Matt's RV-8 Project



Matt Dralle's RV-8 Project
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Date:  6-20-2010
Number of Hours:  1.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Recal Of Priceton Fuel Level Probes Successful!

I am elated to report that last week I decided to try recalibrating the Princeton fuel level probes in my RV-8 one last time before I began the arduous task of replacing them with resistive float senders. I started with the right tank and drained all of the fuel out, then entered calibration mode by applying power to the unit with the button pressed. I then pressed the button once to indicate the "empty" set point, then added exactly 5.5 Gallons, pressed the button, etc., etc., until I'd added 21 gallons. During the whole process, the various LED flashing patterns correctly matched the documented sequences based on the stage of calibration. With a full tank, I went out and flew a little over two hours at about 10 gallons per hour. During the flight, I carefully compared the Priceton readings with the turbine fuel flow "fuel used" indicator which has proven to be exceptionally accurate. As expected, the Pricetons reported "Full" for the first 6 gallons or so because of the dihedral in the wing tank and the fact that the probe is mounted at the root. Again, as expected, abruptly the fuel level went from 21 to 15 gallons after about 6 gallons of burn (or there abouts - sometimes both tanks seem to drop to around 18 then back up to 21 during this first 6 gallons). From 15 to about 2 gallons, the Priceton's reported a fuel level within 1 gallon of the flow meter's fuel used indicator! Yahoo. I then repeated the whole calibration procedure exactly as before but this time on the left tank and then went out and repeated the comparison tests above on the left tank. I am even happier to report that again the calibration of the left fuel level tracked the fuel flow meter's used amount within 1 gallon after the initial drop from 21 to 15 gallons after 6 gallons of burn. I flew to about 4-5 gallons remaining on the left and right sides tonight as reported by the fuel level meters and noted that the fuel flow meter's fuel remaining coincided with a reported remaining of 10.3 gallons. I topped off both tanks and no
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