Cardinal Flyers Organization Digest - Sun & Fun

FROM THE Cardinal Flyers Organization DIGEST 

JP Instruments, the engine monitor folks, shared that they continue to work with CIES, a friend of CFO's, who have introduced a superior design fuel level transmitter.

JPI EDM 930

The JPI930 certified engine instrument replacement already works with the CIES transmitter in native mode, frequency domain.

JPI EDM 900

The JPI900 certified engine instrument replacement works with the CIES transmitter in voltage or current mode.

CiES Inc 177 Fuel Senders 

Several Cardinal owners have already ordered the CIES transmitters to improve repeatability and accuracy of their fuel level measurements, while reducing installation cost and fuss, and hopefully achieving longer term reliability.

www.jpinstruments.com

www.ciescorp.net

A Universal Aircraft Fuel Sender

A UNIVERSAL FUEL SENDER

When we started manufacturing fuel level senders,  we had a specific customer in mind.   

In order to maximize our customers benefit for this technology, we made this sender nearly exclusive for that customers application. 

We received quite few inquiries for this fuel sender and most of them related to will it interface to our existing system.  

Sadly because we had tailored the sender to a particular aircraft and avionics interface,  we had to turn good business away.  

So step forward 3 years nearly to the day,  we had an opportunity to reinvent the fuel sender product and add new features:

First:   We have utilized a unique circuitry design to create a universal output:
                         - We can supply:  Resistance
                                                      Voltage
                                                      Frequency 

Second:  We can supply a  Fuel Temperature Output.  This feature is helpful for Jet A applications  where Pounds Fuel is the unit of measure.

Third:  We have supplied a pigtail to allow installation in tight spaces and flexibility in the Fuel Sender connection. 

We are trying to remove any barrier for you to have a more reliable technology for fuel level in your aircraft.

Contact Us for more information.

If You Trusted Your Aircraft Fuel Gauge?

How would you operate your aircraft

If you knew, at all times, how much fuel you had.

Hard to imagine, isn't it ?

Did you ever have that feeling that you might have put in the wrong fuel starting amount?

Did you really see fuel wash over the tabs?

Doubts about fuel level can creep into any flight.   

The statistics of fuel starvation, fuel exhaustion and fuel related loss of power events bear that out.  

But it is interesting to see that with a change in technology for fuel level reporting to Magneto Resistive Senders.

Some pilots are finding an opportunity to operate differently.

CirrusPilot

Commenter Dialogue:

I'm always surprised you do not fly your 22t topped off, were you taught to fly with minimum fuel? Maybe it's a West Coast thing, but my Cirrus SR22 is always sitting full and I fuel it every time it is at home.

Response:

Plane is hangared. Full tanks are heavier and the performance is affected. I carry 20g extra to a location like Vegas.

AeroviePilot iPad Application Demonstration

Tilting @ Propellers

Illus. Chris Demerest http://chrisdemarest.net 

Today I took a call,  the pilot on the line was enthused, he really wanted to get our new technology fuel senders on his aircraft.  

Further he engaged us in a dialogue wanting to let us know how significant this product was to aviation, and to his passion, you know the type,  a typical Mooney pilot.

He told me about the AOPA statistics on fuel mismanagement and starvation, and that it wasn't good press for general aviation or general aviation safety  to have a fuel starved aircraft parked along  a busy highway.

He was adamant to tell us about the significance of redundant and confirming cockpit information.  Being able to cross-check the two independent fuel quantity indications in his cockpit, he felt, would virtually eliminate fuel starvation in general aviation aircraft.

He talked about the level of quality he saw in fuel senders used in aviation, and that he just hoped he wouldn't have to overhaul his original set for the umpteenth time, and then have them fail hours later in flight, as they had on the past two occasions.

He related to me that as a multi type rated and experienced pilot he had never flown behind a good aviation fuel gauge in his entire life.

I didn't say a word  I sat back and listened to the sentiment that put us on the path to start a company around this product and idea.

The idea that we will build a good fuel level sensor, a quality fuel level sensor,  around robust patented technology using aerospace materials and standards.   We will prove our commitment by qualifying this fuel sensor to the most ridgid FAA standards for manufacturing and design.

My dream is that pilots will get this and install or demand this technology on their aircraft.  If that happens, we will make a lasting contribution to the aviation industry.

So many times in this aviation business,  you feel like you are setting your train along the wrong track,  why are you building a company in aviation,  when successful people all around you question the market size, vitality and rational.   You question your own sanity on a daily basis.

