Simviation Forums

Hello Guys, im new in the forum here as u can see
I would like to ask u ppl some questions.
What are the following switches for? i've always seen them on the headpanel, but i cant understand what they are for.

-Fuel Crossfeed Swtich
-DC Volts Switch
-Battery Switch
-Fuel Pump Switch
-APU Swith
-Generators 1 and 2 switches.

If possibly one of u could please tell me how they work and when, i would be very happy  8-)
Thank you  ;) byebye

Well,

Fuel crossfeed allows you to transfer fuel from one tank to another, e.g. left to right...

DC Volts switch, i've never used but im guessing it switches the aircraft power supply to Direct Current... not quite sure?

Battery switch, this is the switch that allows power to all electrical systems on the aircraft (quite essential  :P)

APU (Auxillary Power Unit), this provides electrical power etc to an aircraft (usually airliners) without having an engine running... it also plays a part in getting an aircraft engines running...

Generator switches cause the electrical power to the aircraft to be supplied by the engines once they are running rather than draingin the batteries or using the APU.

Hope that helps!  ;)

Hmmm...much better now..
now i have a notion of what is it!!

Thanks a lot dude  :)

im curious, if u shut off the engines in mid-flight, will all the displays go black?

if so, when u turn on the APU, will a little fan drop down from somewhere around the plane, providing enough power for only essential instruments?

i dont think so...

im curious, if u shut off the engines in mid-flight, will all the displays go black?

if so, when u turn on the APU, will a little fan drop down from somewhere around the plane, providing enough power for only essential instruments?

i dont think so...

No... if the engines were shut-off the displays wont go black instantly but will do as the generators loose speed from the engines to provided enough electrical power... Your only choice then would be to run essential systems off the battery, but that wouldn't last that long... but like you said in some aircraft a RAT, ram air turbine, can be deployed from the fuselage sort of like a wind turbine to generate some electrical power...

You should read this,
This was a case where such things actually occured... quite interesting!

This shows how little I know about jets...  Why wouldn't they start the APU ?

[quote]This shows how little I know about jets...

im curious, if u shut off the engines in mid-flight, will all the displays go black?

if so, when u turn on the APU, will a little fan drop down from somewhere around the plane, providing enough power for only essential instruments?

i dont think so...

That's the case on one plane, a liner, I don't remember exactely.
A FS2004 payware model has it working, I saw some screenshots about it, a little arm deploys under the fuselage, and a fan starts spinning with the air speed to provide electrical power

Found it!
Here is a screenshot of the system in action:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8482/ram6dv.jpg

I post just links because the picture is too big. This is the Level-D 767:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2729/envol4al.jpg

Most modern airliner aircraft have them....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_air_turbine