Fuel Vent lines

22 Jul 2004 Fuel Vent lines

Got the fuel vent lines installed. This was my first experience bending aluminum tubing, and it was pretty easy. I used one of those spring type sleeves that slide over the outside of the tube to help prevent it from collapsing when bent. I bought a set at mcmaster-carr.

I hope that this is a good time to install them. One of the most difficult parts about finishing up the airplane is to know when the best time to do a particular piece of work is. You don’t want to have to do it twice because it gets in the way of something else. Having a nice list of dependencies in the plans would be cool.

Anyway, installing these lines was not too much trouble. I just kind of eyeballed the lengths and angles, and it turned out ok. Not too scientific. I have to admit that the first length of tube I cut was about two inches too short (about 42 inches). The second and third were about two inches too long (46 inches), but that’s a bit easier to fix.

Here is the second finished tube, just to give you an idea of the shape. Kind of matches the plans.

Here is where I show that I cut the first tube too short. I’m about to cut the third tube.

A view from the top of the right gear tower, showing the two fittings and the vent tube. You can’t see it here, but getting the screw on the adel clamp that stabilizes the tube was the hardest part. The location that Van’s specifies in the plans is very difficult to access, but I finally got it by sticking the nut onto my finger with some EZ Turn. Sorry I don’t have a picture, but my camera ran out of battery. I didn’t want to change the location since I had already drilled the holes on both sides, plus I didn’t study pipe stabilization engineering in college.

Here is a view from the outside of the aircraft, showing the nipples sticking out. There is still room for the gear, I checked it.