Thanks Mark, I see your point. My idea was to eliminate the
high pressure fuel lines from the cockpit area, so I came up
with the idea of using an electric six port valve on the
engine side of the fire wall. The fuel pumps would be located
either in the wing root or in the little fairings that RVs
have on the bottom of the fuselage aft of the firewall. The
same switch that actuated the electric tank valve would
select the apropriate fuel pump. Then I thought 'if the pumps
each have anti backflow valves, then why even have a selector
valve?' The down side is that you would have to have some way
to switch the fuel return to the tanks, and you would have
make some sort of method to run both pumps for takeoff and
landing. The problem here is that like you mentioned, with
full fuel tanks, your fuel return is going to vent overboard
from whatever tank the return is going to.
Well, there are several options here. I'd like to avoid
having to buy one of those extremely nice but pricey Andair 6
port fuel selectors.
I'm considering having one fuel pump per tank, going to a
my fuel filter,which has two inlets. The selector would be a
switch right next to return valve. To run both pumps
simultaneously, I have a momentary on switch on my throttle.
Rich Martin suggested a microswitch on the forward throttle
stop, perhaps with a disable switch nearby.
This is getting a little complicated, which might be a sign
that I'm going down the wrong path.
Any new word on those manual six port valves that someone
found and posted about here?
Brian Trubee