FUEL tank selection Option

[rammjagr]

Could there be some way to thell the Auto fuel selector which tank to burn first, second, thrid , etc?

If I take off with 100% and external tanks in a P51, I would like to have the Aux tank burn off , then go to external fuel. P51 probably only plane that this would beneift...

[K West]

Auto-fuel is a plane management "helper." It works ok but IMO it's not as good as manually working the fuel tanks yourself. Much like combat trim doesn't adjust trim as well as manually working it will, auto fuel will also not always be the optimum way to drain tanks on a plane.  Manually working the fuel will let you get more out of your plane the same way as manually trimming does so you may want to think about manually draining certain tanks  befor others. Some planes, like the P-51, will fly better in combat if you drain the AUX tank first. After draining the AUX tank then you can choose which to work next or even go back to using the auto-fuel selector feature.

 Westy

[whels]

Originally posted by O'Westy:
Auto-fuel is a plane management "helper." It works ok but IMO it's not as good as manually working the fuel tanks yourself. Much like combat trim doesn't adjust trim as well as manually working it will, auto fuel will also not always be the optimum way to drain tanks on a plane.  Manually working the fuel will let you get more out of your plane the same way as manually trimming does so you may want to think about manually draining certain tanks  befor others. Some planes, like the P-51, will fly better in combat if you drain the AUX tank first. After draining the AUX tank then you can choose which to work next or even go back to using the auto-fuel selector feature.

 Westy

any of u willing to post which tanks to burn in what order for best preformance for all planes in AH?

whels

[K West]

Heck. Most of the planes I fly have main and wing tanks only.

 The 190 should have fore then aft done first per notes from the 190 guys in the training forumn. The P-38 does best if the wing tanks are drained first and the P-51 must have the aft (aux?) fuselage drained for better CoG.
Other planes it depends on the amount of fuel you take. If you take 50% up you may or may not have a fuselage tank holding fuel.

 I've never done any real testing. Beside not having the time most often I'll let the auto-fuel selection work in planes like the Spit or F4U which I do not fly much of to try and figure out the optimal manual election.

 Westy