Fuel valve, part II

Decided to simply fix the Airward solution so the moment only goes to turning the valve, not bending it sideways. It should work if I handle the valve with care, and if it starts leaking somewhere down the line, I have "installed" the Airward kit for removing the glareshield and wind shield, and can fix things IF that happens.

One thing I saw when I was finished, was that the weight of the fittings would close the valve during high G maneuvers. It would go to a half closed position (theoretically, I doubt it would actually do it due to the friction in the valve). I thought, oh no, gonna do it all over again, but then I remembered the big, red "Airward knob". It balances the fittings almost perfectly and acts in the opposite direction. So everything looks good (hopefully, unless the fuel level probe crashes).

I also primed the whole thing. Things just looks much nicer and "aircrafty" when primed.

  

Trim knob and tank valve

Riveted on the trim knob holder. The tank main shut off valve kit from Airward looked OK, but the design is not good. The idea is good, but the way it is done it creates way too much lateral moment on the valve to my liking. The valve itself is fastened to the tank by "fusing" the fittings somehow into the plastic of the tank and can't possibly take much forces before it starts to leak. It is really an incredibly poor design. First the fastening of the valve to the tank through the fittings, then the position of the valve itself that in the original layout is impossible to reach with the belts on, and impossible to see if it's on or off.

What I can do is to modify the Airward kit so that it creates no lateral moment. That is an easy fix, but it would still create lots of "tangential" moment on the fittings in the plastic. The best thing is to install a real shut off valve mounted on the airframe, but that will also create more head loss, and where to put it? Have to think about this a bit.