Jump to content

Used External Fuel Tanks


Dogo

Recommended Posts

It was said in a post on here that they are still a WIP, so not functioning correctly yet in the beta.



Win 10 64 Pro, MSI Z390 I7-9700K @5ghz Kraken Z63, 32Gb Corsair Dominator, MSI RTX-2070, 1TB NVME 2TB SSD's, TM Warthog, Pro Rudders, OpenTrack w/ IR Clip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

120 Galons tanks works well i think.

PC: i7 9700K, 32 GB RAM, RTX 2080 SUPER, Tir 5, Hotas Warthog Throttle, VPC MongoosT-50CM2 Base with VPC MongoosT-50CM2 Grip, VKB-SIM T-RUDDER PEDALS MK.IV. Modules : NEVADA, F-5E, M-2000C, BF-109K4, A-10C, FC3, P-51D, MIG-21BIS, MI-8MTV2, F-86F, FW-190D9, UH-1H, L-39, MIG-15BIS, AJS37, SPITFIRE-MKIX, AV8BNA, PERSIAN GULF, F/A-18C HORNET, YAK-52, KA-50, F-14,SA342, C-101, F-16, JF-17, Supercarrier,I-16,MIG-19P, P-47D,A-10C_II

Link to comment
Share on other sites

120 Galons tanks works well i think.

 

Yes they do work ;) Flew from Kutaisi to Nalchik NoE without ext. tanks - 25% fuel left, flew NoE back to Kutaisi with ext tanks - 55% fuel left



CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Mobo: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro | RAM: 64GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill TridentZ | GPU: Palit RTX3080 Ti 12GB | SSDs: 2xSabrent Rocket 1TB M.2 | Samsung Pro 256GB | Samsung EVO 850 500GB | Samsung QVO 1TB 

Peripherals: Warthog HOTAS | TrackIR 5 | MFG Crosswinds | 3xTM Cougar MFDs | HP Reverb G2
 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried them once, played with the fuel switch and my internal capacity remained constant for a bit, however it wasn't long until it started going down again. Seemed too quick to be the ext tanks going dry, but then again the Sabre is pretty fuel hungry.

Awaiting: DCS F-15C

Win 10 i5-9600KF 4.6 GHz 64 GB RAM RTX2080Ti 11GB -- Win 7 64 i5-6600K 3.6 GHz 32 GB RAM GTX970 4GB -- A-10C, F-5E, Su-27, F-15C, F-14B, F-16C missions in User Files

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think they're right, the inboard tanks do appear to work. First I took off with a heavy load, flew around at low-medium altitude until only 1000 pounds of fuel remained. This took ~16min.

 

I landed, took on 2 inboard fuel tanks in addition to the same loadout. I took off, flew around in the same manner, and this time it took ~30min before I had reached 1000 pounds of fuel.

 

From what I've gathered, the empty tank light is only for the outboard tanks, whereas the level of fuel in the inboard tanks are gauged by the fuel gauge.

 

 

Edit: The issue though is that when you put on inboard fuel tanks, the gauge does not reflect the increased level of fuel carried. Thus it might seem like your plane isn't getting any fuel from the fuel tanks, when it actually does.


Edited by Scrim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The external tanks feed fuel into the forward tank.

 

There are no fuel qty sensors in the external tanks, so only indication that fuel is taken from the xternal tanks is that the fuel qty indicator indicates full until it starts emptying the forward tank, which is when the external tanks has been emptied.

 

 

FinnJ

i7-10700K 3.8-5.1Ghz, 32GB RAM, RTX 4070 12GB, 1 x 1 TB SSD, 2 x 2TB SSD2 TB,  1 x 2 TBHDD 7200 RPM, Win10 Home 64bit, Meta Quest 3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You sure about that? I mean, at least Furia has said it's broken, and the ED testers ought to know, right?

 

 

Edit: Confirmed, both sorts of fuel tanks do indeed work. I don't know if they work in the sense that the amount of fuel is displayed correctly, but they do add fuel to your plane. If you want to confirm it yourself, do the following: Start the ME, set up a plane for yourself. Start the mission, tell ground crew to empty say 95% of your tank, and add whichever size drop tank you want to check works. Switch to the ones selected, and see the amount of fuel in your internal tank rise rapidly. The main issue surrounding the outboard tanks seems to be that the Sabre will not continually draw fuel from them, instead it seems to fill up its internal tank when it's no longer full when you switch to the outboard tanks.


