Feel a real dipstick myself - my fingers slipped and the wooden dipstick dropped into the tank of the groups Jodel D120.
Any tips on how to get it out - or could I even leave it there?
Would I be able to use Maplins inspection camera here http://www.maplin.co.uk/handheld-inspec ... ing-454480 in a tankful of fuel? It's waterproof so presumably no ignition risk.
Thanks for helpful comments and ideas
dropped wooden dipstick into Jodel D120 tank
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Nigel Ramsay
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- Location: Middle Earth
Dipstick!
Rather a long time ago, I was working for Dan Air. I was present when a fuel gauge problem was being investigated and resulted in a wooden milk stool and a broom being found in the fuel tank of a Japanese Airlines a/c which had been flying commercial routes for some time!
Where are you based? I have an intrinsically safe inspection camera....
Where are you based? I have an intrinsically safe inspection camera....
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Brian Hope
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:28 pm
- Location: Sheerness Kent
Rather like closing the gate after the horse has bolted but a lesson never to use a dipstick that is short enough that it can fall into a tank - if it can then one day it will.
The D120 has two tank outlets that a U shaped fuel pipe connects together, under the tank. They also have short pipes or finger strainers attached to them inside the tank so the chances of the dipstick causing a fuel stoppage are remote. However, it shouldn't be in there and if it can be got out with a SAFE inspection camera and one of those plunger grip thingies then that's the way to go.
The D120 tank is not easy to get out, you would have to remove the baggage shelf, which entails some destruction. However, there is probably a fuel level sensor access in the baggage shelf and removing the sender may be easier than fishing through the filler neck.
On the D117 the tank is smaller and it will drop down and through a large access hole in the bottom of the fuselage. This is just as well as there is only one outlet and that has no finger strainer, the banjo holds the fuel pipe onto the tank base and if there is a foreign object in the tank it could slip over the fuel outlet and stop the flow.
The D120 has two tank outlets that a U shaped fuel pipe connects together, under the tank. They also have short pipes or finger strainers attached to them inside the tank so the chances of the dipstick causing a fuel stoppage are remote. However, it shouldn't be in there and if it can be got out with a SAFE inspection camera and one of those plunger grip thingies then that's the way to go.
The D120 tank is not easy to get out, you would have to remove the baggage shelf, which entails some destruction. However, there is probably a fuel level sensor access in the baggage shelf and removing the sender may be easier than fishing through the filler neck.
On the D117 the tank is smaller and it will drop down and through a large access hole in the bottom of the fuselage. This is just as well as there is only one outlet and that has no finger strainer, the banjo holds the fuel pipe onto the tank base and if there is a foreign object in the tank it could slip over the fuel outlet and stop the flow.
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Nigel Ramsay
- Posts: 298
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:13 pm
- Location: Middle Earth
We gathered that a small Japanese engineer had been sitting in the tank, scrubbing it!BrianHunt wrote:How the hell can a milking stool fall into a fuel tank? Strange place to milk a cow
Good advice from Mr Hope. I'm in MK and thus the camera as well! Hopefully there will be someone more local who has one, they are quite common these days. Let me know if I can help.