ZFW / Fuel Question

[rjsagel 0]

Hello,Where does the info in the FS9 menu item for the A/C fuel/Wt come from? If I use an "addon configuration" program to load fuel and passengers/luggage/freight and save this data via that Loadout - it does not show in the FS9 menu selection.As an example - I use the PSS 319 or the 330 Loadout program. I save the data and start the FS9. I load the A/C and the data I see in the menu selection of FS9 fuel/wt is not what I loaded. I always use the LOADOUT info but am now not sure what the actual FS9 data is at that time. In the Airbus case, this would affect the FMS programming by a large deviation.Thanks in advance for any help here,Ron SagelNEAR KCHS

[Paul Golding 92]

As far as I know, the only load managers that actually affect the fuel is FS are the one with the PMDG 747 and (I think so anyway) the Dreamfleet DreamManager.All previous ones, like the one CS used with their 727, have a graphical display for fuel load that in reality does absolutley nothing in FS..........a little trick shall we say ;-)So what you're seeing the percentage of fuel from your FS load up flight being displayed in whatever aircraft you load next i.e if FS starts with a Cessna with 50% fuel and you switch to a 737, that will have 50% in tanks 1 and 3 and 100% in no 2.

[rjsagel 0]

Thank you for the info. I guess I have to use the Flight Planning tools to get the weights and then go to FS9 to enter the data into the aircraft after I load it.Thanks again,Ron Sagel

[greeneg 0]

Actually, RFP does have a fuel loader built into the Flight Engineers Fuel Panel which does modify the actual fuel load and the Aircraft's Gross Weight.In order to change the fuel load in RFP, you have to use this loader and not the FS9 fuel load menu; using the FS9 menu generally results in a CTD with Ready for Pushback.Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/DEV.jpg

[Guest vrandar]

For the PSS A319 use the loadeditor for the A320 family (not the A330 one)and make sure you are using the correct aircraft from the aircraft menu. When you change your load settings and save you should get a "aircraft.cfg saved" message. Then start the sim; in the Fuel and Payload menu option you should find that adding together the empty weight plus payload will give you the ZFW you had in the loadeditor.By the way, this will not work if you are using the PSS/iFDG merged Airbuses.For fuel, use the A320 family fuel program to calculate the fuel you will require but then add this manually into the Fuel and Payload menu item in the sim.Rob Elliott, EGPE InvernessPSS Airbus Support andAirbus Fleet Training Captain, British Airways Virtual airbus@speedbirdonline.co.ukhttp://www.speedbirdonline.co.uk/airbus.htmlhttp://www.bavirtual.co.uk

[Guest garwig]

>Where does the info in the FS9 menu item for the A/C fuel/Wt>come from?MS set up the default aircraft so that the weight of the empty aircraft is set in the aircraft.cfg file. Then, there are stations set up at specific spots on the aircraft where you can add the load (such as fuel, passengers, baggage, etc.). Whith this method the fuel/wt menus are accurate.BUT, many add-ons are set up so the weight of the plane includes the passengers, or they adjust other things to improve the flight dynamics which then changes the way the FS fuel & wt. menus interpret the info. So, if it comes with its own loadout program its better to just use that program and just ignore the FS menus.-Gary Letona

[Guest Robin MacLaurin]

After reading all the post's on this topic, I'm more confused than before. How does one tell if the 3rd party aircraft you have downloaded has a fuel/pax loading included with it? If it does have one should you plug in the figures into the FS9 fuel and passenger place? I asked something like this question in another post regarding short haul flights using mainly iFDG's A320/21's and aerodesigns A318/19's and Rob Elliot was going to send me an Exel spreadsheet with the fuel & pax loads for said flights. Guess Rob didn't get my e-mail address cause I never got the info. Robin

[Guest Calb]

Maybe this will help"Where does the info in the FS9 menu item for the A/C fuel/Wt come from?"From it's Aircraft.cfg file.When an FS aircraft is loaded, it reads the Aircraft.cfg file for, among many other things, the fuel tank configuration and default maximum contents of each. It always defaults the tanks to 100%. The quantity is specified in US Gal. In the FS Menu, it can be display in either Gal or weight. If you choose to display weight, the US Gal amount (specified in the Aircraft.cfg table) is multiplied by 6.7 (lb/US Gal). Take a look at the default B747 Menu for fuel/wt. There are 8 tanks. Now, go into the B747 folder and open the Aircraft.cfg file with NotePad. Scroll down until use see the heading, "fuel". You will see each tank named followed by some numbers separated by comas. At the end of the line there is a comment that identifies the meaning of each number. You can see there is one line for each tank you saw in the Menu for fuel/wt.This fuel table is created by the designer. Since I refuse to purchase payware stuff, I cannot comment on the accuracy of their addons or any of these so-called loadout programs.-------------------"If I use an "addon configuration" program to load fuel and passengers/luggage/freight and save this data via that Loadout - it does not show in the FS9 menu selection."I have no idea why - I use the FS Menu fuel/wt screen to adjust fuel and load.From the above, I hope you can see that even if you "save" fuel and load with an addon utility (as you've described above), FS9 is going to set the fuel and load according to what is in the Aircraft.cfg file when it loads. It has no way of knowing any different. If there's a work around, I don't know what it is.Unless there's a very clear cut reason to use a so-called loadout utility, the simplest way is to use the Menu/Aircraft/Fuel selection and make your entries there. At least they work.Cal (CYXX)if it ain't freeware, I won't be flying it

[Paul Golding 92]

Sorry Cal, but that just isn't the way it works.The aircraft.cfg file contains no information on the amount of fuel in the tanks, only their position and capacity.FS loads aircraft with same percentage of fuel in each tank as the previous aircraft had or whatever your default start up aircraft has...........this was explained above.I could of course be wrong ;-) With FS closed, open your 747 cfg file and edit the fuel quantity to a minimal amount, save it and open FS with say the default Cessna, open the FS fuel menu and set fuel to 100%. Now switch to the 747 and tell me it has the minimal fuel you set in the cfg file or 100%.

[Guest vrandar]

Sorry Robin, as soon as the ICC server is back up and I get access to my BAV emails you will get the spreadsheet.Rob Elliott, EGPE InvernessPSS Airbus Support andAirbus Fleet Training Captain, British Airways Virtual airbus@speedbirdonline.co.ukhttp://www.speedbirdonline.co.uk/airbus.htmlhttp://www.bavirtual.co.uk

[Guest vrandar]

Robin, spreadsheet sent.Rob Elliott, EGPE InvernessPSS Airbus Support andAirbus Fleet Training Captain, British Airways Virtual airbus@speedbirdonline.co.ukhttp://www.speedbirdonline.co.uk/airbus.htmlhttp://www.bavirtual.co.uk