Edited by Scrim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You sure about that? I mean, at least Furia has said it's broken, and the ED testers ought to know, right?

 

 

Edit: Confirmed, both sorts of fuel tanks do indeed work. I don't know if they work in the sense that the amount of fuel is displayed correctly, but they do add fuel to your plane. If you want to confirm it yourself, do the following: Start the ME, set up a plane for yourself. Start the mission, tell ground crew to empty say 95% of your tank, and add whichever size drop tank you want to check works. Switch to the ones selected, and see the amount of fuel in your internal tank rise rapidly. The main issue surrounding the outboard tanks seems to be that the Sabre will not continually draw fuel from them, instead it seems to fill up its internal tank when it's no longer full when you switch to the outboard tanks.

 

Yes, I am having some success by flying on internal tanks till they deplete then switch to ext tanks to fill up my internal tanks lol then drop externals. :noexpression:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wouldnt the correct way be:

 

1. Have ext. on all the time (constant fill intern)

2. When empty ext. light goes on, drop empty extern.

 

I recall this was the way I did it.

This way you dont have to fear running dry before you notice you need to turn extern on.


Edited by <Grizzly>
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think the tanks are working. If you take the 120Gall inboards for example. What I expect to see is Main gauge drop by say 20gals/160lbs. I then expect the externals to feed with the fuel gauge steady until transfer is complete. that doesn't happen the fuel gauge just keeps dropping as if no external fuel is being used.

 

About to test with 50% internal fuel loaded to see what happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems they do actually work. I set up a mission with 0% internal fuel with 4 external tanks, starting on the runway.

 

As soon as you enter the mission the Fuel gauge increase to 1150lbs. It then remains there as external tank fuel is transferred. If you then Jettison the tanks the needle starts decreasing as fuselage tank fuel is now consumed.

 

I presume this is the main forward tank fuel transfer level coded by the Devs.

So the system at present appears to work like this:

 

Main internal fuel is consumed until you get to 1150lbs remaining.

External tanks then maintain the fuselage tanks at 1150lbs.

Once external tank fuel is used then fuselage fuel is again consumed.

 

Reading the Flight Manual (Both F86E and F, the E manual is a little more detailed on external tank indications) I think what you should see is:

 

Initially about 5galls/100lbs is used from the internal fuel. Then the external tanks should start feeding. Fuel gauge should remain steady at approx 2700lbs*. Once outer externals are used the End of transfer light illuminates.

Pilot then selects Inboard and jettison. Inboard externals now feed. Fuel Qty gauge remains at 2700lbs. Once the inboards are exhausted the fuel quantity gauge starts reducing as internal fuel is consumed.

 

*This 2700lbs transfer level is my take on the Flight manual description. Based on Full internal JP4 should be 2827lbs. I couldn't find any direct statement though. The "E" manual states that the External tank qty controlling valve opens after 5galls of fuel are consumed. It makes sense as the intent is to use all external fuel first so you can punch the tanks off and be left with full internals. The existing 1150lbs transfer level doesn't make sense as on tank jettison you are only left with 1150lbs.

 

EDIT

F86F Maintenance manual confirms that the Fuel Level control valve that initiates external transfer starts at 5Us Gall (about 30lbs) consumed from internal fuel.


Edited by IvanK
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not set at 1150lbs by default, but rather it goes from how much internal fuel you had when you started. E.g. fill up 100%, 2 outboard drop tanks. Then tell the ground crew to decrease your internal tank to 80%. If you then switch over to drop tanks, it will fill up to max.

 

I've done some calculations, and reached the conclusion that fuel system currently will fill up the internal tank when completely or partially drained with a maximum of a 36% full internal fuel load. If there's still more fuel in the drop tanks, it won't touch it.

 

For the 200 gallon outboard tanks, I told the ground crew to decrease my internal fuel to 10%. I then switched over to the drop tanks, had the ground crew repeat the 10% routine. I ended up taking on fuel from the drop tanks a total of 3 times before they were emptied. It was 36%+36%+21%. The percentage refers to the percentage of a full internal tank.

