Today was a humbling experience for me and I didn’t even fly! Last flight I noticed on taxi in that my fuel gauge on the left tank was reading lower than it should. So I made a mental note to check it next time to see if we needed to fix it. I really wasn’t surprised since the Apache is so old you can’t expect the gauges to be correct all the time.
The past few times I flew the plane I also had noticed that the Garmin G5 that is my Attitude Indicator was not coming up automatically when the Master Switch was turned on and I assumed it was a software or connection issue. However, all I had to do was press and hold the power button and it would power up and work fine. After a couple times of this I did some research online and found out that there were software updates available and some pilots had experienced start up issues that the new software fixed. So I got a micro SD card and downloaded the upgrade.
Today I first went out and did the upgrade. That went very well and quickly I had both G5 units updated from version 5.5 to 6.82. I was feeling pretty good. I then decided to check out my fuel gauge issue and would also check the G5’s when taxiing it over to the pumps. I first took pics of the fuel gauges on both Main and Aux. On taxi over I realized my G5 was still not working correctly so the new software update did not fix it. When I pumped the fuel I wrote down the gallon amount on the pump after each tank was filled. This way I could keep track of how much went into each tank. Wow! There was a huge difference in the Mains. The Aux tanks were within .3 gallon of each other (16.6 vs 16.9) in a 18 gallon tank. But the Mains were way different, 27.7 gallons in the left Main and 7.9 in the right in 36 gallon tanks. So that explained the low fuel gauge on the left, it was showing low because the tank WAS low!
However, this really worried me. I could only figure that the Crossfeed valve was leaking under pressure from the AUX pumps. The AUX pumps are typically used for takeoff and landing (low altitude) and OFF for cruise. I had left them on accidentally when flying the other day at cruise and had done a lot of pattern work with them on so I decided that must be the reason for the difference in fuel burn. The Crossfeed valve must be leaking under pressure from the AUX pumps.
After getting the plane off the fuel station I called my mechanic buddy who was on his way out to the airport by then for some work on my plane. I told him of the new issues and how I was disappointed in the plane having more issues. He asked me if the circuit breaker was popped on the G5. I had no idea…
Going back out to the plane I crawled under the panel to check the breaker (it’s in a really bad spot to see it!) and there it was… A popped breaker. I reset it and everything worked just fine! Somehow the breaker either popped or was accidentally knocked open and unless you get under that panel you can’t see it. At least the G5 was now fixed!
My buddy got to the airport and we started working through the Fuel Crossfeed issue. I was explaining to him what I had seen and used the pictures I took of the gauges before and after fueling. Then I showed him the fuel panel and how I switched tanks. Then I showed him the Crossfeed…. Oops! It was ON. I was sure it had been OFF but there it was big as life. I told him I found my Crossfeed valve issue. I had it ON when it should be Off. Well, that explained why the fuel burn was uneven! So another problem fixed. Sigh….
Finally, we got to work on the right nacelle cowling to replace the rest of the fasteners. While the cowl was off I saw we had a hole wearing into a SCAT tube. So that was re-routed to keep it from chafing and the small hole was repaired.
Lessons Learned:
1. Don’t assume you know what the problem or the fix is until you have all the facts. Someone else might have a better understanding of what’s going on so be willing to listen.
2. If your fuel gauge is showing low believe it even if you KNOW it’s wrong.
3. Know the details of your avionics. My G5 was actually trying to tell me it was on battery but I didn’t know the symbols well enough to figure it out. And the backup battery works great!
4. Document the issues. Having the pictures of the fuel gauges and carefully noting the amount of fuel in each tank as I fueled it helped us understand what was going on. And it gave me more confidence in those “old” gauges!
5. We really need to update the panel and get the circuit breakers where they can be seen and are less likely to be bumped by my knees. Mr. Piper really liked to hide switches on the Apache but that is not always helpful.
6. Occasionally check to make sure your are doing your cockpit “flows” correctly!
7. Open the cowls occasionally and look in there, you might find something that needs to be found.
Pretty easy to update G5
In process
Updated!
Gee, that doesn’t look right!
A lot of help today, right nacelle is now done.
It looked good to me like this 
But it should have looked like this
Ok, it has NOTHING to do with Flying an Apache but…
