AOPA Pilot - May 2013

AOPA Pilot

The press is taking notice of the new digital fuel level senders in the new Cirrus aircraft.

In this case AOPA Pilot and Tom Horne

Here the new fuel level  senders are being discussed with the integration to the standard Cirrus Garmin Perspective Panel.

We agree that accurate fuel level makes it much easier to manage fuel and payload 

The dialogue we started a year and a half ago 

That accurate fuel level in aviation will allow for a higher level of integration, and relieve pilot workload

These innovations are reaching the light of day and in now in production

Tank level balancing and enriched warnings are now reality

Flying Magazine - May 2013

Flying Magazine

Well we have been waiting for this -

Recognition in the press or an editorial resulting from a flight utilizing our fuel level sending technology.

When reading about all the very significant changes made for the new 2013 G5 Cirrus.  You will see the mention of accurate fuel level - not once but three times.

In this aircraft review there is an discussion about the fuel imbalance messages being determined by fuel level.

Not the Fuel Totalizer - the Fuel Level System 

If you pay close attention -  the differential they are talking about is an accurate reading of a level of fuel at 8,  10 gallons between the two wing tanks and then at 12 gallons. 

Yes -- our senders give levels of accuracy in the 46 gallon tank of less than  two gallons.

Again in the side bar - a mention of not just accurate - but highly accurate fuel level.

I

Imagine an editorial in General Aviation magazine - praising the quality of the fuel indication.

Not Fuel Totalizer -
The Fuel gauges

And finally in the specification banner another mention of the electronic fuel level sending units.

While we strive every day to change fuel level sending in aviation with better technology, quality assembly 

and attention to detail 

We are very proud that our efforts are being recognized 

CiES Fuel Sender - In the News - March 2014 Aviation Consumer

In the March 2014 Issue of Aviation Consumer the CiES Cirrus Fuel System Retrofit is reviewed.

As we have talked about in previous blog posts - Cirrus G1 / G2 retrofits are a challenge.  The results and review were favorable and represent what can be obtained on the early series aircraft.   Later model Cirrus G3's can achieve nearly perfect results.

Please look to 

aviationconsumer.com

for more information and other informative articles

Overnight - The world of aviation fuel level measurement changed

Just like the classic instrument six pack.

Seemingly while you weren't looking  -   The days of simple capacitive and resistive fuel senders disappeared and were relegated to history. 

 You need only to look at the parts manuals for the latest Cirrus SR20, SR22 or Cessna 172, 182 & 206 single engine aircraft.     Take a real close look and  you will see terms like AMR and TDR  (Anisotropic Magneto Resistive & Time Domain Reflectometry).  And instead of a voltage or resistance output to be checked in the maintenance manual - you will see terms like CANBUS and Digital Frequency.  

So what changed ...... well quite a lot ...... the digital age hit fuel level.

• First ---- The FAA requires there to be working fuel gauges in aircraft.  

Fuel gauges that are accurate throughout the range.   Yes the FAA really wants accurate gauges in the aircraft not just at "Empty"

• The FAA in their regulations makes that clear -

• The pilot is required by Part 91.205 to have working fuel gauges
• The definition of working is:   Provide accurate fuel level through the  tank range.

• The aircraft manufacturer is required  by Parts 23.963, 23.1305, 23.1337, 23.1555 to provide working fuel gauges.

• These regulations very clearly indicate that the installed fuel gauges must give accurate fuel level through the whole tank range.
• Note:  Some of these requirements were recently revised.

• Second ----- The rate of fuel starvation events remained unchanged.
•  2 to 3 per week in the US 

For a long time,  excuses have been made for fuel level reporting systems in General Aviation aircraft.   

General aviation fuel gauges were (insert your own adjective) bad, pilots didn't trust them and pilots did not rely on the information they provided.   Plain and Simple 

Uncharacteristically,  the FAA turned a blind eye to the fuel level regulations they provided, tacitly acknowledging in their own documents and publications, that the state of the art was not up to the task.  

Pilots sought and effectively utilized "work arounds" - pilots relied on wristwatches only and aircraft manufacturers and avionic shops installed or incorporated fuel totalizer equipment in the aircraft.  

Iphone App showing fuel level 

Contrary to popular belief totalizers are not required equipment. but they will give pilots confidence in their fuel level.   They have proven to be accurate while in flight and provide a reliable cross check of the wristwatch fuel calculations  at any time.   You will find a fuel totalizer or range graph is on virtually every piece of modern avionic equipment.

Fuel leaking from an aircraft fuel pump

The posting on the web (pictured right) of illustrates succinctly the common complacency of having accurate gauges in the cockpit.   The particular pilot shows his "trusted" iPhone App illustrating a half tank - this app standing in stark contrast to the values depicted on the aircraft fuel gauge.

So why did the FAA really want working fuel gauges in the aircraft.  

Nothing but an actual working fuel gauge .... can tell you exactly what you actually have onboard the aircraft.   

Case in point --- Fuel leaks at a pump are one of the hazards a working gauge will detect.

You would believe that somewhere in the digital age and the era of MFD avionics, the simple fuel gauge would be relegated to the trash heap.   

However 

--- No Pilot Calculation -- 

--- No Totalizer ----

--- No Stop Watch ----

--- No Range Map ----

Only a working aircraft fuel gauge will let you know what you have in your tank and modern technology can give you that information .  

Welcome to the digital age in fuel level reporting 

   

Cirrus Retrofit Update

CIRRUS AIRCRAFT RETROFIT

Cirrus Fuel Level retrofits are now occurring throughout the world.

