Long Range Tank
"Longer legs"
I tend to fly a lot of cross country in the US, often covering 700 to 800 nm in a day. This typically results in two legs of 3.0 to 3.5 hours and when you do the math's this can get a little tight on fuel. Most of my cross country flying is conducted under IFR so I have an additional requirement to have 45 minutes of fuel on board.
I looked at a number of ideas but I didn't really want to put a large tank in my baggage bay like Europa sell, all I needed was enough to give me a good solid IFR reserve on top of a 3.5 hour leg.
One of the neat things I liked about Europa's long range fuel tank design was that it didn't require a fuel pump, just prime it and go so I set about copying there approach. I had installed a modification to allow my return fuel to go into the top of the main fuel tank so that pretty well ruled out using the fittings Europa supply for the long ranger tank so instead I welded a fitting into the aluminum elbow.
Although it isn't evident on the photo the plastic tubing is the yellow coloured stuff you get from Aircraft Spruce that is fuel resistant. . The elbow assembly was installed making sure the dip tube was very close to the bottom of the tank, but not touching. I also cut it off at an angle.
I have my fuel vent in the wing root, so I added in another T piece to for the auxiliary tank vent.
I used a standard Evinrude Outboard engine tank fitting and primer bulb for connecting to the tank and quick disconnect fittings for the vent line.
I drilled a hole in the filler cap and put in a brass fitting for the vent line, and I connect the bulb to the standard Evinrude tank fitting.
The tank is a Moller brand and it will hold 6.7 US gallons if filled to the very top. I haven't decided on how I want to secure it, but my initial thoughts are to secure a seatbelt type strap the attaches to the plywood supports under the luggage bay.
How well does it work.
Well the first problem when I connected it up the fuel immediately siphoned out of the vent line. If you look at the photograph above you will see that I looped the vent line up and then back down. Other than that it works perfectly. After I climb to altitude and configure the aircraft I reach back and prime the bulb. Once the level of the main tank drops down to below the elbow it siphons out until the auxiliary tank is very close to empty.