To continue with the tank woes discussion, I love my Europa but I am not a fan
of the fuel tank (should I just say "hate"). - end-of-rant -
Yesterday I took off and got greeted by strong gasoline smell in the cockpit
during
initial climb. I immediately flew the pattern and landed to find that the
vent hose coupler let go and it was dumping gas into the right fwd baggage area.
Not a lot of it since my tank had only 12 gallons but boy did it smell.
The hose coupling was wet with fuel and impossible to put back because it was
very
slippery. I had to put the airplane away and wait until the coupling dried
to put it back in. Flew this morning and no problem.
I am really afraid that this could happen one day to one of the bottom pickup
couplings
since I used the same hose (good quality, US made, NBR liner and approved
for E85). Although it doesn't look like the ethanol fuel affects the hose
itself, if any fuel gets between the hose and boss surface it becomes very
slippery
and pulls out. I had this vent coupling failure before but never to the
bottom pickups (thank you).
So any tricks out there to keep these darn couplings for slipping out.
As I write this I wonder: the bottom ones never failed but the vent one twice.
Maybe my vent hose is pulling on it when flying and eventually a small leak
forms,
gets slippery and pulls out. I will check for that. I will also make it a
habit of checking the bottom ones more often.
Thoughts?
Chris
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