 

The inboard tanks yielded a 36%+20% result before these were drained.

 

 

However, I'm struggling to make sense of the fuel quantity. As said, my experiment indicated that the outboard drop tanks contained 83% of a full internal tank. However, when I repeated this and looked at the fuel gauge instead of the % in the armament menu, I reached the conflicting result that the outboard tanks contained a total of 2900lbs. Now, the internal tank takes on approximately 2800lbs of fuel, so obviously something doesn't add up. If the result I got from looking at the percentage in the armament menu is correct, then the outboard drop tanks would contain approximately 2300lbs of fuel, not 2900lbs.

 

What I've concluded to be the main issues so far is:

A, The fuel system does not take on fuel from the drop tanks to the internal tank unless you toggle from All Tanks Off to the ones currently carried. I.e. you have to manually initiate fuel transfer from the drop tanks to the internal tank, just leaving the tank selector on the carried tanks won't work.

 

B, When the player performs a fuel transfer from the drop tanks to the internal tank, no more than 36% of a internal tank's worth of fuel will be transferred.

 

C, There may or may not be an issue with the amount of fuel contained in the drop tanks, and/or the amount of fuel displayed by the fuel gauge. There is also a possibility that when a fuel transfer is performed, some of the fuel drained from the drop tank is lost on its way to the internal tank. This would explain why the armament percentage slider indicated a lower quantity of fuel contained within the drop tanks than the fuel indicated by the fuel gauge. However, this seems unlikely, as I can't find an explanation as for why the fuel gauge would display fuel that doesn't exist in the internal tank. I will try to rule it out shortly, and update accordingly.


Edited by Scrim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update: The "lost fuel" theory part of C doesn't seem to be holding up. However, I noticed two other peculiarities about the fuel system when I checked it out.

 

D, The amount of fuel transferred is not fixed to 36% of a full internal tank. Rather, it shifts depending on how much fuel is carried in the internal tank when the fuel transfer from the drop tanks to the internal tank is started. At internal fuel percentage levels 10, 20, 30 and 40, it would increase to 46%. At 50, 60 and 70, it increased to 74%. At 80 and 90, it increased to 100%. That's give and take 2-3%, especially the higher the fuel levels.

 

E, The fuel transfer will not occur unless the fuel carried in the internal tank has decreased to it's current level. I.e., if you increase the internal fuel from say 40% to 50%, no fuel transfer occurs. After the 46% level results, I had to increase my internal fuel load to 100%, and then decrease it to 50%.

 

For these experiments, the fuel levels prior to fuel transfer from the drop tanks were only altered using the armaments menu. I have not looked at how the fuel system behaves when the internal fuel tank has been completely/partially drained from regular fuel consumption prior to fuel transfers from the drop tanks.

 

 

My recommendation regarding using the drop tanks currently is: Bring outboard ones, as the light makes it simpler to judge when these are completely drained. Frequently toggle the tank selector switch between All Tanks Off to Outboard Tanks to replenish the internal fuel supply.


Edited by Scrim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is some info from the F86F maintenance manual:

 

f86fuelsys_zps3cd31d17.jpg

 

F86Exttnkfeed_zps51376ce0.jpg

 

so as long as the Tanks are pressurised Fuel feeds if the Fuel level control valve opens. This valve opens after 5Gall (about 30lbs of fuel) is consumed from the forward Fuselage tank. Since the Fuel qty gauge displays Total internal furl qty then the sequence should be that after 60lbs of fuel is burnt the external transfer keeps topping the internal fuel up to the control valve level. Therefore the fuel qty will indicate this level (2700lbs) until all external fuel is transferred. Then the fuel qty gauge drops as internal fuel is consumed.

 

The outboard tanks have end of transfer lights that illuminate after they are exhausted. the inner tanks don't. So the only real method to know when the inner externals are empty is when the Fuel qty gauge drops off 2700lbs.

 

At present it seems the DCS F86F has the Fuel level control valve set at 1150 lbs. So in fact no external transfer takes place until about 1700lbs internal fuel has been consumed !

 

Finally the fuel Qty Data from the Dash 1

 

F86FFueltable_zps653079e2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...