OSHKOSH RECAP - CiES Aircraft Fuel Senders

We are coming to an end of our first trip to OSHKOSH AIRVENTURE.  To say it was a success would be an understatement.  

The three most common comments we heard were 

• "It is about time that somebody fixed aircraft fuel level" 

• "Is is STC'd for my aircraft

• Discussions of personal near miss fuel starvation events. 

Lucky for us several of the alphabet groups decided to stop by and pay us a visit.  They listened as we did, as one by one, potential customers stated all of the above.   

It was a sobering for them.  The magnitude of the issue we have created in aviation, by ignoring fuel quantity indication,  became very evident.

For the first time, somebody other than CiES confirmed  what we hear every working day. 

Fuel indication as we know is less than aviation grade in legacy aircraft.

We are dead set on changing that.  

Piper PA-31 Navajo Fuel Quantity Senders

Piper Navajo Fuel Quantity Senders  

We just completed a set of Piper Navajo senders for Mike Jones Aircraft.   

We replaced the old resistance sender design with the CiES Magnetic Field design .  Like a lot of well regarded aircraft, the Piper Navajo has not been supported by the factory for some time and the existing replacement senders either don't work or they have outlived their ability to be effectively re-worked along.

The CiES fuel level sender is built for the Navajo application, with a custom arms dedicated to each location on both the main and the auxiliary tanks.  Our non-contact fuel quantity measurement method insures that leakage can not happen through the sender body.  A modern digital sender component to compliment a modern digital cockpit interface, like a JPI or Aerospace Logic.

All of our sensor electronics are fully enclosed in the aluminum housing.  Unlike traditional failure prone senders - our senders have amassed an impressive record of 350,000 hrs of flight time without error or in service replacement.   

We will change your opinion of what float fuel senders are capable of - both from a precision and reliability standpoint.

Finally a fuel level sender specifically designed for the aviation market.

Vulcanair P68 Service Bulletin - Digital Fuel Level Digital Fuel Level

Vulcanair P68 Service Bulletin - 

The two new fuel senders are of magnetic field typology and their output is a digital square wave signal whose frequency changes according to the fuel level in the tank.

This new fuel sender uses one wire to interface the level indicator by which it transfers its output frequency to the indicator and a second wire to get a voltage supply, typically  the 28Vdc of the aircraft.


Vulcanair is the second OEM Aircraft manufacturer to utilize the CiES Digital Fuel quantity sender for installation on all of it's aircraft.   

Vulcanair is the first manufacturer to offer a retrofit Service Bulletin Kit to install the system on legacy Vulcanair and Partenavia Aircraft.  

 
AIRCRAFT FUEL GAUGES THAT TELL THE TRUTH 

"With over 10,000 units now flying, CiES has taken over the OEM fuel level sending field.   Our combination of outstanding quality,  reliability, and accuracy has made CiES the standard and the industry leader for fuel level indication on all aviation platforms, GA, Utility, Rotorcraft for both reciprocating and turbine engine applications " 

Cessna Pennycap Press Release - Flying Magazine May 1968

Cessna Pennycap

Copyright Flying Magazine May 1968

Curiosity got the best of us the other day, and somebody wondered if there was a similar example to a disruptive fuel level technology in General Aviation aircraft.   I indicated that there was a different system and it enjoyed a brief and limited success.  This system came out in the late 1960's and was featured on Cessna aircraft.

I went for a magazine search for press releases, curious to see what virtues would be given to a better fuel quantity system.

This system was produced by Consolidated Airborne Systems - which still operates out of a garage location in New York state.

The headline for the article was entitled 

GAS GAUGES THAT TELL THE TRUTH 

"General aviation airplanes - those engineering marvels, this distillations of technical wisdom and aeronautical magic incarnate - use fuel measuring devices of the same arrangement that plumbed fuel quantity in automobiles since the Model A  float tipped rods that electrically drive instrument panel needles to positions approximating the volume of fuel left.  Many such devices are off by as much as 25 percent" Copyright Flying Magazine May 1968

Many mechanics swore at these systems, many are swearing at them still.  The never lived up to the billing as corrosion on these low cost systems quickly robbed them of any accuracy advantage.  If you remember - Penny was to indicate "low cost" and cap was to indicate "Capacitive"  i.e. Pennycap system by its marketing title was a low cost capacitive fuel system.

"For not much more than the cost of an annual, then you'll be able to have a fuel gauging system of honest go/no-go quality.  Can you hold in the soup for 45 minutes at your alternate, or should you declare an emergency and tell them to get you down?  Can you afford to try and get out of that mountain strip with half full tanks and your present baggage load, or are your tanks more like three-quarters full?  It can make a difference." Copyright Flying Magazine May 1968

What is old is now new again - as 48 years later for the price of an annual you can have a CiES fuel gauging system of honest go/no-go quality.