As part of the continuing saga of stuffing the fuselage, I decided to tackle the fuel tank vent lines. Before this, my only tube bending experience was with the brake lines, which were short and relatively straight.

After a great deal of cursing, several feet of wasted tubing, and much swishing to and fro of elbows, wrists, and beer bottles, I managed to obtain this. I did it one bend at at a time: make a bend, test fit in the fuselage, make the next bend, test fit again, etc. There may be a better way, but this worked, and only took an hour.

Of that hour, the majority was spent on this section, trying to get around the longeron and the rudder cable, yet still have the end wind up near the AN fitting that goes through the fuselage wall.

I thought this part would be harder than it actually turned out to be. I think it's probably just an aesthetic choice, to route it under that gusset, but I was in a "doing" mood rather than an "engineering" mood, so I just followed the drawing. I mean, the only point is for air to get in while making sure that fuel can't get out...it's height differences that matter. I guess bringing the fuel vent lines inboard a bit might matter during a sideslip, or if the airplane is parked on a lateral incline.

After all the bending was over, I attached it to the fuselage in several places with Adel clamps. The nutplates they screw into were all installed in the Phillipines...sometimes that QuickBuild money really seems worthwhile, because I have already installed all the nutplates I care to install (with only a bzillion left to go!)

Another view of the Mother of All Bends. Every air molecule that flows through there is going to curse me as it bounces from wall to wall.

And another view, just because I can. I will spare you photos of the right hand side tubing.