In the FS2004 Settings screen (Fuel Transfer)

[JBaymore]

In the "Settings" screen in fs2004 there is the ability to set keyboard commands for "fuel transfer" for:

Set Fuel Transfer Aft

Set Fuel Transfer Forward

Set Fuel Transfer Off


What exactly do these do, and which aircraft do they work with?


What I WANT to be able to do is using a keypress, start to transfer fuel from a center tank into the wing tanks.  Suggestions?

And is there a way (using keyboard commands) to set crossfeeds on / off?

best,

.................john

[Nav]

Never noticed those before, JBaymore!

I 'expect' that they're intended to be used in aeroplanes where the centre of gravity is a little critical. You do find aeroplanes (even default ones) where that is the case; the DH Comet, for example, isn't easy to land at the best of times and is especially difficult unless you've made sure that the main (rear) tank is as empty as you can get it before you arrive.

The answer MAY be somewhere in the Learning Centre under 'Centre of Gravity,' 'Weight and balance,' or 'Fuel,' but I couldn't find it on a quick reading. My guess is that you can use those key settings, once set up, to empty one tank before the other on a given aeroplane.

Most of the default aeroplanes just use fuel evenly from all the tanks - but a few (DH Comet is the only example I know) allow you to select feed from different tanks in flight and others, like the default 737, empty the tanks in a pre-determined order. Quite a lot of good-quality downloads, especially payware ones, have fuel selector gauges that force you to handle fuel management and 'weight and balance' for yourself, as in the real thing - which adds to the fun, of course.

On ANY FS aeroplane you can check your fuel state any time by pressing 'Aircraft,', 'Fuel,' 'Change Fuel,' which brings up a panel showing the amount of fuel in each tank. You can also change the figures, of course, though some would say that would be 'cheating' in flight!

[garymbuska]

I could be wrong but I think the command will just add fuel and not transfer it.  There a quite a few aircraft that will allow you to transfer fuel but to my Knowledge there is no key stroke that will do this.

[ashaman]

On ANY FS aeroplane you can check your fuel state any time by pressing 'Aircraft,', 'Fuel,' 'Change Fuel,' which brings up a panel showing the amount of fuel in each tank. You can also change the figures, of course, though some would say that would be 'cheating' in flight!  :)

Actually, seen the absence of fuel transfer commands on most planes, transferring manually the fuel from a tank to another using the system you explained can hardly be called as cheating, if you do it to keep a clean COG (like I do, sometimes, especially with some POSKY models and the Concorde).

Of course if you add or subtract fuel from the total, then that is cheating, but moving the fuel only is no cheat.

Making due with what you have was never considered a cheat.

[JBaymore]

Thanks for the replies guys.

[ashaman]

FSUIPC... well, I never really tried to program it that way. Have to look and give it a try. :-?


Would be nice if all panels would have something like a fuel transfer and feed subpanel, though it's very rare among freeware. Even rarer than full autoland.


I remember the only panel I've tried with a fuel transfer (that on my system only showed to work, but in the end never really transferred anything and I had to do it manually in the window as above) was on the original panel of the SGA DC10, and then, it worked only between the front and rear central tanks, the wings were only displayed as a quantity of fuel remained.


Not really a fan of the Bae146, though I know there is a very good panel that might simulate fuel transfer, the freeware models of this plane around have a tendency to keep their noses too sharp in the air at low speeds (even more than the POSKY 747's, and it's saying a lot), thing that make every manual landing a nightmare, and even ILS are not at all comfortable (how can you flare at all if your plane descends the glide with an AOA a little shy of 10

[JBaymore]

[quote]Not really a fan of the Bae146, though I know there is a very good panel that might simulate fuel transfer, the freeware models of this plane around have a tendency to keep their noses too sharp in the air at low speeds (even more than the POSKY 747's, and it's saying a lot), thing that make every manual landing a nightmare, and even ILS are not at all comfortable (how can you flare at all if your plane descends the glide with an AOA a little shy of 10

[ashaman]

Maybe go to the BAe Panel Project website and download the version 3.0 panel by Matthias Liebrecht.  It includes new flight dynamics for the Jon Murchison BAE 146-200.  The panel itslef is GREAT.  And he is in Beta on the version 4.0 panel for it ........ that will rival PMDG stuff as a procedure trainer .... AND as freeware.

...new dynamics? :-?

...hmmm...

Wilco. Thanks.