height of the tail before you drill the holes. Takes out any error for an unlevel floor or "skid spreadage". I think there's a picture in the maintenance manual.

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Furthermore, if you make this thing, keep it for yourself, don't share, but encourage people to make their own. Not only will it get stolen or lost, but if somebody runs out of fuel and balls one up, they're going to tell the judge that, "IceWater's fuel stick said I had more fuel than that." Suddenly you're getting sued and will have to prove that they didn't allow the fuel to xfer to the aux after fill-up, didn't have it parked on level ground, whatever. Why do you think Robinson doesn't make one????

 

 

Completely correct..

 

Just like Robinson not telling us the "general" gallons per hour usage on the lycoming engine in the R22's T.Tucker said that it was impossible to give a definitive answer due to the myirade of different influances on fuel consumption.

 

The place I work also has a fleet of cessnas and some of the pilots who fly them carry the clear hollow tubes which you can block on end of to create suction, like my dad showed me when I was a kid with a soda.. or you can watch your favorite bartender sample their work with. I like having a device that is calibrated for one tank as it would eliminate the guess work as to figuring out how to mark the stick so that you'd get an accurate reading for two tanks. .. ...

 

In New Zealand where I was flying R22's for awhile the company had only one dipper.. for the main only. it was only accurate before fueling and registered the total for both tanks. But, Directly after fueling the read on the dipper was erronious because the fuel had yet to transfer. . leaving the door open for a sloppy pilot to mis-read and get a bad reading.

 

With the use of sticks .. I've talked to a A&P friend of mine and he commented that the reason among many that pilots should never trust the gauge is because we (silly pilots) stick bits of wood in the tanks to check the level.. and when doing so sometimes knock the fuel float , which would compromise the reading on that ever trusted gauge .. which I never truly trust ..

 

I DO LOVE the robinson fuel warning light.. one gallon..... 5 minutes.. "do not us as an indication of the working quanity of fuel." DUH.

 

There are electronic fuel flow meters available for all aircraft and show how much fuel is flowing thru the gate. on its way to the carberuttor but this still only gives a what has been burnt figure not an indication of whats still in the tanks.

 

So no matter what system you use.. learn it and always land with more.

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Thanks everyone for the ideas. I'm going to try out the home made sight gauge that hooks up to the main tank drain sample port. I'll heed everyone's advice on using my own stick and encourage others to make their own home made sight gauge. Only problem is I'll have to coordinate with the staff to fill, wait and mark the sight gauge. House rules state that only staff can handle fuel at my school. Maybe it would be a good idea to make it a group project?

 

I like the dip stick idea, but even though I'm extra carefull, I don't like the idea that I could drop it into the tank Hahaha. If I make a sight gauge, is there any special tubing I should use? I plan to recycle the fuel into my "Gats" fuel sampler which has a strainer to keep the bad stuff in and clean fuel out.

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What about a long thin transparant piping (rigid)...about the diameter of a drinking straw. Made from plastic, this can be wiped clean before and after use. It is dipped in the fuel. Finger placed over top end, and then lifted out. Fuel level inside pipe is read off. Simple!

Like the Fuelhawk?

 

Just one reseller, do a google search for many others, or visit your local pilot-gack shop. I would think the Universal XL would work, has anyone used one on the R22? I would also review the fuel tank anatomy with maintenance before jamming anything in to internal components.

 

Oh, and make sure your 'stick' is clean before you stick it in so you don't introduce any nasties! ;)

 

[are you getting turned on yet?]
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Before anyone orders a Fuelhawk I'd like to point out that it was made for measuring fuel quantities in wing tanks which are much wider and more shallow than the R-22's tanks. I once bought an airplane with a fuselage tank and the first thing I did was order a Fuelhawk so I'd be certain of how much fuel I had. I was disappointed to find that it wouldn't reach the bottom of my tank. That was a problem I hadn't considered. I ended up buying a rigid piece of clear tubing with an outside diameter of 1/4 inch. I cut the tube to the length I needed and marked it in one gallon increments. I put my finger over the end when I pull the tube from the tank just like a kid playing with a soda straw. I've used the same tube for 8 years now and it probably didn't cost over 50 cents.

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