Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on
the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it?
Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots
on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the
push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges).
Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly
where it
belongs.

Amen, Ray!

Because of the absurd location, we simply don't drain the main sump as often
as we should. (We, of course, sump the wing tanks before each flight.)

Unless you've got another person who is willing to lay on their back in the
snow, that central sump is darn near impossible to check. Sure, you can
just "pee the plane" and dump it on the tarmac, but that ruins the asphalt
and ****es off the Greenies. If the sump actuator were on the bottom of the
plane near the drain, I'm sure we'd do it before every flight.

And the LEAST that Piper could have done was design the sump door properly.
As it is now, the door isn't even held on with a hinge -- it's simply got a
tab that is stuck through a slot in the plastic trim piece, and then held in
place with a piece of spring steel.

When the spring weakens over time, the door hangs open a tiny bit, which
catches a back-seat passenger's shoe when they're stepping down into the
plane. That puts an impossible bending force on the plastic, and tears the
door right out.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"