CiES Inc. fuel quantity senders are now FAA approved for STC installation in the Cessna 310, 320, 340, 401, 402, 406, 411 414, 421, T303, and the 208 Caravan, deHavilland DHC-2 Beaver, Twin Commander 500, 600, and 700 Series, Beech Duchess and Twin Bonanza, Piper PA 18 Super Cub, Stinson 108 and V-77, Marchetti SF260 and 205, Helio Courier, and the Navion.
These new AML approvals, as well as existing AML listings, are approved for interface with the new Garmin Txi EIS retrofit system, as well as JPI, Aerospace Logic, and Electronics International Engine and Fuel Instrument displays, according to company officials. CiES is also FAA approved as a retrofit in Garmin G1000, G2000, and Rochester Gauges round gauge equipped aircraft.
Kenmore Air in the Pacific Northwest is the launch customer for the fuel quantity upgrade for the de Havilland Beaver. As a commercial operator and rebuild specialist, Kenmore operates a large fleet of Beavers. As the last Beaver was manufactured in 1967, the heavy-duty commercial service fuel senders installed by de Havilland were getting impossible to source and harder to repair, CiES officials said.
The CiES patented fuel sender technology is a digital non-contact method designed exclusively for aircraft. It allows fuel measurements down to a 100th of a gallon, according to CiES officials.
“This group of new AML approvals illustrates the flexibility and safety of our superior non-contact technology,” company officials said. “In replacing the capacitive systems on the later and larger Cessna Twins, the many benefits of CiES technology become evident. Our system carries an internal signal conditioner on each sender, eliminating weight, complexity, and picofarad fussiness of legacy capacitive fuel quantity systems and their separate fuel conditioner boxes. There is no need for an expensive Barfield Tester for diagnosis, the CiES fuel quantity system can be diagnosed with a simple Digital MultiMeter.”
The non-contact design also eliminates the certification concerns with lightning protection for the aircraft fuel tank, as the CiES design eliminates electronic components exposed to the fuel environment, company officials explained.
“This safety feature is important as the new Garmin Txi EIS system is approved only for Resistive and CiES digital senders, due to the lightning certification issues in legacy aircraft capacitive fuel quantity wiring and probes,” company officials added.
CiES has one of the absolute best Customer Service departments in all of the companies that I have ever dealt with ( and I’m 70 years old so that’s a lot ).