what fuel tank to drain??? fighters

[Saxman]

F4Us:

F4U-1/1A - Depends on your fuel load. I prefer rolling 100% fuel. I burn the Left Wing to 25% and Right Wing to 50% (actual pattern: Left to 50, Right to 75, Left to 25, Right to 50) before switching to Main for the duration of the flight. This does two things: 1) helps balance the aircraft vs. torque and 2) provides a reserve for when the main tank inevitably springs a leak from a single-ping .303.

F4U-1C/D, 4 - No real decision to make unless you're hauling drop tanks. In which case you can just leave it on auto select and let the external tanks drain first.

[MachFly]

post deleted

[Pigslilspaz]

So complicated, I like my 109 

[MachFly]

So complicated, I like my 109 

 

[Krusty]

You like it until you get a hole in it....  

For the 190a8, as well as the p-51s, you burn the aux first, then back to auto.

For almost all planes in the game auto will work just fine. It's the special little instances where you get a very minor benefit from, say, burning left wing over right wing.

As for the comment about the P-40E, don't burn main first. The "Main" is actually very well centered low in the wing. There is another tank behind the cockpit that is more destabilizing. It's a large one too. I forget what it's called, maybe FUSE in the AH fuel selection list.

See:
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/Images/P-40/P-40FuelSys.pdf

Burn it first. However, please note the last time I recall looking the AH auto fuel drain selection on the P-40E already did this. No need to manually select it.

[Chalenge]

The one time you manual select on any airplane is when its one that carries a drop tank. Especially in the P-51 you ALWAYS want to burn AUX first.

[Ack-Ack]

As far as burning the AUF tank first, I'll gladly try it out.  I had not heard of that one before.  I did a quick search and didnt find any info on the 'net regarding P51 pilots burning specific tanks first. 
  

While I don't think it was official standard operating procedures, Mustang pilots did tend to burn off the fuel in the rear tank first due to CG issues.  At least that's how it was explained to me when I had asked a 479th veteran.

ack-ack

[Ruah]

In the 190 I always burn the aft first to just a slim amount something like 1/6th or so just for a final burn.  Once that aft is burrned off, the plane performace improves a lot (especially in the A models).  The Ta is so unstable anyway no matter what you burn, but I follow the same procidure.

For the 109, I lt the auto do its work after the aux is cooked off.