Hi all!

Me and two friends got together and bought a Travel Air that’s been in heavy use at a flight school. 16600 total hours, but well cared for, flown often and for the last 20-30 years always in a warm hangar. The engines are a bit beyond TBO but with great values and no signs of corrosion.

We are hoping for another 600 or so hours in the engines (after that EASA won’t allow continued operation on condition) before we decide if we overhaul or find a buyer.

So far I’m really impressed with the Travel Air. A joy to fly and something else quality wise from the pipers I’m used to fly.

I’m sure I’ll post about a million questions here but the first one is regarding the use of fuel pumps.

1. POH is a bit ambiguous on using them at take off and landing “as conditions require”
2. The school who sold it didn’t use them for take off and landing.
3. Their mechanic said it’s basically the same system as their other twin (an Aztec) so why Beechcraft decided to not add it as a must for take off and landing is probably just them being more confident in their airplanes.

How do you use the fuel pumps?

Any and all advice is appreciated!

Thanks

Hello,

First question is whether it is carbeurated or fuel injected ? I assume you must have either a carbeurated engine (1958-1960) or bendix fuel injection (1963 and newer). The years 1961-62 had an orphaned fuel injection system and I can’t imagine those reaching 16000 hours.

On my carbeurated engine travel air I used the electric fuel pumps sparingly. Only for the takeoff run and then turned off right after gear up. Not used at all on landing. The reason being that the fuel piping for mechanical and electric pumps is in parallel. If the electric pump is run for a long time, the circuit for the mechanical pump can vapor lock. If that happened and the electric pump failed then the mechanical pump would not supply any fuel. However the reverse is not true - if you leave the electric pump off and the mechanical pump fails, you can turn on the electric pump and get fuel immediately.

On a fuel injected version I would run the electric pumps for both takeoff and landing without any worries.

Thanks!

My bad! It’s a 1966 model, TD-648, and it is fuel injected. .

Your precautions for avoiding vapor lock sounds reasonable given your system.