Fuel Dipstick Chart

[Alex Ress]

Attached is a chart if you dip your tanks.  I use a plastic rod off of some old window blinds to use a dipstick.  Cut notches at 1" intervals.  Finally got around to making a graph to show the fuel load.   I love the Dynon fuel gauge but I trust my plastic dipstick. 

  Phoenix Fuel Load.pdf

[Doug Levy]

I don't have a Dyon system in U15/ 02.  The VDO gauge is not reliable.  So I made my   own measurement device.  The arm holds a paper that can be marked as needed.  Just tap it on the tank when removing and the gas drops back in the tank.

[Barry.h]

Mine is a lot simpler but very effective. It came with the aircraft so I can only assume it was made by the first owner. I have not checked its 'calibration'. What I can't explain is why it is so different for each side? Does everyone get mor e fuel in the Port wing and a different scale for each wing?

 

 

 

[Barry.h]

Excuse the dumb question perhaps - but is that graph US gallons or Imperial?

[Rob]

looks like liters (2*55 ltr is 110 ltrs)

[Barry.h]

I was trying to compare my wooden stick to the graph at the top of the thread, which is in gallons. It looks like it is aligned to my Starboard scale, but I am now very confused about the scale on my port side? 

[Alex Ress]

The graph I originally posted more closely aligns with Barry.h's wooden stick with the "S" at the top.  Quite the riddle that there are two different scales on the wooden stick though.  Is it possible the original owner of the stick had two different airplanes?  I feel it's unlikely that the L/R wing tank volumes would vary enough to discriminate on a stick!  It's a fun exercise to verify for yourself by draining and refilling gallon by gallon.  I dip the tanks before every flight so that there is 100% certainty of what I started with.

[Barry.h]

I always assumed the stick was only for my plane, and the P and S are Port and Starbord. I must admit I have overfilled the Port (left) tank a few times based on the dipstick so I think I will have to do a calibration check.

[Doug Levy]

What is your burn rate?  I'm seeing about 3 gallons / hour at 5,000 rpm.

[Barry.h]

I have a Dynon fuel flow, which I have not yet properly checked it's calibration, but it looks pretty close. It has been reading around 16-17 liters per hour (4.36 US gallons) but the average after my recent big trip was about 14l/hr. 

Using the Dynon flow data, at a DA of 4,500ft, I recently recorded the following burn at different speeds.

It has been suggested my prop might be over-pitched slightly and my RPM could be a bit higher. And sorry, I didn't record RPM in my burn test.

[Tom Clary]

Ok,  this might take some explaining. 

My plane #54 was delivered with float (resistance) sensors not the capacitance sensors that was on my equipment list.  

Fast forward with much drama and Jim helping me to change out the resistance sensor for the nominal capacitance ones. 

As a result, I wanted to be very careful about the fuel calibratiion that Dynon offers. 

With the great assistance of Scott Zumwalt we very carefully calibrated the fuel sensors.  

Our process was to put 1 gallon of fuel into the tanks and then have the Dynon record that value with the tail in its flying position (ie: up about 21 inches)  .  

Every 5 gallons we lowered the tail and made a dip stick recording.  

The attached picture shows our results. 

Note that my tanks have very different capacity vs levels. 

[Alex Ress]

Tom, Thanks for sharing the work on your tank sensors and dip sticks.  Love the laser engraving and the oak, nice touch.  I have more work to do now, seeing multiple ships have variations in left vs right fuel height levels.  Taking this further, it seems the tanks will have different capacities though only by what appears to be two gallons.  I am not fluent in fuel sensors but after searching "resistance vs capacitance fuel sensors" I am a tiny bit smarter.  Thanks for the post.