Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18; Flight Crew Total 902; Flight Crew Type 716
Distraction; Time Pressure; Troubleshooting
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Declared Emergency; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Climbing through 2;000 FT I smelled a strong solvent odor in cockpit. Fuel was dripping quickly from behind copilot panel onto floor (and copilot's feet). Immediately turned back toward my departure airport; contacted Tower (had been handed off from Tower to TRACON Approach - switched back to Tower without contacting TRACON); and informed them that we were returning due to a fuel leak. Declared emergency and prepared our fire extinguisher in case fuel ignited. Landed uneventfully; rolled off runway; and shut everything down. Fuel leak was due to a hole in the fuel line to the fuel pressure gauge. This pressurized fuel line passes through the firewall to the gauge in the panel. A much safer design would be to mount a transducer on the engine side of the firewall - apparently that is done on later models of the same plane. We will investigate retrofitting that type of gauge.
An older model M20 developed a fuel leak in the fuel pressure sense line behind the copilot side instrument panel; so the pilot declared an emergency returned to the airport he had just departed.