I guess we do this,  because our passion makes us tilt toward that propeller.  some days it's nice to know we aren't the only ones.

The Aviation "Zero Fuel" Parody

We thought we would take the commonly held belief and mess with it a bit.

"The aircraft Fuel gauge only has to read Zero when the tank is empty"

It was interesting to take this assertion and take it to impossibly illogical conclusion


http://youtu.be/fnREv_bz9Qc

Aviation Fuel Level

Traditional Aircraft Fuel Sender 

Why don't my fuel gauges work?

Let us cover a few basics  

• Aviation industry has utilized level senders from other applications
• Aviation is not the largest market or the most financially rewarding for a dedicated fuel level sensing solution.

• Aircraft fuel tanks are larger than those for most other applications. 
• An aircraft carries more fuel.

• An aircraft has three degrees of motion freedom 
• The liquid fuel is free to move about.

There are other factors.

• Why not design a new system 
• Fuel Level Intellectual Property is hotly contested territory (a patent minefield) 
• A new aviation design must avoid other patents 
• The market share is small
• The perceived liability - Top 5 aircraft incident issue

• Fuel Level in Aircraft needs to be "Intrisically Safe".
• Explosion Proof 
• Limited Spark or Heat Energy in the fuel tank. 
• Non - Contact "The best solution" for Intrinsic safety is the hottest IP in Fuel Level
• Required for multi fuel and hybrid vehicles
• Required for vehicles with long term fuel storage - i.e. Boats
• Required in LNG / LPG

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fuel sending works in my car.

• Automotive fuel tanks are smaller
• What would be adequate for a resolving 16 gallons of fuel has difficulty with 3 times the volume.   
• If you have a boat - this is also an issue as you are well aware
• The variable resistor technology used in automotive applications doesn't scale well
• The variable resistor cards used,  allow 60 degrees of travel  - a good resistive card for aircraft or boats would require minimum. 180 degrees or more.

• Relatively stable fluid motion 
• The automotive sensor is exposed to some fluid motion but overall less. 
• Aircraft fuel can remain quite stable - however turbulence will creates concentrated fluid motion.
• This motion wears the resistive trace - so inadequate resolution of the variable resistor is now faced with increased wear.  From bad to worse.

• The basic requirements 
• Standard aircraft fuel gauges are calibrated only for the full and empty position.
• Caveat - new automotive systems are calibrated to the tank - great improvement
• Caveat - new aircraft MFD's allow tank calibration - Aerospace Logic, JPI, Garmin

• Almost daily use  
• The automotive sensor is continually washed with new solvent at every filling and fuel fills are more frequent. 
• Aircraft fuel can remain in the tank for long periods - it is designed to do so - however impurity buildup on the variable resistor are common at a fraction of usage time of the automotive application.
•  it is quite common to have your aircraft senders ultrasonically cleaned

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Propane Level Gauge

New requirements for intrinsic safety for all aviation fuel level systems 

• The general aircraft industry found that they could utilize a commercial off the shelf, patented float sending unit from the propane industry
• This met the new safety requirements and directly replace a float level legacy system.

• A Non- Contact solution - the resistance card was removed from the tank environment.
• Shock inputs from turbulent air can however de-couple the matched magnetic drive and the the gauge will take a set but in-accurate reading or drift back to the correct reading.
• Suffice to say - Propane Tanks were not meant to fly

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Aircraft Capacitive Sender Ad - 1948

Alternatives  - 

Capacitive Senders -

Conceived in the Late 1940's this aircraft fuel sending system set about to address the two most common issues presented above - fluid motion and resolution of the larger fuel quantity.   

These are the most widely used in aircraft above 12,500 lb 

Capacitive Sensor Benefits 

• Immunity from fluid motion 
• Greater resolution of the large fuel volume 
• Shapable to the fluid volume - tailored to the tank volume.

Capacitive Sensor Issues

• Difficult to Prove Intrinsic Safety
• The definition of the sensor is to utilize two metallic or conductive elements in the tank 
• The intrinsic safety requirement must be met with increasing the complexity of the system.
• It is a spark in the capacitive sensor that initiated the explosion in TWA 800 fuel tank. 

• Moisture Rejection
• An aircraft fuel tank breathes on ascending and descending - moisture in the air is constantly brought in contact with the fuel.  Sealing the tank is not an option.
• As the capacitive utilizes the fuel contents as an integral element of the level reading - this variable is very difficult to manage.

