Category Archives: Fuel Tanks

RH Wing – Fuel Tank and Inspection Covers

Practice makes perfect they say. Well, maybe not perfect. But the going seems a little easier when you’ve been there before. So it was for mounting the second fuel tank. It actually fit slightly better than the other one. I knew what to do, and on it went without issue.

I did the same basic steps as I did for the first tank. I felt confident, and the work went quickly. I had to carefully dress a number of the overlapping holes in the tank and spar with the #20 chucking reamer in the lithium drill. I knew what to expect and there were no surprises. I also had to touch the holes in spar web to align with the outermost Z-bracket so I could get the AN3 bolts through and threaded into the anchor nuts. Once again, I used a length of cord to pull on the Z-bracket while the tank was being fitted for the final time. That worked like a charm.

There are several stainless steel rivets, top and bottom of the spar near the root. Those are treated with fuel tank sealant for corrosion protection. The rest of the rivets are aluminum multi-grip. Riveting goes pretty fast when the pieces are fitted in place.

Having both fuel tanks mounted is a big milestone and yielded a rather wonderful sense of satisfaction that was sweetened with a measure of relief. Success! Good result. Yay!

The M4 rivnuts for the inspection panels went in without a hitch. I had to enlarge the holes in the bottom wing skin to #A – the perfect size (I’ve found) to accept the rivnut prior to setting them with the drill-mounted tool I use. Screw holes in each of the cover panels had to be enlarged for close clearance of M4 stainless steel button-head hex screws.

LH Fuel Tank Fitment – Success!

I took a bunch of photos and texted them to Jean d’Assonville. After several days of phone tag – one or the other of us were busy – we connected for a brief chat. That’s all it took.

It turns out that I was in pretty good shape after all. My hell was all in my head. Having quite a few rivets that were hand-fitted at various places around the fuel tank flanges is a good sign. The thing that really set me free was to hear that it is acceptable to dress stubborn rivet holes with a chucking reamer or drill. The same thing is true for Z-bracket holes on the spar. You have to do what you have to do. I just needed to hear the guidance. I’ve learned from experience – it doesn’t usually pay to be impetuous.

A shim is necessary under the top of the Z-bracket at the root of the tank. The other Z-brackets fit well enough. Other builders have needed to shim several brackets. Mine were flat on the spar. Another good thing.

Over a period of several days I evaluated fitment and planned my procedure. Then, I carefully fit the tank in place, one last time, as I’ve done twenty times or more by now.

I made a little shim from material I had on hand. A washer would have worked too, but I thought aluminum against aluminum might be better than against steel. Slightly more surface area is probably not such a bad thing either.

I fitted as many rivets as I could – by hand. The remaining 4,0 mm holes around the flanges were match-reamed with a #20, straight-flute chucking-reamer and deburred. Clecos and additional rivets were hand-fitted.

A mix of AN3-4A and 3A bolts, with washers, were threaded through the spar web and into the anchor nuts on the Z-brackets. (I began with the 4A length for 2 outer brackets, but then worried that the length might turn out to be slightly long.) At the root Z-bracket, two AN3-13A bolts, with washers and nuts and with the shim in place – were finger-tightened.

Finally – today, I mixed up a tiny bit of Flamemaster CS-3204 B-2, as recommended by Sling Aircraft to deter galvanic corrosion between the aluminum and the stainless steel rivets that are called out for use at the wing root – top and bottom.

Dipping the SS rivets in the sealant – one-by-one, I placed them and then pulled them with my trusty Milwaukee M12 lithium battery-powered tool. Rivet pulling continued with for the balance of 4,0mm aluminum rivets. Lastly, the 3,2 x 8mm rivets around the leading edge at RIB-105 were pulled. The Z-bracket bolts were all torqued. The 4A and 3A lengths are both fine. It’s all good. The fuel tank is mounted!

LH Fuel Tank Fitment, Plan B – Vertical Stands

With a seat-of-the-pants concept, a circular saw and a box of screws, I’ve managed to fashion a pair of Sling 2 custom vertical wing panel stands. Poof! It all came together.

With the LH wing panel on the stands, I’ve got much better access. Hopefully this will be the day I get the tank mounted.

Unfortunately, most of the same fit and alignment issues persist. This is starting to feel like Fuel Tank Fitment Hell.

Before I do something that’s un-recoverable, I’ll reach out to Jean d’Assonville at Sling Aircraft (TAF) USA before it gets any later in the day. It’s Friday and hopefully I can get out of this hell before the weekend. Stay tuned.

LH Fuel Tank – Final Fit (or Not)

The LH wing panel assembly has been back up on the workbench for several days. I can’t see any reason not to tackle permanent mounting of the fuel tank.

Well – I found a few reasons to not mount the tank today. I’m struggling to fully fit the tank and to align the rivet holes. I don’t have convenient access to the bottom surface of the wing panel. Gravity doesn’t seem to be helping either.

There’s a curious mix of places where rivets fit easily and squarely and other places where they won’t fit squarely, or at all. I’ll have to shift to Plan B. I think that means building some sort of stand(s) to hold the wing panel in a vertical leading-edge-up orientation.

Fuel Tanks – Pressure Testing

Hooray – the fuel tanks seem to be sealed! That’s fantastic because if they weren’t, just about any rework scenario would be ugly. Thankfully, I don’t have to go there.

Having an active build community that shares experiences is so incredibly valuable. I think it’s absolute essential for the growth and long-term success of any kit manufacturer. Fortunately for home-builders of Sling Aircraft, there’s a steadily increasing number of builders and contributions to the knowledge base. That’s where I found the details of employing a water-manometer for safely and confidently testing the integrity of the fuel tanks. Thank you fellow Sling 2 builder — Pascal Latten: Sling2 Fuel Tank Leak Test

My test apparatus was not anywhere near as well-done as Pascal’s, but it worked – once I got the apparatus itself to not leak. At first, I was testing the apparatus. It failed miserably. Once I eliminated all of the leaks caused by clamped hose connections, I was eventually able to get to the point of testing the tanks themselves.

Over a test period of several days, I logged tank pressure vs. temperature and local barometric pressure readings. In theory, you can then compute a leak-rate value that can be compared to an established value (found in a reference table) that is acceptable for whatever you’re wanting to keep in your tank. In this case it’s gasoline.

I ran into a bit of a snag with my barometric pressure readings. After being astounded how little the barometric pressure readings were changing over the test period, I discovered that my home weather center was more for decoration than practical use. The old – thump on the glass trick – revealed that the mechanical pressure gauge was sticky. That pretty much trashed my data. But, all was not lost.

I’d casually kept eye on local barometric pressure, through local weather reports, and it really wasn’t changing a whole lot. It stayed within a rather narrow range. Temperature went up and down – and so did the tank pressure readings – quite a lot! It was somewhat frightening. Do I have I leak, I wondered? But throughout the tests, and ultimately, the ending tank pressure matched starting pressure at the same temperature. I felt good about that – perhaps even better than I might have felt about the subjectively assessing the relative size of an inflated balloon or nitrile glove. In the end, I didn’t bother to compute a leak value for either tank, but I have confidence that it’s all good to go!