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Stuart Seffern sends:



<<The old fuel system in the 360 has its drawbacks too.



1. Flying high above a solid 8000 ft cloud deck IFR over lake Erie

last year I found that pushing the com transmit button dimmed the

panel.  Arg!  Battery dead, alternator could not keep up, breaker

out!  Reset, popped again 5 minutes later, shut down all unnecessary

power.  Popped again in 2 minutes.  Fuel: 40 gals on board.  Usable:

now 7 gallons!  9,500 ft. 40 miles from shore!!  Enough for one

successful approach.



It could happen to you...



What about a parallel system that could get to the remaining fuel?  

One without giving up the simplicity of no fuel selector.  Ideas?  (..

. a small seperate 12 v.batt to another fuel pump? )>>



Stu:



You are discussing an electrical problem, not a fuel problem.  I will restate

-- My header tank is always full, giving me at least one hour.  



On the electrical side, I utilize all of the normal warnings to indicate an

electrical problem such as low voltage, high discharge, alternator out, etc.

I also have an essential bus system -- gear down lights, engine instruments,

Com1, Xpdr, GPS( it has it's own backup battery), panel flood, etc. -- that

bypasses the master relay to directly access the battery (like magnetos

generate their own electricity).  So, If I have a major electrical problem, I

can shut down the Master Switch and use whats left of the battery to find an

airport.  Essential bus systems are designed to provide protection for some

major electrical system problem that might not involve certain isolated

essential items, such as gear down lights, engine instruments, and a few

others.  Non-essential items are: fuel pumps, external lights, flaps, gear

motor, Com2, etc.



Scott Krueger

N92EX



P.S.  I also fly a Skymaster, a single engine with a spare in the back (or the

front, depending on which one is running), that has redundant systems for

almost everything electrical (two alternators, two voltage regulators, a

2-Dcell battery restart system for the alternators, etc.) except that ALL (yes

ALL) of the internal lights (dimmer circuits, switch lights, map light, flood

light, post light, instrument light and dome light) are on ONE (yes ONE)

circuit breaker.  At night, a short in a sub circuit of this system leaves you

with your flashlight in your mouth until you can find the ground.  Been there,

done that, one more reason to dislike type certified planes cause you can't do

much about their inadequacies.



P.P.S

I get about 25 miles per gallon.  I could get somewhere with 7 gallons.