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Well i was just talking to another pilot from west of me yesterday and he told me how he had a fire on the top of his plastic 75Lt seat tank.The story started like normal, he was filling up to go home, from a plastic 20Lt Jerry can, also had a plastic Mr funnel in the top of his tank, all was well until he LIFTED the can up to see how much more fuel was needed, then next thing he knew there was a fire ball out the top of the funnel, and the fuel can, promptly threw the can over his shoulder, then reached around and quickly flipped the funnel the other direction, luckily there was still fuel in the funnel flitering through, so the fire had not spread to the main fuel tank, very shacken up and went into shock about 1 minute after, luckily there was other people around to put the spot fires out that started.It became clear to him after talking to a few people that it was the fact that he LIFTED the fuel can away from the funnel causeing a spark to jump, and with all the fumes around a fire was unaviodable, just very lucky that there was still fuel in the funnel so that was as far as the flames went down.So please be careful of this, and where possible use an earth cord.
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Hi BonesVery interesting as we all do what this guy didI was wondering was it the black mister funnel or the yellow type I just looked at the the black type which is the aircaft type and on the sticker it has anti static funnel body writen on itMaybe its the plastic jerry?Neville
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Thats the first time iv heard it ACTUALY happen.Iv heard plenty of people say its so, and others say its crap.Iv often wundered bout the possability tho, coz wen ever its dry here [ wen is it not f%$#2 dry here] and iv just landed, and grab the machine to drag it into the hanger it zaps me.BTW, its very unlikely to burn into the tank even if the funnel was not there, coz the vapers are too concentrated.Bloodyell, how many thousands of gallons of fuel have we tiped into our machines from plastic jerrys and funnels?He must be one very unlucky bloke to have a strong enuf spark and the optimum "mixture" for it to go poof.
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I dont like it when things go poof.(and Im not homophobic)Mark.
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I"m no expert regarding static electricity but its essential to ground the tab on the fuel cap before removing the cap to refuel on a FW.!! With gyros, I used to have a wire and clip that I used to ground the gyro before refueling but for many years I just make sure that when fueling from a jerry can that all parts are touching and that some part of my body is touching the gyro and when fueling from a pump, I hold the hose with one hand and hold the gyro with the other, so far this "technique" has worked but I"m really not sure how successful it is!!As a matter of interest, I have seen a drum of fuel actually boil, the drum was in the back of a 4 WD and the day was hot but have had plenty as hot, anyway, one of the ground crew jumped up, took the bung out, picked up the pump and started to lower it into the drum when as of a sudden, the fuel started spraying out like a fountain !!! Fortunately, the fuel spray went the right direction but we lost approx a third of the contents of the drum BUT there was no other damage than a few nervous moments till the fountain stopped !I think static electricity is something that could probably be done in an article in the gyro news by some technical person who knows the subject well, as some of us are probably flying close to the wind in some instances!!
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G"day Brian,Stan Rundle was a member of the Vic club about 10 yrs ago. He was also a B double tanker driver and instructor for hazardous goods. He use to drive for shell (I think). He put on an evening for the Vic boys at one stage, and gave us the run down on the hazards of fuel. Very enlightening. Might be handy if somehting like that could be arranged for the next Nationals. No good wondering if we are doing it right.CheersFred
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Hi All
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G"day Brian,Stan Rundle was a member of the Vic club about 10 yrs ago. He was also a B double tanker driver and instructor for hazardous goods. He use to drive for shell (I think). He put on an evening for the Vic boys at one stage, and gave us the run down on the hazards of fuel. Very enlightening. Might be handy if somehting like that could be arranged for the next Nationals. No good wondering if we are doing it right.CheersFredI agree with you Fred, electricity of any type is invisible...till we find it or get a spark, either way is too late.I"m sure it can be arranged.
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