I want to find out if anybody knows the answer to this. If I am loading fuel for a flight that will not require a full load of fuel which tanks do I load up first the center or the wings?Thanks Andrew

From page 69 of the excellent 767 PIC Panel & Operations Manual:"A standard distribution for the 767 is to fill the main wing tanks first. If more than 80,000 lbs. of fuel are required then the center tank is used after the wing tanks are full."

Go Stiffy!!!You da man!

As they say in another forum I frequent, "Don't let me have to cut and paste on ya." :D It's ticking me off that I can't upload any graphics.

Its one thing to parrot the manual....its another thing to know "why"....I have been told by highly placed reliable sources who would fail you on the spot during an oral that the wings are filled first and burned last to keep weight in the wings and reduce the flex....or so I have been told.Timothy

Seems to me then that your quibble is with the manual. *shrug*Is this a more complete quote for your exacting tastes?"A standard distribution for a 767 is to fill the main wing tanks first. If more than 80,000 lbs. of fuel are required then the center tank is used after the wing tanks are full.Standard burn techniques require that you use all the center tank fuel first before using the wing tanks. When dispatched with center tank fuel, you should turn on ALL fuel pumps in all tanks prior to engine start. As you progress, and the center tank empties. Turn off the center tank pumps when fuel is exhausted from that tank. This operating technique ensures that you will not have weight and balance problems during the flight."

Your spot on there.You must keep as much fuel in the wings as possible, or they would flex too much during flight, and potentially snap. This is the same reason why the aircraft has a maximum zero fuel weight, that is a maximum weight the fuselage can be without any fuel in the wings.The 767 performance manual states that you can acutally load up to 10,000kg of fuel into the centre without the wings tanks being full, but the weight of fuel in the centre tank must be considered in the max ZFW (in the same way cargo or pax would be).

At Fedex, when I worked in Memphis. Our KMEM-KPHL flight which was a A-310, has 5 tanks. But its still the same logic with the 767/757. We fill the outer wing tanks first, then the Inner wings, and if they still needed more fuel, they went to the Center. But the interesting thing is, after the TWA800 crash of the 747-400, I heard we started keeping alittle fuel in the center tank. The tank is actually less likely to explode if its gotta alittle fuel inside instead of fumes. They still use most of the center tank in flight, just not all of it. Our A-310's always block in with alittle fuel in the center tank. Unless that few hundred pounds is unusable fuel. Anyone else know?