Quick update: Cessna 68U is having her fuel tank baffling replaced in one wing, as one of the plates was found broken. The baffling is a series of aluminum plates in the fuel tank which prevent a few hundred pounds of fuel from sloshing inboard-to-outboard in turbulence, and, in worst cases, sloshing the fuel away from the "pickup" where the fuel travels to the engine.
This isn't really an easy thing to describe in text, so here's a picture I found on the web:
This is a very funny-shaped tank, but it illustrates the point perfectly. The baffles are the vertical plates running along the length of the tank. In turbulence, say, when you uncoordinate the aircraft and G forces pull the fuel to the outboard end of a tank (and away from the fuel pickup) - the fuel needs to run THROUGH these baffle plates. Since there are only a few small holes available, only a small amount of fuel can move through at once - thus dampening the slosh, and preventing you from starving the engine. (which would be a bit too exciting)
Your car has these too! Baffles, combined with the general shape of a fuel tank which puts the fuel "pickup" at the lowest gravity point in the tank - ensures that you don't starve your engine of fuel, even in the meanest, longest, ugliest slips to a landing (when the G forces are decidedly sideways, and pulling on your fuel tank!)
A most excellent and interesting find from the folks at Procraft, and 68U's new ETA is Friday afternoon.
More as I know it!
- Mike
