Fuel / Water Discriminator, Engine Monitoring System Installed In Chipper Airplane

The FAA has long warned: "Water contamination of aircraft fuel systems has been and remains a major cause of aircraft engine power failure."

Belite Radiant Technology has released that enhances safety by alerting the pilot to fuel exhaustion or water contamination.

The new Radiant Fuel / Water Discriminator will instantly tell the pilot or vehicle operator if the fuel line is empty or if liquid water is detected in the fuel line. This innovative product is based on patent pending technology and is installed in the fuel line. It increases pilot safety by alerting a pilot to switch tanks in the event of fuel exhaustion on one tank and also provides a positive and immediate indication if liquid water is present in the fuel line.

The product is easily installed through the use of standard tubing barb adapters. It requires a power source and has two output lines. One line is active when normal fuel (for instance, MoGas or 100LL) is present in the line. This line reverts to inactive if fuel is no longer detected in the line. The second line only becomes active when water is detected. A typical panel installation will have 3 lighted indicators for each fuel discriminator: Presence of Fuel (green LED); Absence of Fuel (red LED); Presence of Water (red LED). Belite offers a prebuilt indicator display head for ease of installation.

The liquid never comes into physical contact with any sensors, which helps provide additional safety to the installation. The fuel sampling tube within the device is built from a material which is impervious to most known liquids and is designed to withstand temperatures from -100 to +400 degrees fahrenheit (-70 to 200C), with a maximum pressure of 300 psi (20 bar) at 72 degrees (22C). The normal operating range of the product is -20C to +50C. The product carries a one year warranty, but is expected to last indefinitely in normal usage, requiring no maintenance.

James Wiebe, CEO of Belite, said: "I've been working on new approaches to fuel measuring systems for years, and this particular safety enhancing product has been a very important goal for a long time. Water in fuel causes accidents and deaths every year, so if pilots are given an alarm when water is present, or when fuel is exhausted, safety is clearly increased.”

Another version of the product without the water detection feature is useful for operators who simply wish to be alerted when a fuel line runs dry.

Pre-orders will be accepted immediately at our webstore: beliteaircraftstore.com. First shipments of the product are slated for Q4 of this year (2017).

This product is priced as follows:

• Fuel / Water Discriminator with ¼” ID line (Part RFWD-030) $299.95
• Fuel / Water LED display head (for 2 1/4" instrument hole) (Part RFWD-020) $99.95 (accepts up to 3 discriminators, with 3 discrete alarm LEDs for each discriminator)
• Fuel Only Discriminator (Part RFWD-031) $199.95 (water feature not included with this version)
• Fuel/Water Discriminator Kit: 3 discriminators with a LED display head along with a 12' (3.6 meter) wiring harness for each discriminator (Part RFWD-032) $999.95 (with water detection)
• Fuel Only Discriminator Kit: 3 discriminators with a LED display head along with a 12' (3.6 meter) wiring harness for each discriminator (Part RFWD-033) $699.95 (without water detection)

Other versions of this product will be offered for various sizes and styles of fittings types, fluid types and for other markets, including jet fuel and diesel; trucks and automobiles. Also check with Belite for custom versions for unique fluid discrimination.

Another new instrument is an Engine Monitoring System which captures and displays all common information for a Rotax 912UL / ULS engine and many other engine types. The information is displayed on a vivid, daylight readable color LCD display. User customization is possible, allowing different operating configurations for different pilot needs.

Priced at an economical $499.95, the system shows the following user selectable parameters:

• EGT (user option to display 0, 1, 2, 4 channels)
• CHT (user option to display 0, 1, 2 channels)
• Oil Temperature
• Oil Pressure
• Fuel Pressure
• Manifold Pressure
• Tachometer (RPM)
• Elapsed time of flight
• Total Time in Service (Hobbs)
• System Voltage

Included is a Radiant display gauge and a Radiant engine monitoring pod, designed to mount in the engine compartment. The pod communicates with the display gauge via a single serial data line.

First shipments are planned for late Q3 of this year.

(Images provided with Belite news releases)

FMI: www.beliteaircraft.com