-----Original Message----- >From: brian.kraut--- via KRnet >When I was working on my 2S which was to have a Corvair with electronic >ignition and fuel only in the wings and needing a fuel pump I thought of >the backup battery situation
I too only have wing tanks with Facet fuel pumps. Years ago when I was young and stupid and thought I was invincible when flying my KR (actually it was in 2006 one year after I made my first flight in 2006) I was buzzing my brother-in-law's house just outside of Milwaukee. My home base airport was 15 miles away from hi home. After doing a dive towards his house with the throttle mostly pulled back I went to pull up at about 100 feet over his house and applied full throttle to climb out and got nothing. Talk about pucker factor!!! I think the cheeks of my arse literally ripped the cloth off the seat. Anyway, all I could think of was where am I going to set her down as there was no place that was open. I could not climb but was maintaining altitude. Fortunately the terrain below me was dropping as he lived up on a ridge and this gave me some leverage altitude wise so I made a bee line toward the interstate which was about five miles away. I was pretty much in a panic mode as I scanned everything trying to figure what was happening. I reached the interstate and was now about 800 feet AGL so I turned over the interstate which took me directly to my home base ATC controlled airport. I now had a 12 mile runway under me so I concentrated on making it to the airport. I did not tell ATC what was happening. I did however make to the airport and landed uneventfully. Taxied to my hanger and sat there with the engine idling. Then it hit me like a brick wall that I did not flip my fuel pump to the alternate backup pump while I was in flight. I flipped the switch and shazam she went back to full power! The problem was the ground wire on the fuel pump had come loose. I did learn though that the Ellison carb and Corvair engine arrangement does have enough suction to pull fuel from wing tanks to sustain flight with no fuel pump. Would I do this again..heck no. So, what does this have to do with batteries? NOTHING. It does however tell you that you need back up systems on all phases to save your bacon. Oh yea, after that incident I installed a fuel pump pressure gauge directly in front of my line of sight so that I can constantly see what my fuel pressure is. Just thought you guys would like this story. Mark Jones (N886MJ) Stevens Point, WI E-mail: flykr2s at charter.net Web: www.flykr2s.com
