Hi Everybody,
Could I suggest that people keep an eye on WillyRose's thread "Training for Emergencies" where he reported on an engine failure one of his gyro pilot colleagues experienced with a Rotax 914 engine. The problem was a failed fuel pressure regulator. (Willy Rose has posted that his colleague will post a full report in due course).
I have an ELA07S gyro with the 914 turbo engine. The gyro was idle for about 8 weeks about 4 years ago while I was awaiting delivery of a new rotor hub bar and refurbished rotors. When I was doing the DI after installing the new rotor hub bar and rotors, only one fuel pump worked. Luckily, a very experienced local fixed wing CFI and vastly experienced engine mechanic was visiting the airfield at the time. He suggested turning on only the faulty fuel pump and giving the pump body a few "gentle taps" with the handle of a screwdriver. The pump worked and has not failed since. I now make sure to test each pump separately during Daily Inspection and several times during engine warm-up.
It's worth cleaning the fuel pump filters and gascolator filter and doing a fuel flow test at least once a year. During this summer, I also drained all the good fuel from the tank. There is normally 3L of unusable fuel at the bottom of ELA07 gyro carbon fibre fuel tanks which cannot flow from the tank because of the way it is designed. I then jacked up the port main wheel and the nose wheel about a foot off the ground and fully drained the 3L of "normally unusable" fuel from the bottom of the tank. This 3L of sump fuel contained about a half litre of milky coloured "crap" probably made up of sediment and debris/condensation from inside the fuel tank walls. I plan to fully empty the fuel tank after each winter as part of the usual maintenance work from now on. None of the sump crap got as far as the fuel pump filters and seemed to have been trapped by the in-line main fuel filter and the gascolator. This fuel tank cleanup is something that might need to be done with other carbon fibre or HDPE or metal tanks on an annual basis given the possibility of ethanol or water contamination in mogas nowadays.
Thanks to Willy Rose for reporting the faulty fuel pressure regulator issue. Thanks to all who shared their experiences with electric fuel pumps.
John H.