Some time ago I stated that I felt the Mosquito consumed fuel too rapidly. As evidence I gave the fact that the Spitfire Mk IX has greater endurance than does the Mosquito in AH.
Spit_9 -- 35/+21=56
Mossie -- 34/+16=50The original thread can be read here:
The Mossie's flight endurance still seems too shortActing on advice from that thread I obtained a PDF file of the Pilot's Notes for the Mosquito FB 6 from snafu's website. The Pilot's Notes for the Mosquito FB 6 can be found by clicking on the Pilot's Notes link on
snafu's website.
On page 11 of the pilot's notes it lists the fuel capacity of the Mosquito FB 6's various fuel tanks:
MAIN SUPPLYCentre tanks....................50 gallons
Inner tanks....................286 gallons
OUTER TANKS................116 gallons
_____________________________
Total........................
.....452 gallons
Long-range tank...............63 gallons
Wing drop tanks..............200 gallons
(2 x 100 gallons)
_____________________________
Total fuel capacity...........715 gallons
(Interestingly this is less than the total internal fuel capacity of 543 gallons listed on the
HiTech Creations Mosquito page)
On pages 30-33 of the pilot's notes there are flight planning charts that give the fuel consumption for various speeds, weights and altitudes.
For the ease of calculations I selected settings that would consume fuel at a rate of 100 gallons per hour so that I could simply use the 50 gallon Centre tank. If the fuel consumption was correct, then the fuel should last half an hour.
The settings were:
AUW: 17,000lbs
Altitude: 10,000ft
RPM: 2,400
TAS-KNOTS: 275
TEST SETUPUsing the AKDesert map in offline mode I set the fuel consumption to 1.0000. I selected A56 as my take off field, planning a southwest flight along the channel.
To get roughly an All Up Weight of 17,000lbs I set the Mosquito to full fuel, no external or internal stores, 150 rounds per 20mm gun and 500 rounds per .303 gun.
TESTOnce on the runway I selected the right inner (RI) fuel tank before starting the engines so as to keep the centre tank (AUX) full.
I then took off, climbed to 10,000ft and set a southwest heading.
I then reduced my RPM settings from 3,000 to 2,400 and reduced my boost setting from 14lbs./sq.in. to 8lb./sq.in.
The Mosquito's airspeed declined until it settled at about 265mph. (This was 265mph true airspeed, not indicated airspeed)
I then switched to the AUX tank and started a timer simultaneously.
RESULTSThe AUX tank was drained in 13 minutes and 52 seconds which indicates a fuel consuption rate with those settings of approximately 200-225 gallons per hour, or more than twice the fuel consumption listed for those settings in the Flight Planner Charts of the Pilot's Notes for the Mosquito FB 6.
CONCLUSIONThe Mosquito FB.Mk VI in AH is consuming fuel at more than twice the rate it should be. If the AUX tank also includes the 63 gallon Long range tank (which given AH's higher listed fuel capacity it may be) the fuel consumption would be more than four times the rate it should be.