• What's in the tank - matters a great deal 
• Fuel must be:
• uniform 
• moisture-free
• stable and uniform temperature
• contaminant free
•  to give a consistent and accurate fuel level indication 

When you review the system above - the capacitive sender solved several issues with fuel level indication, however it brought a few of it's own limitations along for the ride.

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Ideal Aircraft Solution Characteristics

• Non Contact - New FAA Requirement
• Intrinsically Safe - 
• The alternative is proven safe electronics in the fuel
• Immune to fuel contamination

• Unaffected by Fluid motion 
• No wear items related to fuel level reporting

• High Resolution 
• Address the larger quantity of fuel in aviation systems.

• Simplicity 
• The best aviation solutions eschew complexity where a simple system provides equivalent benefit.

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CIES Inc AMR Fuel Level 

Float Based Level Sensing - Retrofits or directly replaces most units in the field

• Non Contact 
• No - Safety Issues 
• No - Fluid Contamination
• No - No moisture or fuel quality issues

• Immune to Fluid motion
• No wear of fuel level reporting system

• Resolution 
• Digital output
• More fuel level information 
• Integrity of the level signal
• Interfaces to modern avionic solutions
• Ability to output fuel temperature - Lbs fuel. 

• Simplicity




• No complexity required
• On the platforms we have been applied - exceed it's requirements

CIES Inc AMR  A sensor that was designed for and patented with the aviation industry in mind, but suitable for all high value applications.

Why Anisotropic Magneto Resistive

Why use Anisotropic Magneto Resistive Sensors 

Anisotropic Magnetoresistive (AMR) Sensors Technology used by CIES Inc  for our fuel level solutions   These sensors use the basic premise that the electrical resistance of certain ferromagnetic alloys, such as permalloy, are influenced by external magnetic fields.

Like a compass that always points North no matter how you move - our sensor always points to the float.

For larger fuel tanks like those in aviation or marine applications  - we need more information or position information to correctly depict the amount of fuel in the tank.  Our sensor technology does this we can measure tiny fractions of a degree. So not only pointing North but also with a high degree of precision.  In fact we have thousands of discrete data points to measure fuel level.

Automotive resistance sensors re-configured for these critical applications - are just not adequate.   60 discrete points might be good enough for 18 gallons - but it falls short  handing 5 times that volume - plain and simple.  The 60 or so discrete points found on thick film resistance cards just don't cut it.  Fuel movement found in aviation and marine applications adds additional problems to resistive senders - float motion out of of the pivot plane tends to make the resistance wiper act as a make and break switch.

These compromised systems attempting to scale current automotive ceramic resistive elements by adding a longer float arm or other measures - simply provides poor performance.  

CIES Inc Patented Method

Utilize a solid state magnetoresistive effect or anisotropic magnetoresistance can be fabricated in thin film technology, allowing the production of a very precise yet cost-effective angular measurement sensors.  Replace the coarse variable resistor with a solid state device.

From Wikipedia: 

Anisotropic Magneto Resistive - (AMR) is the property of a material in which a dependence of electrical resistance on the angle between the direction of electric current and orientation of magnetic field is observed. 

Why is this a better way to measure fuel 

It works under all conditions, temperatures and with moving fluid volumes - PROVEN IN AVIATION 

And there is a combination of influences but for an AMR sensor the built in 

strong magnetic external field attached to the float arm locally saturates the sensor, the actual magnitude of the local field strength has no impact on the measurements. - Remember temperature effects on both the magnetic strength and the efficiency of the sensor.

Only the direction of the field is evaluated.

Only the local magnetic field on the rotor has influence - the presence of other nearby magnetic fields such as motors will have no effect on the sensor as long as the rotor magnetic field strength is dominant. 

While other magneto resistive sensors are available - AMR has the capability to work under all conditions and give proven repeatable results. 

Non-contact fuel level sensing is a good idea.  It was a good idea to remove the electronics from the fluid measured.

Other fuel level reporting systems don't measure up


SUMMARY OF AMR ADVANTAGES

• Voltage in the case of our AMR sensor is converted to a bit stream digital output.
• More information for every degree of float travel
• Independence of magnetic drift during lifetime
  
• Independence of magnetic drift with temperature
  
• Independence of mechanical assembly tolerances
  
• Independence of mechanical shifts caused by thermal stress 

Aerospace Logic - Cirrus Design Retrofit

In creating a new fuel level system for Cirrus Aircraft we kept in the back of our mind  the opportunity to provide this technology to legacy Cirrus Aircraft as well as other aviation applications.

