Aircraft Fuel Gauge: Best Way to Monitor Engine Health and Air/Fuel Mixture
It is obvious how you or your close friend may have been frustrated when you were driving and you ran out of gas while you were driving. Of course, there are various inconveniences and delays especially when you were a far off from the nearest gas station. You must have learned a good lesson of always checking fuel before starting your journey. It becomes a real tragedy and disaster when an aircraft runs out of fuel while in flight, especially in small aircraft. Due to the advancement in technology, if the plane happens to run low on gas, they can be refueled while still in flight. However, you need a very accurate device to gauge fuel in an aircraft having in mind that lives can be lost in case it is empty. Let's understand how this aircraft fuel gauge works.
How Does Aircraft Fuel Gauge really Works? For smaller aircraft, they usually use less complicated float level gauge which uses magnetic couplings and other potentiometers which show fuel levels to the pilot. In larger planes, capacitors are usually mounted in airplane's fuel tank. The capacitors show the information into the computers which calculate the levels of fuel that's consequently shown on the fuel gauge. In cases where the pilot is supposed to know every level of fuel in the tank, multi-level sensors are installed to transmit the information to the pilot. The fuel system also indicates the pressure, any air/fuel mixture, and temperature of the engine which is transmitted to their respective