Spider in Archer Sump Drain

Went out the the airport to carve up some air this afternoon in the Archer.
During the preflight, I noticed that I could get almost no flow from the
right sump drain. Was concerned that if the sump drain was blocked, there
might be stuff in the tank that could also block the fuel line or pickup.
However, I was only going up for an hour or so, had plenty of fuel in the
left tank, so I didn't use the right tank unless I was at least 2,000' AGL.
Shot three landings at three different airports, and had a nice time,
although with 100 degree temps and a density altitude of well over 2,000', I
was drenched after an hour of this. Oh well, an uncomfortable hour in the
air is better than any hour at work.

After parking the plane, one of my partners turned up, and I showed him the
drain cock problem. "Oh, yeah", he says. "I had that two days ago as I was
getting ready for an Angel Flight. Showed it to John (our A&P) who said it
was probably a spider building a nest inside the drain cock. I eventually
got a spider out in the drain jar". Sure enough, probing inside with a
piece of wire dislodged a lot of organic crap (but no spider), and the fuel
flows freely again. My partner had cleaned it out once, so there are
apparently more than one of these little *******s building nests. Where
else can they be crawling?

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I more commonly see dirt daubers (little black wasp-looking critters).
Those things can completely plug a tank fuel drain with mud while you
are inside eating a hamburger.

Heck, that's what the pre-flight is for!

I'm surprised the fuel flowing out didn't dislodge it. I get a pretty good
flow out if my Warrior's sumps when the tanks are full. I suppose they can
clog the pitot/static holes and the fuel overflow as well. You didn't happen
to take a digital photo, did you?

"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in message
...
Went out the the airport to carve up some air this afternoon in the
Archer.
During the preflight, I noticed that I could get almost no flow from the
right sump drain. Was concerned that if the sump drain was blocked, there
might be stuff in the tank that could also block the fuel line or pickup.
[snip]



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The spider had apparently already been dislodged by the time I got there (as
I mentioned, my partner had had some problems the day before). However,
digging with the probe of my fuel tester, I was able to get a number of
sticky things out that were probably spider eggs. Eventually, the fuel flow
flushed everything out, but it took several tries.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Marco Leon" mmleon(at)yahoo.com wrote in message
...
I'm surprised the fuel flowing out didn't dislodge it. I get a pretty good
flow out if my Warrior's sumps when the tanks are full. I suppose they can
clog the pitot/static holes and the fuel overflow as well. You didn't
happen
to take a digital photo, did you?

"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in message
...
Went out the the airport to carve up some air this afternoon in the
Archer.
During the preflight, I noticed that I could get almost no flow from the
right sump drain. Was concerned that if the sump drain was blocked,
there
might be stuff in the tank that could also block the fuel line or pickup.
[snip]



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