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Fuel selection


marc2990

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In FSX the Otter has 2 tip tanks (R+L).

How can I switch to use the fuel in those tanks?

The fuel tank switch only allows me to go from center to center 1.

Or did I oversee anything?

Thanks for your reaction.

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5 hours ago, marc2990 said:

Which one do you mean Mark?

 

They are lower down than that panel - below the transponder and flight data recorder. They are probably hidden by the yoke.

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OK Mark

I tried things out.

I found the boost pump switches and switched them on. But on the flight I made, they did not seem to go empty.

Moreover once in the air, it became impossible to put the joke that low, that they became visible again. So I have no way to check what is happening. Only via the top aircraft menu (fuel and payload). And as I said they remained full.

Any other tips and tricks to get control of them? They represent over 70 gall of fuel, which is more than an hours flight. That is important on longer flights.

Thanks for your efforts.

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3 hours ago, marc2990 said:

But on the flight I made, they did not seem to go empty.

 

I don't have the sim up but from my notes I don't think I have done anything other than switch on the boost pumps and i have seen the fuel taken from the wing tanks. Maybe there is some logic that only takes fuel from the wing tanks when the main tanks are running low. You could try switching off the main boost pumps, although again I didn't see that this made any difference. I will have a play when I next have the sim running.

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3 hours ago, marc2990 said:

Any luck on trying this one out Mark?

 

Sorry no, I will try it this weekend as I will probably be doing a bit of simming! Maybe this evening if the temperature drops a bit :flame_s:

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Thanks Mark

This is what I found out until now:

When you start the sim with the twin otter, you can indeed put the yoke down and the 2 tip tank gauges + switches become visible.

When you switch them on + switch the main pumps off, the fuel from the tip tanks streams to the engine.

But once the aircraft is flying or even back on the ground there is no way I can get the joke that far down to see the tip tank gauges again. So in order to see the fuel consumption I always have to go to the menu fuel and payload and check the situation over there. Is there really no other way?

When the tip tanks get empty, I switch the main tank pump(s) on + the knob to instruct what tank to take the fuel from. Watch, first switch the pumps on otherwise the engine stops.

But I get the impression that switching the main tanks on or off, not always has an effect on from which tank the fuel goes to the engine.

I can live with a bit of experimenting, but that I can't get a look at the tip tank gauges anymore is simply annoying.

Or am I missing any updates? How can I see that?

Thanks for your effort.

Marcel

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9 hours ago, marc2990 said:

So in order to see the fuel consumption I always have to go to the menu fuel and payload and check the situation over there. Is there really no other way?

 

If you have TrackIR it works a lot better because you can look around the or over the yoke. To do that without TrackIR you need to remember all those keystrokes to move the eyepoint, or bind them to joystick buttons with repeat set. If you use one of the view manager addons (like EZCA or Chase Plane) you can make separate views. Come to think of it, doesn't one of the standard Twin Otter views let you see those gauges? I don't know, I don't have the sim running just now. Either way it would be better if there was a way to hide the yoke.

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23 hours ago, marc2990 said:

When you switch them on + switch the main pumps off, the fuel from the tip tanks streams to the engine.

...

When the tip tanks get empty, I switch the main tank pump(s) on + the knob to instruct what tank to take the fuel from.

...

But I get the impression that switching the main tanks on or off, not always has an effect on from which tank the fuel goes to the engine.

 

Okay Marc, I have had another play with this and I am convinced that switching on the wing tank boost pump overrides the fuel flow from the main tank. Hence, switch the right wing tank on and it will immediately begin taking fuel from the wing tank instead of the forward tank. You don't have to switch off the main boost pump for this to happen. When you switch off the wing tank boost pump (or I presume if the tank runs dry), fuel is once again taken from the forward tank. You are right of course that you can switch off the main boost pump and the engine continues to run, but you don't have to. (I don't know what the real-world logic is.)

 

I don't know if you use LINDA but I have a dedicated LINDA library for accessing the fuel tank functions, which includes a toggle-able on-screen display of all the fuel tanks and their contents in lbs, kgs, gals or %. You can map all of the functions to buttons. I use this to drive a custom-built fuel management panel.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A bit late maybe Marc, but I also came to the conclusion that the way to proceed is:

Look behind the yoke (possible when AP is not on); switch on the 2 tip tank pumps; leave the front and aft pumps open and the fuel selector switch to both.

The tip tanks will run empty first. You get a lot of warnings about critical fuel level (if you have flying tips on), but don't mind.

When there is 1.1 left in each tip tank, fuel flow automatically comes from the main tanks.

But everytime when you reload the aircraft, the procedure has to be done before you start flying. Imagine what happens if you pull the yoke with no AP on.....

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers.

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