Loss of engine power - again.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

I'm getting a bit fed up losing engine power during my flights with Concorde. I'm cruising at FL590 for a couple of hours and all of a sudden all four engines will suffer a power drop down to about 65% N1.The VFE has been engaged since the start of the flight and no abnormalities have been reported so why does this happen? I see there have been several reports of this problem but I don't see a definitive response saying why.For the record all tanks were filled to max and the VFE had all the fuel nicely balanced. Then out of the blue 2 hours into the flight comes the loss of power. It's very frustrating.Norman, if you still regularly fly Concorde does it ever happen to you and if so is there a workaround? It's very annoying having to terminate a flight without any idea as to what's gone wrong.Cheers,

[Guest NormanB]

Ray,The VFE whilst very good at his job sometimes, usually about 2/3 across the pond, gets distracted and forgets to move fuel around; the net result is starvation.I know I click a few crossfeed valves when Eastbound after 30W and there is never a problem.Im currently just back home after a hectic day and dont have time to install and run the Concorde into my new FS9 installation (it wont work properly in FSX yet) tonight. Hopefully I get chance tomorrow night to confirm which valves I change.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Norman,Thank you for confirming there is a issue with the VFE. I would like to complete my pond hop as soon as possible. Your offer to advise which crossfeed valves need opening is greatly appreciated.I'm still waiting for my gratis copy of FSX (courtesy of AvSim) and even when I install it I anticipate I will still fly the majority of the time with FS9 until I build a faster computer sometime next year when DX10 is out.Thanks,

[Gregone 0]

Hi Ray,Norman was spot on about it being a bug in the VFEI had suspected this myself I had the same problem about 3/4 of the way across the Atlantic I would lose about three engines. Anyway with a bit of trial and error I found that the fueltransfer was the problem. If you refer to page 11 of the Tutorial Flight LFPG to KJFK.Follow the steps on that page till you have section 2 opened upThat will bring up the Fuel Management page. Now down the bottomof the panel you will see four black knobs these are called Fuel Rotary knobs set these to open sit back and enjoy your flight!I will watch with interest to see what Norman has to say.Anyway Ray I hope this will be a help to you. Cheers Greg Bisset YSSY

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Greg,Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I've now opened the crossfeed valves using the four black knobs you described. Tanks 5,6,7 and 8 are now showing as empty with 24 Tonnes of fuel remaining. I have 3.2 tonnes in tanks 1-4 and 9.8 tonnes in tank 11 and 1.8 tonnes in 9 and 10.CoG is nicely balanced and I have passed the point where I had a problem yesterday. Hopefully this discussion will help others who've relied on the VFE throughout the flight.I hope you get your ILS problem sorted :-)Thanks!