Diesel smell in the cabin

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Bavarian911
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Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by Bavarian911 »

Hello everybody,

Just finished my transition into the DA-62. I enjoy the plane very much with the exception of a fuel smell in the cabin.
Even my cloth smells and I have to take a shower after each flight.

I wonder if this is normal or is there any defect ?

Thank you all for your insight.

Stephan
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by VickersPilot »

Hi Stephan,

Sounds a bit extreme to need to wash your clothes but a diesel smell is normal if you were doing (a) slow flight (b) stalls. Do you experience the smell on normal, non-training flights?
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by chili4way »

Do you keep your fuel tester in a zip-loc (or two) and use nitrile gloves when sampling or self-fueling (that also go into the zip-loc bags)?
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Bavarian911
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by Bavarian911 »

Thank you both for our quick response. The smell is pertinent on all flights be it during a training flight or on a long x-c flight. To be honest, I was not taught to sample jet fuel. I don’t sample it with the Vision Jet either.
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by michael.g.miller »

Can I ask how you preflight the plane? Draining all 4 sumps is on the official checklist, at least for my DA42NG. I ask both because it’s important to sump (engines won’t run if there’s water in the tanks), and because there might be other steps you’re overlooking.

Checklist discipline is super important, there are 10k hour pilots who have died because one time they were rushed and didn’t use a checklist.
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by Boatguy »

I experienced this problem with a rented DA40NG that had a leak in the right wing tank. The plane always smelled of Jet-A.

I also experienced this problem with a 62 that was overfilled and fuel had run down the wing and into the nacelle. You might check how the plane is being fueled.

There should not be fuel smell in the cabin.
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by Bavarian911 »

Thank you so much guys for your advise to drain the fuel. I will talk to my flight school. Draining the fuel is definitely part of the checklist of DA-62.

I remember that in one instance the line guy overfilled one wing tank, it was smelling even more.

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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by CFIDave »

I've had this happen on a rental DA42, where the fuel tester was placed in the nose baggage compartment without putting it in a sealed container, and JetA fumes entered the cabin.

Separately, you can smell burned JetA fumes in a DA62 if practicing an extended power-off full stall by holding the stick all the way back -- the wing airflow is sufficiently disrupted causing engine exhaust to enter the fresh air vents. This goes away quickly when normal flight resumes.
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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by UTMark »

Biggest issue is from over filling in my experience.


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Re: Diesel smell in the cabin

Post by dgger »

This one is interesting.

After flying 4 different DA42s and now my DA62 I am at a point where I considered jet fuel fumes in the cabin after re-fueling to be “normal” to a degree. In my experience the smell would almost always disappear after 15 to 30 minutes into the flight and, yes, the problem can be exacerbated by overfilling.

I have tried the usual. Being careful not to overfill. Keeping anything that touched the fuel (sampler, rags) in a sealed container/bag. Not filling the AUX tanks. But no matter what I did, there would almost always be some residual smell.

Is there really a way to operate a DA42 or DA62 without the smell? Do I understand you right, that some of you fly without it? I really wonder what else I could try.
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