By John H. Raffensparger, Sr.
Enclosed is a drawing of the fuel pick ups that I have been using on my BD-4. So far in nearly 500 hours of flying my Bird, I have never had a fuel flow problem. I follow several rules very religiously.
- NEVER take of with less than ¼ fuel in both tanks.
- If you must fly with fuel below ¼ keep climb and bank angles shallow.
- I try to plan my flights so that if I am going to be low on fuel at my destination, I have the most fuel in the tank that will high on the turns in the pattern.
- Generally I limit my flight legs to 2 ½ to 3 hours which gives me plenty of reserve.
My fuel system is stock BD front the instrument panel for-ward. I have made
several design changes including 3/8 " aluminum tubing between the forward tank
outlet and the bulkhead fitting into the fuselage. Hopefully, I will be able to
make a drawing of my system in the near future.
Happy buildin and flyin
JR
