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Author Topic: Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ  (Read 3127 times)

schrambow

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Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ
« on: September 25, 2020, 09:44:08 pm »
Well,
I had an interesting week here.
Flew down to KSRQ for a quick turn around and decided to stay the night before i headed back home after i dropped off a passenger.  I topped the plane off at KSRQ in afternoon and came back to this at 7am the next morning.  They said the plane wasn't leaking throughout the night, but when they moved the plane to the front ramp at Dolphin Aviation, the leaking started.   The right tank #2 which is the only bladder tank right of the right engine developed a massive leak. The tank was original from 1981, and somehow just developed a massive leak, hopefully the video comes through here, but not sure if videos do on this site?  I guess we will find out. 
Thanks goes out to Tim at Byerly for helping me out through the phone and providing pdf for maintenance repair instructions and giving me guidance throughout this repair, and a different Tim at Aircraft Corporate Maintenance at the Sarasota Airport for his team to open up our bird and remove the tank and help locate another tank and get it installed asap for us.  This group wasn't real familiar with Commanders but did a great job for us on the road to get us back in the air very soon.  This remanufactured tank was $2700 from Hartwig Aircraft Fuel Cell repair on hand, but I don't think they have anymore on hand.  New tanks from Twin Commander and/or another shop or two out there are $6800 to $7100!  Yikes, we have 11 more of these tanks in our machine, wonder when he next one will let loose?  Lost almost 200 gallons of jetA that i couldn't use once we defueled here also, but that is the game i guess we play.

donv

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Re: Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2020, 10:49:43 pm »
Interesting... mine has had a tiny drip from that drain hole, which is coming from that bladder. I have decided to have Eagle Creek replace it while it's there for the autopilot, since my opinion is that bladder leaks only get worse over time, and I might as well replace it before it fails in a bigger way.

donv

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Re: Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2020, 12:55:20 pm »
Also, how do you "remanufacture" a rubber fuel cell?

schrambow

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Re: Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2020, 03:06:21 pm »
i could be wrong here, but I think they take like one component of your old tank, like stem or some another tube or grommet, etc... and rebuild a new bladder with that old part?

Adam Frisch

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Re: Fuel Bladder lets loose on the Road at KSRQ
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2020, 11:02:00 am »
Sucks. The fuel bladders are a pain when they get older, but unfortunately wet wings can leak just as much with age and hard landings. So there's no great solution. I had mine just patched and was not that expensive.
Slumming it in the turboprop world - so you don't have to.