Aerospace Logic was the obvious choice - 

We chose their 200 series unit over other 2 1/4 instruments as Aerospace Logic has created a quality and sunlight readable  display with a clear and concise level indication.

More importantly, Aerospace Logic like CIES saw accurate and reliable fuel level indication as a valuable instrument in the cockpit.  Aerospace Logic was hampered in achieving it's goals for fuel level indication by fuel level senders that were previously available to the aviation market.  CIES Level senders with our new and patented technology completely changed the fuel sender game.

You will note that a digital value of fuel is displayed below each quantity gauge.  This gives an unmatched accurate calculation of quantity in each tank.

Aerospace Logic has worked with us to incorporate appropriate warnings that a quality fuel level indication system can provide.

Note:  The upper display is indicating a fuel "Imbalance Condition"
and the flashing Amber bar is indicating you have exceeded the POH recommendations for fuel level imbalance. Switch to the flashing AMBER tank.

One of the most important characteristics of the Aerospace Logic Display is the trend graph featured on the second page.  This provides graphical information of fuel level over time.  The use of the displayed trend data makes it easier to manage fuel in a single engine aircraft.

Most importantly,  Aerospace Logic was willing to work with CIES in developing a display unit that would allow a digital interface between the display and fuel level sender.

Aerospace Logic and CiES Inc. look forward to pilot response for this system.

http://www.aerospacelogic.com

Digital Fuel Sender Now Certified

Digital fuel sender now certified

The AOPA Press Release came out today
It seems to be difficult to find, but it is on the web

The basic concept is ....


When we have specific aircraft (or aircraft type) information
and we demonstrate that the system is compatible to Transport Canada ... Flight Test
or operation under 337 Field Approval

We can add those aircraft onto the blanket AML STC owned by Aerospace Logic.

We believe after we demonstrate on several aircraft types that this is simple modification and installations are straight forward  additional aircraft models will fall into place.

Press Release - TSO Granted - AOPA Summit

NEWS RELEASE                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CIES Corporation receives FAA TSO approval for new digital fuel level senders

October 10, 2012, CIES Corporation of Redmond, Oregon has received FAA TSO C55a approval for its line of digital fuel level senders. The float based fuel level senders are designed to replace the majority of the existing fuel level sending systems in general aviation aircraft. The proprietary and patented system provides a new level of accuracy, reliability, and stability to fuel level indication in the cockpit. CIES meets a TSO standard of 2% variance in tank volume, a standard normally reserved for corporate and commercial aircraft with corrected capacitive solutions. No other float based system meets this stringent TSO standard while achieving the intrinsically safe (i.e. “no wires in the tank”) requirement.

Richard Kirkness, Vice President of CIES said, "As a manufacturer of aircraft systems, we see FAA certification as critical to our success and the foundation for everything we do. FAA approval is the result of months of hard work on the part of our team here in Redmond and could not have come at a better time for CIES as the company continues to grow and strives to achieve the goal of becoming a world class supplier of advanced systems and technologies.”

Charlie Babb, General Manager of CIES added, “After the successful introduction at the beginning of this year of our senders on all new Cirrus production aircraft, we began working with other manufacturers and owners groups to provide specific fuel level sending solutions for production and legacy aircraft. The next logical step was to acquire FAA certification to validate our quality control system and lean manufacturing processes while making aircraft integration and approval significantly easier to obtain.”

The CIES fuel level senders require a dedicated digital fuel level display to ensure that the 2% accuracy achieved in the fuel tank is provided in the cockpit as well. As a result, CIES partnered with Aerospace Logic in Hamilton, Ontario to utilize their digital fuel level cockpit display. Aerospace Logic updated their fuel level gauging system to accept the digital communication link from the CIES digital senders.

CIES Corporation of Redmond, Oregon USA provides a range of high-technology products and support services to aviation, aerospace, and the broader transportation marketplaces.

For additional information on CIES and its products please visit the CIES Inc Website

For additional information on Aerospace Logic and its products please visit the Aerospace Logic Website

TSO C55a Approved Fuel Float Level Sensor

CIES Inc has obtained FAA TSO Approval - C55a - at the most rigorous standard for it's line of float based digital fuel level senders.

Its official we now are producing a line of TSO'd Fuel Level senders applicable to most aircraft below 12,500 lb gross weight. 

This effort provides a real alternative to the old Stewart Warner  senders long out of production for current General Aviation Aircraft fleet.

We are working with every major manufacturer to incorporate our senders as original equipment.