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Home Fuel -- Master Caution Warning


FourSpeed

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I don't know if that is how it behaves in the "real" bird, but can we please get an option for disabling that particular warning?

 

It used to be that we could circumvent it with the (admitted kludge) technique of setting home waypoint to 59 in the FPAS page, but the recent patch seems to have changed that with the addition of the ACLS features.

Personally, I find it be be a very, very, irritating and largely unnecessary condition for the following reasons.

Reason #1:  It's annoying, and distracting from the task at hand. That is *especially* true during an instrument approach in WX minimums, or during a dogfight / furball, or during AAR, where throttle changes are frequent. At those times, the last thing I'd want to hear is a Master Caution alarm,  (and since it IS a Master Caution, it shouldn't be summarily ignored) notifying me (supposedly) of a  *serious* problem ... which, Home Fuel, quite frankly, isn't (see Reason #2 below))

Reason #2:  The vast majority of the time, the  caution is incorrect (or at very least, unnecessary) and therefore wrong (imho). It occurs when a high throttle setting is used (like AB), and the computer decides you don't have enough gas to reach the home WP,  at that throttle setting  (emphasis added).  So, at times of low fuel (ie during AAR, or RTB approach), it triggers all the time, or in AB during dogfights. The rub, of course, is that we don't *stay* at that throttle setting (typically) for very long, so the alarm doesn't actually give any *helpful* information, as in fact, there is most likely plenty of fuel still available for the task at hand.

Reason #3:  We already have useful, and better tools (imho) to help us keep track of fuel. The simplest, and arguably best, is simply setting a proper Bingo / Joker setting for the mission phase we're in, and acting accordingly, when that alarm goes off (Just Once). The FPAS page, by itself, is also very good at showing both endurance and range in real time. Finally, if those two aren't sufficient, GroundSpeed, Fuel Amount, Fuel Flow, and some grade school math can also provide the necessary information.

 

In summary, the Home Fuel Master Caution is annoying, repetitive, usually wrong, and goes off all the time during key phases of flight where it is, at very least, annoying, and at worst, detrimental to the critical task being flown when it triggers (over and over again).

If it has to show up, at least, just have it show up (quietly) on the left DDI as an advisory item rather than a Mater Caution alarm.

 

Thanks for your time,

Regards,

4 S!


Edited by FourSpeed
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This logic is a little curious right now, and I agree it's annoying. The question is, is it correct to the real aircraft? 

NATOPS says the caution should not be activated when the refueling probe is extended. It also says it is "reset" when a number of things happen, so I wonder if the caution should not be triggered repeatedly without being manually reset. That's not clear though. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/14/2022 at 2:40 PM, Tholozor said:

Waypoint 59 now automatically populates with the Bullseye, try waypoint 58.

Thanks Tholozor,

That helps (I use 55 now, as a nice round number  😉) so, once again the problem is mitigated, at least for now, albeit in kludgy fashion once again.

Interesting that nobody has chimed in on how it works in the real bird (unless they use the same kludge we do 🤣), but at least that kludge keeps me from pulling my hair out...

 

@Bunny Clark, 

As I think about it now, I'm not 100% sure I recall getting it during AAR, so you might be right about that, although I'm 100% certain it pops up (incessantly) during BFM or during IFR / Cat 3 approaches (Late mission RTB / Low-ish Fuel situations)

 

In any case, thanks for your responses and assistance, and hopefully, the RL Hornet drivers have a better option than us Sim Plebes do...    😉😁

 

Cheers,

4 ~S!~

 

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