Author Topic: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority  (Read 3370 times)

Offline FLS

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #15 on: May 11, 2020, 09:07:02 AM »
As a general rule you probably want the fuel tank closest to the CG to drain last.

Offline Puma44

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #16 on: May 11, 2020, 01:17:08 PM »
In the 190 The AFTer should be drained first, in F then the MIDdle. Draining the ForWarD tank first like the Spit's TOP tank causes oddities in handling especially on the knife edge.

Does HiTech have all of this included in the flight models for the various in game planes?



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Offline FLS

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2020, 06:57:24 PM »
Yes. It's obvious in the P-51 if you don't drain the aux tank first.

Offline Puma44

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #18 on: May 11, 2020, 08:47:08 PM »
Yes. It's obvious in the P-51 if you don't drain the aux tank first.

How about the rest?  Perhaps HiTech could answer and clarify for across the board. 



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Offline TequilaChaser

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2020, 06:37:12 AM »
I like to drain the left wing tank in the F4U-1D first and leave the right tank full until the main tank is empty to help with the torque roll in turn fights.

other than that the automatic control works pretty well, for instance the P51 is known to handle quite poorly with the AUX tank full of fuel and this is what the automatic system uses first.

You really wouldn't want your main tank empty in the F4U-1 or F4U-1A (the only 2 F4Us with wing tanks) because you barely have enough time for a good turn fight, let alone time to land.....

Ideally, in the -1 & -1A, one would drain their left wing tank down to 1/16th and then drain the right tank down to 1/4 full then switch to the main tank... This helps with roll-rate in both directions and one does not have to crack the throttle as much in a right hand turn as much as they would if the right wing tank was full.....since the F4U-1 & -1A turn better turning left....cracking the throttle to 95% to 90% while turning right compensates for the torque and allows the hog to turn better...

Hope this helps

TC
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Offline Gooss

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #20 on: May 21, 2020, 04:45:01 PM »
I think the zeno's film mentions that the F4U wing tanks should be burned first because they were not connected to the fuel gauge.
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Offline Owlblink

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #21 on: May 25, 2020, 02:29:30 AM »
I've heard this tail or that tail over the years about fuel tanks, some I've tried and some I have not. I do not discount that there is a difference in specific cases but I wonder if some claims come from superstitious reasoning.

@FLS - Out of the planes you are familiar with the most, do YOU have any preferences in fuel burning order? :devil

I do believe the P51 claim on burning the AUX first, which I recall the fuel auto selection doing so last I played.

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Offline FLS

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #22 on: May 25, 2020, 05:50:08 AM »
I think in general for handling considerations the fuel tank closest to the CG should burn last but it also makes sense to have some fuel in more than one tank in case you get a leak.

I also think you should verify any benefit for yourself by flight testing so you know the specific effect if any is noticeable.

Offline diaster

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #23 on: February 01, 2021, 08:03:13 AM »
You roll in a turn fight when you stall one wing first, generally from adverse yaw. The correction for adverse yaw is with the rudder.
I thought it was a reduction of lift with aileron up vs increase of lift with aileron down, with the rudder input to keep the turn coordinated, it is adverse when you fail to use the rudder creating a skidding turn which raises the stall When a plane “stalls” loses all lift, it will drop the same wing it drops in level flight. As an example a crop duster was doing a hard right climbing turn when it stalled, the left wing dropped and it went down in a left spiraling turn.
It seems to me that if a wing was heavier it would take less deflection of the ailerons to reduce lift on that wing, lift force perpendicular to the motion of the wing, which is greater than the downwards gravitational force on the wing and so keeps the aircraft airborne. I could be wrong I reckon, but it seems to make sense, the heavier a wing is the less disruption of the airflow, (increasing drag) it would take “stall it” as you put it. Although when you lose half a wing in game, you either have to go fast with right aileron and rudder input to correct for the drop of the wing with less lift, reducing lift on the good wing as it were, but to land you have to slow down and go full flaps to maintain control and if the broken wing (Less lift) is on the torque side it’s chop the power and all the opposite rudder you have to keep it level. If on the opposite side, I add power using torque roll to bring that wing up. A way to test this in game is to drain a tank one one side, reduce thrust to zero and see if said aircraft rolls off the same way it would with full fuel.
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Offline Mongoose

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Re: Fuel tanks; Internal & External use priority
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2021, 08:15:55 PM »
By default, the fuel burn switches between tanks to keep the plane in balance.  In some planes you can get better performance by burning fuel from specific tanks.  The P-51D, for example, has an auxiliary fuel tank located behind the pilot.  According to the manual, this tank needs to be drained first, or it makes the plane hard to handle. 

Go to this page:
https://www.hitechcreations.com/support/game-faq
and scroll down to where it says "What does the 'A' in the fuel indicator mean?"

This gives a good description of how the automatic fuel burn works in game.
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