HINTS AND TIPS

The Buttons below will take you through the different hints and tips that I feel will make your helicopter safer and more reliable.

Fuel Sender

Fuel level sender

  • The photo below is what we found when we tilted the helicopter back during our pre-flight inspection. You can see the puddle of fuel on the ground that leaked out of the gasket area where the fuel sender attaches to the fuel tank.
  • If the fuel level sender is not leaking then it was installed correctly and should not be a problem. If the sender does leak then I am offering a fix that I have used several times to insure a good seal and return us to flight within a relatively short period of time.

 

The fuel sender attache point can sometimes leak fuel when we do autos and quick stops due to the fuel sender screws not holding the sender securely to the wall of the fuel tank. They could strip out and leak when we progress in the training to the point of performing flares during autos and quick stops.

If the fuel sender gasket begins to leak we will need nut plates and machine screws to solidly attach the sender unit to the tank. Shown below are aluminum riv-nuts installed, we used fuel resistant gasket seal and another cork gasket and then machine screws with fuel resistant sealant on the threads to attach the sender

The photo below shows where the fuel sender is attached to the fuel tank.

Here the riv-nuts are ready for installing into the tank, They mush out on the inside of the tank preventing them from rotating (sometimes) or pulling through and the threads allowing the sender attachment screws enough bite to allow you to pull the plastic lip snugly up against the sender base to make a complete seal. I have had better results with nut plates installed on the underside of the tank lip with rivets.

If this area is not leaking, it is not a problem.

Some cork gasket seal applied between the riv-nuts to take up the gap

 

Fuel resistant sealant was used to seal the new cork gasket to the tank. Be sure to put some fuel resistant sealant under the head of each screw so that fuel does not wick up to the top of the sender and leak.

 

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The material on each page is the opinion of the author only and any actions taken by the reader relating to information on this site is the responsibility of the builder.