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Does anyone have any experience with fitting and operating CiES magnetic fuel senders to either the AerospaceLogic dual gauge or an Electronics International CGR system?
I have a PA-16 that I am fitting the Stewart dual wing tank STC. The donor tanks (from a crashed PA20/22 at our field) has electronic senders that are both unserviceable (I have tried all the test from the appropriate thread on this site). At the same time I am installing the Trimmer fuel system STC and modifying this to fit the Dakota fuel selector..
No experience with them, but lots with plain float sender, even when float arm is bent so float is touching the top and bottom of tank at Full and Empty my gauge still says Empty with 1 hour of fuel left. Dont be surprised if after spending all that money they dont work as well as you hoped. I have a wood dowel I stick the tank with as my gauge, step on the tire and pop the cap stick the dowel in and see how many inches of gas I have. Make your own calibrated stick starting from an empty tank and add a gallon at a time. That is always extremely accurate and gives me a comfortable feeling in my gut, unlike the gauges.
similar experience here with the Univair replacement probes. gages work smoothly but once I burn 9 gallons form either tank
gage indicaes almost 1/4 tank to 1/3 tank
There is still lots of fuel in the tank when the float arm rests on the bottom of the tank. In my airplane I have about 40 minutes left per tank. That equates to about 6 to 7 gallons per tank and is in line with Andy’s comment above.
The Aerospace senders will have the same problem I believe because it’s a function of the sender location being too far forward in the tank. My EI FP-5 fuel flow gauge solves that problem by telling me my FUEL REMAINING.
Sight gauges also solve the problem. At least in level flight, they do. I like my EI fuel flow gauge but, I don't keep track the of fuel remaining because I often fill from fuel cans and don't always know the quantity.
I don't like running out of fuel coming or going to our island. The water is wet.
I had my old senders overhauled at Airparts of Lockhaven, telling them they were out of a Tri-Pacer. With the airplane is level the old (not overhauled) gauges indicate full when tanks are full and when the needle is lined up with the empty mark there is two and one half gallons remaining in each tank. Close enough for me cause when this old system is indicating one quater remaining per side my priority in flight will be to LAND.
Thank you for the replies. I have read all of the threads on the forum regarding the inaccuracies associated with the geometry of the standard Piper sender but had been led to believe that the CiES sender was not of the sample profile as standard. Seeing as how the Stewart STC requires working fuel gauges as a starter and my senders are unserviceable, I thought the little extra on CiES vs Univair replacements (375 vs 320) may be worth it.
The CiES senders are also compatible with the EI CGR-30P which would be a nice future upgrade.
I understand the value of not relying on gauges but dipping the tanks and relying on fuel flow - we often flew the 747-200 in exactly that manner on one tank.
Out of interest, what would be a ballpark cost of overhaul of fuel senders please?
Would need to dig through receipts to confirm but I think it was around a hundred bucks per sender. A quick call to Airparts of Lockhaven, (570) 748-0823 ask to speak with George, and he will provide you with the current charge. I do remember it was considerably less than new senders.
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CiES Fuel sender..
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Originally Posted by Doug H
