Beechcraft Physical Bolt-In Fuel Sender Replacements

I did the CIES-G3X calibration with my A&P, and we were able to get 39 gal into the tanks after putting in 3 gallons of unusable fuel (this was 0.0 in the calibration table). If you still have capacity beyond 37 gallons, you have to decide what to do. You can either flatten off the calibration curve at 37 or you can add another point or two. I added points for 38 and 39 gallons. If you do the former, you’ll have to burn a couple of gallons before you see any movement on the G3X gauge. Sounds like your shop did exactly the same as I did. 

The digital senders connected to a glass panel offer precision that was unimaginable when my bonanza rolled off the assembly line with resistive floats and a small analog gauge. 

As it turns out 74 gallons was conservative and we can actually get more in the tanks on a cool day. Whether you account for the extra weight (36 pounds for my situation) at station 75 in you W&B is up to you. I rarely operate near the boundaries of the envelope so I usually ignore the extra few gallons in my W&B (plus I have Foreflight W&B set up with 74 gallons [444 lbs] and have never changed it). 

Bottom line, my fuel order is to the tabs, slots, or to the top, and I almost always top them off. Consistency of gauge readings and fuel totalizer/flow meter gives confidence in readings and fuel onboard during flight. Before resetting the Fuel Calculator, I’ll note the fuel used and compare to what was added. It is usually within 0.1 gallon. Amazing precision.

If your airplane is down for an upgrade, I would send your old fuel senders to CiES. This will ensure that the senders are appropriately set up the first time. Beechcraft, in all of their wisdom, made numerous different senders, inverting the bolt patterns on some, etc.

We installed the digital CiES fuel senders during recent avionics upgrades. Along with the fuel senders, we tied them into the Garmin 500EIS.

[It's] been almost six months and [we] really like them. We use the 500EIS calibration feature after almost every flight and rarely are we off by more than 0.05 gal - more often, the difference is 0.

Extremely accurate! My line guys take bets when I fuel up as to what my “used” value is and what they can squeeze in the tanks. I always win!

I have the CiES senders with the Aerospace Logic gauge in my A36. Very satisfied with the installation. I believe you actually can use CiES senders with the existing gauges, but to me it was worth it to upgrade to the full digital implementation.

I install CiES every opportunity I get. Great quality and accuracy paired with Aerospace Logic or JPI.

One of the BEST investments that I made on my A36TC was CiES fuel senders. Gone are my days off time/burn/fuel because Original Beechcraft gauges are sometimes "ideas of amount of fuel on board" and other times "No idea of fuel on board."

After spending lots of money on overhauling senders and fuel quantity circuit boards, etc. just to have this idea of fuel onboard from unreliable (and not to the 1/10th gallon of fuel on board) I [purchased] the Cies senders and WISH that I had done that very first thing when I bought my [OEM senders] 9 years ago. Now I KNOW EXACTLY what I have on board to a “T” at any given time. The peace of mind that comes with that is priceless.

Are they expensive? Yes. Did I hate to spend that money after [investing in] others over the previous few years? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Not at all. Quite the contrary. As soon as I got my plane home from the seller, I should have immediately pulled the old senders and threw them in the trash. Dip your tanks, vary quantity with eyeballs, have a good watch and do your fuel calculations until you save enough money for the CiES senders and you won’t be like me, having spent way more on fuel gauges than you had too. I bet you will eventually end up with CiES senders anyway.

My plane's a Deb, not an A36. It was the first Beech single to get CiES senders. Mine are interfaced with an EDM930. It's been over four years since the install, and I'm still 100% satisfied. I'm an enthusiastic fan and supporter of the senders, CiES and Scott Philiben.

Brace yourself for an excellent customer service experience, an awesome, precise, and reliable product, and years and years of dependable and accurate fuel quantity indicators.

We are so impressed with our fantastic senders! Thank you.

Two years ago, I had four CiES senders and Aerospace Logic display installed in my Bonanza and I love them. Very accurate and easy to read. Reliable and reasonably priced.

I had four CiES senders and an Aerospace Logic quantity gauge installed in my 79' Beechcraft B55 Baron. It was roughly $2200 for the parts and I'm guessing ten hours of labor.

