no bug External Tank Fuel Transfer

[Cydrych]

Probably a niche bug but to simulate long missions without flying the whole thing I'll fly with 3 external tanks and set the fuel % in the mission editor to 20%-25%. This will allow air start closer to target with a more realistic fuel load allowing me to skip ramp start and most of the ingress flying.

I also do this for AAR practice using 5% fuel load to start with mostly empty tanks to simulate being in the air on a long mission without having to fly around in AB to burn fuel off. It also gives more practice time on the tanker. ED why can't we get a empty tank option like the F14 and F15? Or external tank fuel % sliders?

Well, If fuel % is set to 13% (worst case) this gives a mission start fuel weight of 7886 lbs. When the external tanks feed to the main tank, the center tank drains first. When it is empty the 2 wing tanks start to drain. Problem is when the left/right 370 gal tanks reach about 500lbs on each side the left tank stops feeding while the right one will continue to drain until it is almost empty. This causes a 500lbs fuel imbalance until the engine burns it off. You'd never see this scenario in real life but I would think they should drain at equal rates until empty. 

It happens in all maps. Air start, ramp start, runway start. 13% fuel is the worst case and setting higher fuel % values just means the right tank won't drain as much. It does not happen if you start the mission with full fuel load and the jet burns it off normally which tells me this only happens when large fuel transfers occur.    

[Cydrych]

I did more testing and I don't think this is a bug. The F-16 A/L and F/R tank capacities are different. A/L tank will fill first and apparently doesn't crossfeed to F/R. When the A/L main tank is full ~2330lbs the left side of the jet's fuel system stops filling the A/L main tank while the right side fuel system keeps filling the F/R main tank to ~2770lbs (440lbs more) causing the right external tank and the right wing tank to keep feeding. This causes the fuel imbalance.  

Edited December 26, 2023 by Cydrych

[Yaga]

Interesting info! 

I wonder if this is why it always wants to roll left.