Wells Aircraft in Hutchinson Kansas was the latest 

Don, Scott and the rest of the team at Wells did an excellent job with the retrofit and took these pictures to show how well the system integrates to the Cirrus Aircraft 

Wells Aircraft Website


 This illustration shows the new CIES Fuel level
sensor on the Left and the replaced sensor on the Right.   Notice the increased area for fuel sealing on the new design, the smaller float and sealed Circular connector with gold plated pins.  The quality improvement is evident.

 Here is a close up of the Engine page on the MFD in the Cirrus Aircraft.  This gives you  the view of how the fuel level is depicted on the screen immediately adjacent to the Fuel Total




This illustration shows you confirmation of the fuel level remaining in the tanks as well as the fuel burned during the flight.  Given that you inputted the initial amount correctly they should match throughout the flight.



A closer view of the MFD depiction

This shows how well the new gauge integrates to the cockpit center console.  Notice that it gives you the same information as the Perspective MFD and also gives a numeric value for fuel.   If you exceed the manufacturers POH fuel imbalance the more full tank will turn yellow and flash to indicate the tank you should now select.  Simple

Another view of the Cockpit installation on the aircraft.  Notice even how well we matched the black anodizing on the instrument.   Attention to detail does not end at accurate representation of fuel level.

 Here we show the map view on the MFD with fuel level on the left side of the Perspective Screen

 A closer view of the fuel level displayed on the aircraft

Resistance is Futile

When you are talking about Fuel Level.  

When we designed our new digital fuel level sender we gave a lot  of thought on how to interface with older aircraft systems.

The question was:

Could we produce an resistance output to mimic an existing resistance fuel level reporting system.  

There would be a few clear benefits:

• We could interface with many more legacy aircraft 
• Incorporation of our system in aircraft already using resistance based sending would be easier.

However some of the issues of legacy aircraft were directly related to relaying resistance through the aircraft wiring as issues with resistance can provide false or error prone signals.   Resistance measurement on an aircraft was identified by us early on in the design process as not the most favorable method for accurate fuel measurement:

• Aircraft have long wiring runs
• There are multiple sensors and connections
• The connections needed to be ordered to produce a series for multiple sensors
• There were other connections in the aircraft - bad connections produced resistance 
• There were multitudes of different resistance values even for the same aircraft
• There were amplifiers in some aircraft to address the issues above
• The wire run was subject to aircraft vibration 
• The gauge quality and accuracy in legacy aircraft was - not ideal

The favorable aspect of resistive gauging was that it was easy for the average mechanic to diagnose.

• All they needed was an Ohmmeter.

• We had heard stories of Cessna 210 Centurion and Cessna Twin Aircraft with the dreaded Cessna breakout box to tune and diagnose the capacitive system.

So what we needed was a simple digital signal that could be read with the modern equivalent of a ohmmeter  - the Digital MultiMeter (DMM).  We can now get a digital frequency output of any connected sender.

We found that Digital Frequency gave us clarity for fuel level information over all the known wiring challenges - corroded contacts, poor splices and induced signals.  More importantly it gave us a good signal or nothing - induced errors did not conspire to give bad fuel level.

What seemed more natural is that the signal was similar to that used by the fuel flow transducer.  It seemed a natural  - and we could read the read and diagnose the signal on a DMM.

When we sat down after months of delivering a fuel level sending product that had zero issues and was easy to diagnose.  ---

We had come to  realized that we had found the best method for reporting fuel level on the aircraft and a communication standard for any application we applied our product to

General Aviation News - Press Release

Home → News → Aircraft → Accurate fuel gauges for aftermarket Cirrus

Accurate fuel gauges for aftermarket Cirrus

February 12, 2013 by Ben Sclair Leave a Comment

REDMOND, Ore. – Pilots are taught from an early age to not trust their fuel gauges. Cies Inc. wants to change that with its TSO’d fuel senders. The Digital Fuel Level System is now available as a retrofit on the Cirrus-line of aircraft (SR20, SR22, SR22TN and SR22T).

The system will measure fuel volume within 3% at all levels, within 1% when fuel volume is less than 50% and display the data on an Aerospace Logic or J.P. Instruments gauge.

“I love having the fuel flow quantity on the MFD like the new 2013 Cirrus Aircraft,” said David McGregor, Cirrus SR22 owner. “But the icing on the cake is the redundancy with the new Aerospace Logic fuel gauge that sits next to the fuel selector.”

Cies is working to expand the number of aircraft models, both certified and experiment, the Digital Fuel Level System will work with. The system costs $3,000 plus 16-18 hours of installation labor.

More information from Cies at 541-977-1043.

More news coming soon 

CIES Has New European Installation Centre

CiES Inc is proud to have RGV Aviation 
join our list of Installation Centers.  They are excited to be able to offer their Cirrus customers the new CiES  Fuel Level retrofit for SR22T, SR22TN, SR22 & SR20 Aircraft.

This modification brings legacy Cirrus Aircraft the benefit of the new factory Gen 5 digital fuel level sensor solution.  

RGV - A Cirrus Platinum Service Center -  Based at Gloucestershire Airport (EGBJ), is a family run Aircraft and Avionics maintenance business established in 1973.  As an established EASA Part 145, FAA Repair Station with EASA Subpart G and Irish Aviation Authority Subpart G approval, they have the ability and capability to support you and your aircraft, regardless of your requirements.

CiES  - A design and manufacturing business to incorporated to redefine the measurement of fuel.   CiES patented technology for measuring fuel is intrinsically safe - Non contact,  highly accurate and has proven itself reliable under the harshest conditions.   We brought accurate fuel level to aviation 

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