Text, photos and Video by Tom Hintz
Posted – 11-21-2014
At a fun fly I noticed a man walking around with his young son looking at the airplanes. When they got to a giant scale Edge the youngster bent over and looked under the plane, pointed and said, “This one’s a boy!” The gender evidence he had noticed was a few inches of fuel tubing hanging under the plane. The owner had a nice looking fuel dot for filling the tank but his vent was just a few inches of bare fuel line hanging out under the plane. Since then I have noticed this same “vent system” protruding from the underside of many airplanes. I disavow any knowledge of similar fuel tubing hanging out under a couple of my planes. Aeroworks has a better idea that is also less confusing for impressionable young minds.
The AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot is a nice aluminum piece that is designed to be installed from the outside of the plane. You do need a 5/16” hole and the vent line has to poke out of that hole for installation but all of that is way easier than putting a locking nut on the inside of a fuselage. For many planes the simplicity of this installation is a huge point in the AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot’s favor.
You actually get two AeroWorks Vent Exit Dots in the package along with two pieces of copper wire. The vent piece has a nicely-shaped connection nipple with a specially stepped barb machined into it. You slip the fuel line over the nipple, push it on against the body of the AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot and loop the wire around the fuel line in the step. Twist the copper wire around the fuel line enough to compress the fuel line into the step and that locks it in place.
The only caution I have on this installation is to be careful twisting the wire around the fuel line. The stepped shape of the nipple makes it unnecessary to tighten the wire to the point you could cut the fuel line. Fall we need to do is to squeeze the line enough for it to lock itself into the stepped portion of the fuel line nipple.
The AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot also has a groove machined into the body just below the exterior flange that gives thick CA glue a place to lock into. With the line attached you run a bead of thick CA around that groove and push the AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot into place.
The AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot is a nicely done solution to rid planes of that odd-looking piece of fuel line hanging out from under an otherwise great looking airplane. The fuel line is secured to the outlet and the virtually flush profile does nothing to detract from the good looks of our planes. The other good news is that with the fuel line secured it can’t blow back up inside the plane where it will begin filling the fuselage with fuel until you realize the vent line isn’t hanging out anymore….I’ve seen that more than once, did it once, won’t do it again.
A package of two AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot’s sells for $8.95 (11-14-2014) which is downright cheap to spiff up two planes and eliminate a classic way of putting fuel inside the plane rather than the tank.
See or order the AeroWorks Vent Exit Dot on the Aeroworks web site - Click Here!
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