"Flirting With Pressure"...my first bladder runs.

WEAR SAFETY GLASSES/GOGGLES !!!

Try this super-sophisticated solution I use on the short fuel nipples on my TeeDee-s. It only takes a bit larger dia silicone tube pulled over the fuel line end over the nipple, and acts like a press-sleeve.

Do not even fly without it or similar otherwise (as I sometimes experienced) you may bump into a lean run and your beautiful 1st generation very rare TD049 (with no screeen on the air intake, and thin wall cylinder) and oil hole on the bottom end of the conrod is endangered.



I add a similar silicone tube to the NV to seal it against unwanted air-ingress by-passing the NV threads. With these simple add-ons I have never had any engine failure with TD-s for some years now.

With a pressure bladder, tough you are in fact only risking the in-flight detachment of the fuel line from the nipple and an instant engine stall.

Good Deal there (Santa) when I tried it using air pressure to stretch (train) the bladder , well pop the first then blew the second across the yard somewhere It and that valentine spinner that went in to orbit when the rod broke on an older TD is probably together laughing at my crazy self I have not got the routine down yet !! Eric

I'd like to invest in the tiny fill-valve that Rusty uses. He fills the bladder (once trained) from the rear. This seems like a key element for simplicity.. and all of your plumbing joints forward, stay tight and clean.. because they don't get disconnected and re-connected repeatedly.

Use black latex tubing and the more you use it and the wetter it gets, the harder it is to remove. Plus you can easily pinch it off with your fingers. Ken

roddie wrote:I'd like to invest in the tiny fill-valve that Rusty uses. He fills the bladder (once trained) from the rear. This seems like a key element for simplicity.. and all of your plumbing joints forward, stay tight and clean.. because they don't get disconnected and re-connected repeatedly.

Got a couple of those, and that's next on the list to be tested!

Ken Cook wrote:           Use black latex tubing and the more you use it and the wetter it gets, the harder it is to remove. Plus you can easily pinch it off with your fingers. Ken

Hey Ken,

Is this the tubing for the bladder itself, or another type for running it to the engine?

roddie wrote:I'd like to invest in the tiny fill-valve that Rusty uses. He fills the bladder (once trained) from the rear. This seems like a key element for simplicity.. and all of your plumbing joints forward, stay tight and clean.. because they don't get disconnected and re-connected repeatedly.

Those and the matching filters are made by Fourmost, about $5 each. With the check valve you can't evacuate the line and bladder before filling, but if you use the cone shaped pickup from Texas Timers it doesn't matter because it keeps the air bubble away from the pickup for the whole run right until the end. With that little cone, you can't get the bubble out even if you try.

Well, it can be used both ways. I use it exclusively from the bladder fittings to the engine. I use the same size tubing for TD's as well as larger engines. Larry Driskill designed his Litehawk for this type of design. The tubing from the engine was the bladder.