Hotel has a setupu for the -14 now. A friend just installed it. They are nice. They are slow to respond but the product seems very good. I'd keep trying or leave a voice message the owner or his daughter usually get in touch.
Hello, I am looking for some professional
advise about extra fuel in the wings.
The guys from WhiskeyHotel are not answering
so maybe there are more guys who can help?
It has been done many times over the years by various builders. You might have do some forum searches to find what you are looking for.
Several Harmon Rockets have been made with wing tip fuel tanks.(Before the F1's came along with larger main tanks as standard) Those tips are the same air foil /wing tip profile as the 4, 6 ,7 and 8 wing. You might check with John Harmon in Bakersfield CA for photos and contacts that have done it. Most often personally designed and fabricated. Some have a recessed fuel filler cap inside a hinge door similar to the oil inspection door on the engine cowl. There are lots of different solutions.
Romanov,
Couple of thoughts. Some have mentioned just building bigger tanks. I like that idea, if the plane is not aerobatic (or you don't intend to do acro), but... If you plan on acro, there'd be no way to keep fuel weight confined to the design location. That affects spin characteristics, makes it more difficult to manage quantity, etc.
Several of us who are building 2 seat RVs have simply (ha ha) wet a few bays of the outboard leading edge to add capacity. This is probably the lightest way to do it. I think that all the parts for a pair of 13 gallon tanks weighed about 2 lbs (plus fuel line, valving, etc). Plumbing has been done multiple ways. If you bring the aux tank lines to the fuel selector in the cockpit, you can keep the fuel delivery system almost completely stock. Not a small consideration, since many homebuilt accidents are related to fuel delivery issues.
FWIW,
Charlie
Not sure what your pro/con analysis is suggesting here. Building a larger tank a few bays towards the tip is less overall weight than "wetting" a few bays AT the tip, and certainly results in a lower MMOI. The bigger tank also has zero changes to the supply plumbing, which is better than "almost completely stock".
Adding bays to a fuel tank design has some drawbacks, but from a systems integration and weight perspective its about the best way to go.
Can someone explain to me what it is about the hotel whiskey tanks that justifies a $2500+ pricetag? Maybe I need to see a parts list to help me feel good about spending that amount for what seems like a minimal amount of material.
I wouldn't pay that much. On the other hand, I did pay almost 20 grand for a few thousand dollars worth of parts when I bought my -7 kit. What's your time worth, and do you have the skills/tools to make them yourself?
My point was, that if it's an acro-capable a/c, I want to keep it as close to 'stock' configuration as I can for acro. By keeping the aux fuel in separate tanks, with minimum achievable weight gain to make the tanks, I'd hope to preserve acro ability (with empty aux tanks) and still have the option of extra range and/or tankerage.
Everything's a compromise; I accept the compromise of an extra position on the fuel selector, to keep acro capability.
For non-acro planes, I like the idea of just making the tanks bigger, as I said in the 1st paragraph of my earlier post.
Does that help?
I?m thinking I can enclose the space in the wingtips and make a composite tank. Shouldn?t be more than about $50 in fiberglass and resin (have most of it on hand anyway), another $150 for some Jeffco sealant, a couple of fuel caps, some fuel line, etc...
I'd take a good look at how the shear load of that new tank is addressed. The L-39 uses a similar attach method for its 26 gallon tip tanks, but the fasteners going into the upper and lower skin are large, numerous and in double shear. In addition, there is a hefty lug that ties the Tank into the main spar.
Those chubby infants with a full diaper have got to be pushing the weight of 5 gallons of 100LL!
I've seen several load tests at fly-ins when uncaring/unaware parents use wingtips as baby changing tables! Those chubby infants with a full diaper have got to be pushing the weight of 5 gallons of 100LL!
Yes, I do not have any links but at least one person has made an RV14 with essentially RV10 fuel tanks. Giving you 60 instead of 50 gallons.
I did make a slight modification to the transfer system. I added a ?T? in the transfer line and a 2psi pressure switch to confirm that fuel is indeed flowing into the main tanks.