On board fuel counter

[kievbsm]

Good day pilots!

 

Yesterday, when flying on this wonderful plane, when landing, my engines stalled due to lack of fuel.

 

The trouble is that, according to the fuel gauge, there were still about 300 pounds of fuel on board. As a result, I almost flew to the aircraft carrier and fell into the sea right behind it.

 

Is there any kind of error in the fuel gauge? How to understand that there is no more fuel, except for stopped engines? :music_whistling:

 

If this matters, I can add that the take-off before this flight was made after refueling on the deck. I landed, added fuel to 100% and weapons, and flew again. And there was no additional fuel tanks.

 

Thank you for any tips.

[mattag08]

The fuel gauge has an error of up to 300 lbs. Heatblur seems to have been told by SMEs this means the engines quit at 300 lbs (e.g 300 lbs of unusable fuel). I saw a tomcat RIO state this is not correct, rather when you hit 300 lbs the jet could be empty or it could have 600 lbs remaining. Either way the implementation in DCS right now is that at 300 lbs on the gauge you are empty.

[kievbsm]

A-ha! Got it!

Thank you!

[VF31_Subsonic]

you should never get down that low on your fuel...if you plan properly...just sayin

[IronMike]

The fuel gauge has an error of up to 300 lbs. Heatblur seems to have been told by SMEs this means the engines quit at 300 lbs (e.g 300 lbs of unusable fuel). I saw a tomcat RIO state this is not correct, rather when you hit 300 lbs the jet could be empty or it could have 600 lbs remaining. Either way the implementation in DCS right now is that at 300 lbs on the gauge you are empty.

 

 

 

 

Sorry, one small correction: The flame out at 300lbs is not due to an error in the gauge, but because the fuel tanks are constructed in such a way that at the end 300lbs unusable fuel stays trapped.

[Airhunter]

Pro tip: Don't land with 300lbs of fuel left.

[Hawkeye_UK]

IRL you land a plane with nothing on the dials but smiths (empty) and you haven't got a mechanical issue resulting in fuel loss your CO will be ensuring your not flying anytime soon again that's for sure. Extremely serious Safety Breach. One of the primary reasons that instructors have to step in to instruct immediate RTB when students are distracted with either target fixation or workflow overload in poor conditions down low.

 

In game always set Bingo and look at your FF, work from that and divide fuel gives you a approximate playtime at current altitude. Utilise tankers and in the 14 keep out of burners unless needed - i.e caught into a hostile's E-pole and extending rapidly away.

 

As you would in real life keep sweeping the dials - have a process that covers all and flow through them in the same fashion (not ad hoc) noting against a value for normal at that stage in flight. During ACM glimpse fuel flow every 60 seconds.

 

One thing that Jester should be talking about is fuel, and so far he only ever does it when on the tank. A WSO would be assisting the pilot and a verbal check to ensure both crew are aware of fuel state. It would be good for Jester to reflect this to call out tanks dry / 10,000 pounds, 8000, 6000, 4000, 2000 and whatever the Bingo value was. One thing that would be useful is if HB make some attempt to model the F14 mission data loader which would incorporate pre planned waypoints (like Viggen) where Jester could say fuel as fragged - inline with flight plan etc.

[eatthis]

Pro tip: Don't land with 300lbs of fuel left.

 

he didnt lol

[kievbsm]

Dear captains Evidence.

Your sparkling humor, as always, is beyond praise.

To avoid further assumptions, I can only say that I returned with a normal supply of fuel on board. But when approaching the landing zone I was attacked by several enemy planes and had to join the battle. There I spent almost all the fuel while fighting off attacks.

Will it be more clear?

I got a very clear answer from IronMike.

This is quite enough.

 

So, my pro-advice to you is not to build assumptions on the lack of facts.

Edited October 19, 2019 by kievbsm

[Tinkickef]

Good day pilots!

 

Yesterday, when flying on this wonderful plane, when landing, my engines stalled due to lack of fuel.

 

The trouble is that, according to the fuel gauge, there were still about 300 pounds of fuel on board. As a result, I almost flew to the aircraft carrier and fell into the sea right behind it.

 

Is there any kind of error in the fuel gauge? How to understand that there is no more fuel, except for stopped engines? :music_whistling:

 

If this matters, I can add that the take-off before this flight was made after refueling on the deck. I landed, added fuel to 100% and weapons, and flew again. And there was no additional fuel tanks.

 

Thank you for any tips.

 

Number one rule in aviation. Never ever trust a fuel gauge.

[mattag08]

Sorry, one small correction: The flame out at 300lbs is not due to an error in the gauge, but because the fuel tanks are constructed in such a way that at the end 300lbs unusable fuel stays trapped.

>(e.g 300 lbs of unusable fuel)

Yeah I said that right here. Gotta read my friend. As I said, the F-14 RIO claims that there is an error in the gauge. Dunno what the manuals say.

[IronMike]

>(e.g 300 lbs of unusable fuel)

Yeah I said that right here. Gotta read my friend. As I said, the F-14 RIO claims that there is an error in the gauge. Dunno what the manuals say.

 

Well, I think I read just fine, because despite writing that, the reason you stated is still wrong. We did not model an "error" of 300 lbs, it is quite exact in what it shows. The reason the fuel is unusable, is that the pumps do not get that remaining fuel out of the tanks, due to how the tanks are constructed. So in fact, whenever you read 600lbs, you have always 100% only 300lbs left.

 

If you can point that RIO in our direction, and he and our other SMEs would agree that it should have an error of 300lbs (personally I do not recall any of our SMEs mentioning that), we need to revisit the point and model it on top of the fact that at the end 300lbs will always stay trapped in the tanks.

Edited October 29, 2019 by IronMike