Aeronca Chief forward fuel tank

[Rodney Zapf]

I have a 1941 Aeronca chief recently restored. Today I was adding fuel, 2gals at a time and making a dipstick as I was adding the fuel to the forward tank. For every 2 gals. of fuel I added, the fuel seemed to rise about 1" on the stick. I thought that I had a 12 gal. tank however I got to 13 and still had a few inches before "top-off". Is it possible I have a 14 gal. tank? Rod Zapf

[Richard]

The book says it is 17 gal. Have fun flying your pre-war. Nice flying plane.

Richard

[Rodney Zapf]

Amazing grace, how could I have missed that? 17 gals. I finally drained the tank, when I thought it should be empty, I still had 3 or 4 gals. Now I am beginning to understand. I have 3 inches left from the present fuel to the top of the tank, think I will get 3 more gals. in? If I have 17 gals of ueable, plus 8 gals in the aux tank, I may try to make it to Bakersfield--That is what started this whole thing. My little Lyc shouldn't burn much more than 5 gals per hour and that would give me 5 hours in the air.

[Dan1940Chief]

Which book lists the pre-war fuel tank as 17g?

I have a 1940 65-LA but no book.

[N86250]

xxxx

[Dan1940Chief]

Fuel capacities are listed on the type certificates. jrh

Right -- should have mentioned that. That's the only reference I've seen and it states 12g.

[Rodney Zapf]

Well, I am up to 13 gallons at this time and still have 3 inches or so to the top--I guess the proof will be in the pudd'n! I will report back this evening. Rod

[Rodney Zapf]

After asking the question on line, I checked the only manual I had and that was for a 1946 Chief. It said 15 gals fwd and 8 gals. aux. I then proceeded to add fuel to the 13 gals I already had in my fwd tank and got more than 2 gals in with no room for expansion. So I would safely call it a 15 gal. fuel tank. I then proceeded to put fuel in the aux tank and found it to hold 8 gals. All type certificates may not be what they say, so don't plan a long trip based on hearsay, that is why I drained then refilled both tanks. NOW I KNOW!!!

[rkittine]

I have been looking at Pre-War Chiefs to purchase and have noted from the Type Certificate that there is supposed to be 17 total gallons, 12 in the nose tank and 5 in the Auxilliary for a total of 17. My Post war Chief takes 13 in the Nose tank and 8 in the Aux. Not sure what is correct, but one of the owners of a pre-war Chief I am looking at said that he had some type of paper work that limited the amount of fuel in the Aux Tank to 5 gallons, though it was said to hold 7 physically. Nothing beats an empty tank though with a known amount of fuel being put into it.

My 7CCM Champ holds 13 in the Nose tank with just a tiny amount left of open space in the fill neck and 5.5 from dry in the wing tank, but I can never get more then 5 out of it through the auxillary feed.

[Rodney Zapf]

After asking the question on line, I checked the only manual I had and that was for a 1946 Chief. It said 15 gals fwd and 8 gals. aux. I then proceeded to add fuel to the 13 gals I already had in my fwd tank and got more than 2.9 gals in with no room for expansion. So I would safely call it a 15 gal. fuel tank. type certificates may not be what they say, so don't plan a long trip based on hearsay, that is why I drained then refilled both tanks. NOW I KNOW!!!! ROD (old Navy pilot, used to read, hell now I can't remember his name but he used to say if you think it can't happen it will and usually does)

[Al Hatz]

As I remember the 65-CA and the 65-LB had a 17 gallon main tank while all the other pre-war Chiefs had the 12 gallon tank. That's not saying someone didn't change the tank somewhere along the way.

[N86250]

xxxx

[Rodney Zapf]

Boy, thanks for all the good news. I'm park'n that ol chief until I get all this straightened out. Sure don't want to mess up. Glad we got you guys out there to keep us on the right road. I'm going right out to the airport to check the Type Certificate on my airplane. Then I am going to re-measure the fuel in that fwd tank. It would make me feel better if it does in fact hold 17 gallons. I'm going to drain and refill that fwd tank after I check the TC's, I'll report back. Rod

[N86250]

I apologize. I didn't mean to ruffle feathers. I guess I misunderstood the thread and saw what I thought was a can of worms getting out of control. I am sorry I interfered. jrh

[Rodney Zapf]

I apologize. I didn't mean to ruffle feathers. I guess I misunderstood the thread and saw what I thought was a can of worms getting out of control. I am sorry I interfered. jrh

Don't apologize. I'm the one who needs to apologize. I went to see my IA, looked up the TC's on a CD and found you were absolutely right. Then I looked on my little aluminum plate that gives the serial number, date manufactured and found that the fwd tank should hold 17 gallons. The first thing I did was drain the tank again, find an accurate gage and refill it. This time it came out as advertized, 17 gals. I should have taken the time to do this before starting this thread and I apologize to all! This was an education in itself, Now I can haul her out of the hangar and go flying! Thanks. Rod