The accuracy is incredible with new digital gauges. After burning 100 gallons of Avgas, I am within 1 gallon between fuel quantity gauge, JPI fuel totalizer value, and what gets pumped in by the fuel truck. I can now very accurately fuel for weight considerations and be confident of my remaining fuel, even as it gets down to less than 10 gallons in each tank. My original fuel gauges were useless as far as I was concerned. I went off fuel flow and time, which works well but will never tell you if you have a leak. Cross checking between two independent sources is better than one. I never want to be flying and not know exactly how much fuel I have.

Worth every dollar spent to me. It's a fairly simple install and both companies have excellent customer service and support. They both answered all my annoying questions.

If you are going to pull and repair something, just replace it with equipment that is so much better.

My partners and I spent a lot of money upgrading our panel. The feature that increased my flying enjoyment the most was adding CiES fuel senders and real time electronic display. My wife always had the side eye when I was tracking fuel status and switching tanks. Now that she can instantly see fuel levels, it makes her a more willing co-pilot.

Maybe I am an oddball. I just cannot imagine why any pilot would not want super accurate fuel gauges. Putting dollars aside, that seems like a no-brainer to me. My brother, Kurt and I met with Scott and got the pitch at Oshkosh last summer. I think he has done a tremendous service to GA with the development of CiES fuel senders and have put them on my list of "to-dos" for my Baron. Kurt has already put them in his Bonanza and is very happy with the result.

Zero regrets. Get ready for a new level of fuel assurance.

The Aerospace Logic 'FL20xD' gauges and CiES sender combo is a superior and accurate solution to fuel level monitoring. Very happy with my install!

CiES senders are an excellent product. Once you try them, the only thing you will question is how you managed to deal with wandering fuel gauges all those years.

I've flown 30 hours with the new units and they're awesome. I am much more confident stretching my flights to five hours knowing the fuel on board accurately and partial fueling is much more precise.

Installation, in the end, was not overly problematic. It did take the guys a long time to figure out where and how to run the wires. Charged labor was 76 hours. No hiccups once calibrated, but that process also was poorly outlined. Overall installation was not straightforward, but I suspect it will be with practice.

I put in the JPI 930 and went ahead and bit the bullet on the CiES senders. When you a looking at spending a fair bit on money on the panel, it's really not that expensive. It's very reassuring to have the totalizer and the gauge agree within a couple of gallons.

You can get yourself in trouble with total reliance on the totalizer. It's a garbage in, garbage out device and you can get it out of sync with reality. I have personal experience with this, which is probably why I didn't balk at the price.

My old gauges were terrible. The JPI with the CiES senders always agrees with the totalizer within a couple of gallons. And it's within a gallon when the total fuel in the mains gets below around 30 gallons.

Is it an absolutely must have? No. But the new technology is clearly better and it's certainly an upgrade that I'm happy is available for my old plane.

The cost to retrofit CiES senders to a pre-74 B55 is around $3200 (plus installation). That may seem "outrageous," but it's only about 50% more than what it costs to have the eight (2 per tank * 4 tanks) senders "overhauled." And my experience with overhauled senders is not very good. At best, the overhauled senders will perform as good as when new for a few years – which is to say they're accurate to within about +/- 5 gallons.

Properly calibrated the CiES senders appear to be within one gallon. In a Bonanza with two 40 gallon tanks, or a post 1973 Baron, there are only four senders so that cost is cut in half.

The last time I checked, new (1940s technology based) senders from Beech were around $1,600 each or over four times what CiES charges.

I was the first sender/gauge install for my shop. Charged 40 hrs. labor for install. (They said it was very simple and straight forward).

I asked every member of the shop to watch the YouTube video from Aerospace Logic for the calibration process. It's actually easy to do. As with everything, garbage in = garbage out.

One of my most valuable installs. Nothing better than knowing, DOWN TO THE 1/10th gallon, how much gas you have.

As far as Aerospace Logic goes... Outstanding product. Aerospace Logic service is interesting. Overall, no regrets.

CiES digital senders installed along with a JPI 930 in December 2018. You won't look back. They perform flawlessly and are within 0.3 gallons of the estimated remaining when I refuel.