Fuel in my water
 

Something unusual for me.

Last week here in Barbados we had a tropical storm called Kirk pass by about 50 miles to the north, so we got strong winds from the west and a deluge of biblical proportions for about 18 hours Wednesday/Thursday.

My Archer II N75276 was sitting out on the north ramp at Grantley Adams airport, no tie downs just a chocked nose wheel - so fingers crossed no problems - not too many other options.

Went over on Saturday to check the airplane - all looked good except my pitot cover had blown away; though OK now a for a quick flight.

Preflight all good - drained fuel, right hand good, nose good - left hand side looked rather odd - no bubble of water just didn't look right and some very small bubbles stuck to the side of the strainer- quick sniff, fuel smell - but it didn't look right. Poured it on my hand, didn't feel right either - it was warm - yup, water.
So full strainer, still wrong. another and another and another - still did not look right.

So "stuff this" thinks I locked open the fuel drain and let it pour out - put my hand under it - warm gusher - it ran and ran and ran - my guess is about half a gallon, then it went cold, fuel I think. Closed the drain and back to the strainer, half inch 'bubble' at the bottom - more strainers about the same - lock open the valve again and maybe a pint later, cold.

Back to the strainer and aok.

Quick flight - started and ran on the left (the one with the water - 5,000ft to the hold, run up no issues - took off with it and all good.

This morning - some water in the fuel quarter inch buddle in the bottom - three strainers got rid of it.

The airplane has been through tropical storms before and never ever any water - so just goes to show - weird thing was when it's all water and the dye in the fuel is never that blue looking one could miss it - strainers full of water with three tiny 1mm fuel bubbles sticking to the side, it just looked weird.

The water feels warm and fuel feels cold thing worked for me though.

Fuel gaskets are fairly new and have been through storms before - you need to have seen the deluge, lots of horizontal 50mph+ winds too - will be getting the A&P to take a look.

For sure when it is all water it looks "normal" - in a 25mm diameter tube strainer the blue does not show up a deep as in the 6" diameter tester on fuel trucks.

From start to the run up area was about 10 minutes, run up was normal and I flew for 15 minutes on the tank - but this morning a small amount of water in the left tank, thinking is must have been trapped somewhere - yesterday the tanks were about 10 gallons in the right and 13 gallons in the left (after the water was drained).

The samples just looked a little odd - I do wonder if I would have noticed if I was not in a "check the airplane after the storm" mind set - the check on the right one (no water) had scented the strainer with Avgas smell my usual test other than visual.

I had heard of 100% water strains before but this is the first time I ever saw one.

Could be the rain got in via the tank ventilation tube. On a C172 they are about 12mm diameter, not sure about the Archer.
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Well done to think about it and find it, I like the water warm / fuel cold trick.

There was a crash, I think in Spain, some years ago with a piper that'd been outside for a week and the tank cap seals let water in. It wasn't spotted because like yours it filled the whole strainer and the pilot thought it was fuel and didn't run enough fuel off both tanks before taking off.

BTW .. whatever happened to the old Coconut Airways outfit after the owner died ? I flew their Tomahawk a couple of times when on holidays .. indeed I think I got your Archer in my book once about 5 years ago.

Nice to have a storm named after me.

Had one of our Twin Coms stutter and quit after start up. Checked the drains and looked OK, BUT, not quite right. Looked closer and it was all water. EEK. Due to the heavy rain in the last few days, the trench leading the air vents off from the fuel tanks had acted as a land drain. The space above the the tanks was several inches deep in water and had obviously drained into the tanks. The pick ups where at the bottom, so slurped up the water.
Removing and cleaning the tanks on the a/c was quite an effort.
Bit later, a bit of water got through the the filters on our Mooney, corroded a small bit in the fuel injection unit and caused a failure just after take off. Quite interesting...

I was taught, and pass on to students, to do an 'evaporation' test. Throw the sample on to dry concrete (NOT asphalt!) and watch. Fuel will rapidly evaporate whilst water will form globules with a higher surface tension. Holding a sample up to prove 'Bright, Clear and Blue' isn't always easy, especially if the sample tube has blue fittings on it. I found one such a while ago and threw it away. Yellow is my favourite for 100LL.

TOO

This was the first time I ever found water in the Archer, had it since 2012; I was primed to give it a really good check after the storm - I think it got in through the filler as the vent is really tiny.

The warm/cold things really works - the air temperature here was as ever 30C the water was very warm - the fuel due to the evaporation was really very cold - just let it splash over your hand.

What astonished me was that it ran from the drain for several minutes. The really scary thing is no water in the right side tank and it dipped as having 3 USG more than the left - so I would have taken off on the right and since I spend 99%+ of my time out over the ocean I could have ended up swimming.

Coconut Airways is no more after the death of Chris, a real shame - you should avoid getting me to rant on the subject of the circumstances and the fallout!

Here in Barbados, there are now four airplanes the airplane club has a 152 and a 172SP (lots of gadgets), Art Taylor (the lobster guy!) has a Six (CS prop) and there is my Archer II. You would not recognise it now after spending $178,000 doing it up (yes I know, about twice what it's worth) looks really good - before it looked bad and everything worked now looks really good and hardly anything works (or rather the VORs don't), but as I am a GPS VFR person it.
matters not to me.

So if anyone is coming over to Barbados this winter and is looking for a plane there are some to rent - the 152 is about B$280, the 172 is B$550 or $450 if you join the airplane club, Art's Six is $450 ish or $550 if going overseas - my Archer II $400. Mine flies from the north ramp and the others from the south ramp.

There are no landing fees, nav fees etc. in Barbados (the other islands have them though) - so yes, fly circuits with wide-bodied jets.

Most require a CFI check out for the insurance and it is good anyway to get used to how it works - like US flight following all the time locally and throughout the Eastern Caribbean - not sure about the airplane club planes but my insurance check is 30 mins.

My airplane and Art's are US registered and so an FAA licence is needed. The airplane club planes are Barbados registered. So if you want to go to other islands you need to either get a Barbados licence or obtain or have an FAA (most people get a piggyback 61.75 licence on the basis of their EASA, JAA or Barbados licence).