How's Your Plane Hangin ?
01-01-2004, 12:31 AM
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How's Your Plane Hangin ?
Nose up or down ?
For those of us in the midwest, wind and cold means a lot of hanging around. A couple of threads had addressed this issue, but I wanted to rekindle the debate for some of the newer members. My preference is for the planes to hang nose up.
I'm fortunate to have a very large basement / garage area where I can store my big gassers sitting on the floor, while my smaller glow sport planes can be hung from the rafters. The self inflicted logic for me is that when the nose is up, any grit and grunge in the engine crank area will stay in the back and not settle into the front bearing or bushing. Engines always seem to wear out first at the front bearing not the rear.
The other less thought of is what happens to the "in tank" clunk line. In nose up mode, the line hangs straight down. In nose down, the weight of the clunk makes the line take a "S" shape. When this happens, at the point where the brass tubing ends in the tank, the fuel line forms a stress point at the sharp end of the brass and starts a tear which lets air into the line. All that flopping around of the clunk during flight starts wear at that point. How many times have you heard pilots complain that the engine runs fine till the tank is half full ? Bet they've got a crack in the fuel pick-up line at the brass tube.
What's your opinion ?
(Warning) I'm ALWAYS right. As my ex-wife will attest.
For those of us in the midwest, wind and cold means a lot of hanging around. A couple of threads had addressed this issue, but I wanted to rekindle the debate for some of the newer members. My preference is for the planes to hang nose up.
I'm fortunate to have a very large basement / garage area where I can store my big gassers sitting on the floor, while my smaller glow sport planes can be hung from the rafters. The self inflicted logic for me is that when the nose is up, any grit and grunge in the engine crank area will stay in the back and not settle into the front bearing or bushing. Engines always seem to wear out first at the front bearing not the rear.
The other less thought of is what happens to the "in tank" clunk line. In nose up mode, the line hangs straight down. In nose down, the weight of the clunk makes the line take a "S" shape. When this happens, at the point where the brass tubing ends in the tank, the fuel line forms a stress point at the sharp end of the brass and starts a tear which lets air into the line. All that flopping around of the clunk during flight starts wear at that point. How many times have you heard pilots complain that the engine runs fine till the tank is half full ? Bet they've got a crack in the fuel pick-up line at the brass tube.
What's your opinion ?
(Warning) I'm ALWAYS right. As my ex-wife will attest.
