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Showing results for tags 'cies fuel'.
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We have Cies floats and an Aerospace Logic fuel gauge. A couple weeks ago we thought we had problems with fuel level accuracy for the right wing. What we think happened could happen to you too so I thought I would post it here. We had about 13 - 15 gallons remaining in the right wing and were flying through turbulence. The left wing only had about 10 gallons remaining. What we noticed was the right tank fuel level indication varying from about 13 to 18 gallons. That would be pretty disappointing considering we installed Cies floats. What we think happened is a result of how the floats and gauge interact. I believe that the gauge takes an average reading over a period of about a minute or so. It does this to prevent the indicated fuel level from rapidly changing during turbulence or short periods of uncoordinated flight. Normally this works. During turbulence the floats will spend a little time above the actual fuel level and a little time below the actual fuel level which results in an average fuel level that is pretty close to correct. However, in our case, we had just enough fuel in the right tank so that our outboard float was sitting on the tank bottom. When turbulence sloshed fuel out to that float, the float would rise and give a false high reading. When the fuel sloshed back inboard, the float would bottom out. It could never give a false low reading to offset the false high reading so the overall average reading was too high. The left tank was far enough below that fuel level that turbulence did not cause the outboard float to rise so fuel indications for that tank were normal. So, if you are able to figure out when the outboard float bottoms out, do not be surprised if you get false high fuel level readings in turbulence when you are at about that fuel remaining state. It should self correct after you burn off a few more gallons.