Sometimes It Seems Like The Ultralight And Homebuilt Aircraft People Get All The Cool Stuff

When we hear the names James Wiebe and Belite aircraft, it’s easy to conjure up a picture of a line of ultralight airplanes. However, Belite Aircraft also has an electronics division and they have come out with some really cool stuff for ultralights and homebuilt aircraft.

Wiebe is an innovative kind of guy, and figured there was a better way to measure fuel quantity. He says that probes for fuel tanks have often used the principle of “capacitance” to determine the level of fuel within the tank.  Wiebe says that almost all capacitive probes on the market are designed with older technology, and they work, but they’re not the ultimate answer.

Some of the shortcomings that Wiebe mentions regarding these older capacitance probes include: a resistance to bending, a propensity to fail if in the presence of even a minute amount of water, calibration problems when avgas is mixed with MoGas, and a common necessity to have a large hole cut in the tank to insert the sensor.

Enter Belite…to come up with a better solution. Wiebe says their new probe resolves these issues and offers substantial benefits.  In particular, Belite cites the following features:

• The probe is a flexible wire assembly. It may be routed from one corner of the tank to the opposite corner, and held in place at the far corner using a simple mechanical hook.  It does not care what path it takes, as long as that path is surrounded by the fluid to be measured.  It also does not care (within reason) the length of the wire within the tank.
• The probe will not fail in the presence of water. (Water will affect the reading, but the unit will continue to function in an accuracy degraded mode).
• The probe electronic module includes a calibration button which is used to set the Empty and Full position of the fuel tank. This button may be optionally routed to a pushbutton switch in the cockpit, so that the fuel probe may be recalibrated to Full after the tank is filled.
• The wire assembly may exit the tank via a vent hole or any other hole.
• The circuit is compatible with any type of gasoline, alcohol, or jet fuel, and  Kerosene is just fine.
   

  

The fuel probe unit provides a linear +5 volt output, compatible with almost all modern fuel display gauges and EFIS displays. Wiebe said they specifically recommend their new RADIANT fuel gauge as a companion to the fuel probe. He says they recommend this fuel gauge because it has a 2 minute sloshing filter built in; it shows 15 minutes of fuel trend history, it is a full color, it’s nearly weightless, and, it is a sunlight readable display.Wiebe also says the initial calibration of the probe and fuel gauge is easy to do through the built-in features in the control unit.

The fuel quantity unit is forecast to be available the second quarter of this year.

(Images provided by BeLite: upper image of prototype control unit, lower image of fuel gauge)

FMI: www.beliteaircraft.com/electronics/