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Fuel Pumps: Reliable, but Monitor

That’s a freshly overhauled Weldon fuel pump under the forward floorboards of a Cessna Cardinal RG—up is forward. The fuel selector valve is immediately aft of the pump.

In a world of pulling mags at 500 hours and turbos that last 1000, fuel pumps are a breath of reliability fresh air. So reliable, in fact, that it’s much more common for a pilot to have an engine stoppage because the pilot does not know the aircraft’s fuel system or misuses the boost/aux pump than because a pump fails. 

Pumps for moving liquids have been around for centuries, so one would expect the design and manufacture of such relatively simple devices to have been sorted out. 

Rick Durden

Senior Editor Rick Durden has written for Aviation Consumer since 1994 and specializes in aviation law. Rick is an active CFII and holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He is the author of The Thinking Pilot’s Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vols. 1 & 2.