I have about 500 hours in Cessna 421's and 414's as well as a lot of time in 310's. In all of these there is a fuel pump in the aft end of the tank that moves fuel from the front to the back of the tank where the pickups are. These pumps run all the time. These are the main tanks on all of these airplanes ie you takeoff and land on the tips. In these aircraft loosing a pump means you will loose an engine on that side as soon as you pitch down. In all but especially in the 421 loosing a tip tank fuel pump means terminating the flight. You can crossfeed for a while until you run out of aileron. More than half of all crashes in the 421 have been from fuel starvation while having plenty of fuel onboard. Bottom line, they look great, they work great. However there MUST be a method of transferring fuel between the two rather than an equalizing tube. The reason is that should you have an unequal fuel flow and correct it with aileron you won't know you are in trouble until you slow down and discover that you don't have enough aileron. Victor Taylor Irvington, Alabama
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