good afternoon ladies and gents,

 

on the GA side of things I just got into A2A Simulations Cessna 182, I like to think of A2A as the PMDG of GA.  One of the features their planes include, is the ability to do a walk around. Part of the walk around includes taking fuel samples to see if there are contaminants and/or water in the fuel (that's my understanding, I'm not 100% sure if this is correct).  My questions is - why doesn't the 777 captain have to take samples of the fuel in a T7?  Is it because the refueler does this job, or is it that the grade of fuel used by transport category aircraft is "better" and does not necessitate worrying about contamination and/or water? Thanks for any knowledge!!

 

Richard

 

 

Is it because the refueler does this job, or is it that the grade of fuel used by transport category aircraft is "better" and does not necessitate worrying about contamination and/or water?

 

Yes and no...

 

The pilots do not sample the fuel like they would in GA aircraft. Part of the reason is that larger aircraft have fuel/water separators (not simply gravity, like with the avgas planes). Additionally, the fuel caps on (current) airliners tend to be sealed a better than they would in GA aircraft.

 

Part of the daily checks of fuel equipment (usually done by the arriving first shift crew) include sampling the truck fuel tanks to ensure that no water is in them. This is for any facility operating tanker trucks, however. Most large airports that have 777s at them use pump trucks that simply tap into underground fuel lines, so this would not be checked on the truck. Instead, sampling points are checked in several places around the fuel tanks/lines.

 

 

 

Richard

 

Full names in the forum here, please.

Thanks Kylee - makes sense. Sorry I can't remember my last name 

 

Richard Bansa

Thanks Kylee - makes sense. Sorry I can't remember my last name 

 

Richard Bansa

 

You're welcome. And thanks for making the adjustment!

good afternoon ladies and gents,

 

on the GA side of things I just got into A2A Simulations Cessna 182, I like to think of A2A as the PMDG of GA.  One of the features their planes include, is the ability to do a walk around. Part of the walk around includes taking fuel samples to see if there are contaminants and/or water in the fuel (that's my understanding, I'm not 100% sure if this is correct).  My questions is - why doesn't the 777 captain have to take samples of the fuel in a T7?  Is it because the refueler does this job, or is it that the grade of fuel used by transport category aircraft is "better" and does not necessitate worrying about contamination and/or water? Thanks for any knowledge!!

 

Richard

 

In addition to what Kyle said, airliners are also flown and refueled much more frequently (several times a day) than GA planes so there's little time for water to accumulate in the fuel tanks. The only time I've ever come across water in a GA plane was after it had been sitting on the ramp for more than a few weeks without being flown.