Hello! 

I've discovered a small issue with the fuel transfer system. 

I've been able to reproduce this problem in flight and on the ground idling. 

I have the fuel system set up as shown in the manual, (Port 1+2, 1+2, Starboard 3+4, 3+4, hydro set to off and wing refuel set to port)

if I wish to transfer fuel from the Hydrostab tanks to the wings, I assume I must select a hydrostab tank from the distributor and turn on a transfer pump (or both pumps?)

However when I do this, the wing tank corresponding to the Hydrostabilizer tank (EDIT: It corresponds to the Wing Refuel selected) immediately goes to zero gallons and within a few seconds the engines on that side starve out and die. 
(Hopefully) I've included a picture of the back wall and the tanks gauges. The only thing missing is the fuel transfer pump #1 being flipped on. 


The manual is a little foggy on the procedure to transfer fuel and the flight engineers checklist doesn't shed much light on it either.
Did I perform the procedure incorrectly? Not that I think I did, as 600 gallons of fuel doesn't normally disappear instantly! 
(EDIT: I'm also a birdbrain for not including this is in P3D 4.5 with HF3) 

Edited November 9, 20205 yr by SH427
birdbrain makes mistakes, birdbrain doesn't like making mistakes

I'll check. Please note that the manuals reflect the real life manuals, so yes, they can (and will) be 'a little foggy' in places.

7 hours ago, dragonflightdesign said:

I'll check. Please note that the manuals reflect the real life manuals, so yes, they can (and will) be 'a little foggy' in places.

Thanks for checking! 

Understandable that the engines had to be flown "by feel" but, I'm not sure of the procedure to set up a proper fuel transfer, which I was hoping the manual would cover in more detail! 
As far as I can tell, It should be something like I was doing, which was,
-Select which wing tank to refuel (usually set to port) 
-then, select which hydrostabilizer tank from the distribution wheel you want to pull fuel from,
-then, turn on one (or both?) of the transfer pumps, which should then start pulling from the hydrostabilizer tank and feeding to the selected wing tank
-cycle wing tanks and hydro tanks roughly every half hour depending on fuel burn and first pilot's wishes

(EDIT: I also was able to hand pump the fuel from the hydro tanks using the method I described, once the wing tank had the fuel disintegrate I could see it getting filled via the hand pump at roughly 1 gallon/second, so I know that works at least)
(Another edit: Selecting a hydro tank and hand pumping will also cause the fuel gauge to jump to zero)

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by SH427
missed detail re: hand pump

Bug - fixed 😀

Saw this thread only AFTER I had started a new topic about fuel management, sorry...

However, it seems that Dai fixed only the part where a gauge goes to ZERO it seems, as in my case the two main tanks get filled to 100%, but there is no change/loss in the hydrostabilizer tanks at all. I set them to 25% and the wing tanks to 20%... after activating the electric pumps, the wing tanks were at 100% and the others still at 25% like at the start of this whole action.

I would really appreciate a more detailed explanation on how the fuel transfer should be done correctly and hope that someone here will be able to help with that.

THANK YOU in advance!

Looking into this. I've hidden your duplicate question, Juergen.

 

Edited January 5, 20215 yr by dragonflightdesign

Thank you Dai, and again: best wishes for you and your family for 2021 !

To say it the old Celtic way....
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

One of the ensuing problems is that my ACARS client sees this as cheating, because the total sum of fuel increases with that transfer.... 😞

 

Edited January 5, 20215 yr by Scorpio47
font sizes adjusted

Juergen: I can't reproduce your problem. The fuel system seems to be pumping (and dumping) correctly, so I'd be grateful for a step-by-step setup decsription please.

Hello Dai. thank you for coming back to this problem....

In whatever configuration I use the electric fuel pumps, they fill the wing tanks but do not take a drop out of any other tank.

This leads to a situation where ACARS thinks I am cheating and just adding fuel (which is the factual result of this operation.

So all that should happen is that an amount equal to the amount pumped is not only added to the main tanks but also SUBTRACTED from the "source" tanks.
I hope this helps, if not I can go into more detail if needed.

Thank you for your help Dai and have a great weekend,
Cheers Juergen

Can you give me a screenshot of the fuel valves please? You may have found a setup that I've not accounted for.

Hello Dai, here are some screenies to illustrate what I did and what I am talking about:

Fuel levels BEFORE take off
https://abload.de/image.php?img=beforestart32kk4.jpg

And the switches at that same moment (as recommended in the manual and set in the scenarios)
https://abload.de/image.php?img=beforepumping_29zkk5.jpg

The I reset the fuel back to the initial levels:
https://abload.de/image.php?img=beforestart_1pqkwe.jpg

used both pumps in this configuration:
https://abload.de/image.php?img=pumping_1e3k7a.jpg

with this outcome:
https://abload.de/image.php?img=afterpumping_1icj6w.jpg

and then after resetting again I tested this configuration:
https://abload.de/image.php?img=pumping_2tpjom.jpg

and received this result:
https://abload.de/image.php?img=afterpumping_2udk9e.jpg
(strangely enough here some fuel disappeared from the right tip... source set to starboard INBoard but I guess the right tip is OUTboard.....)

I did not try ALL possible settings and there might be one I missed and that works as it should, but basically it comes down to the pumps FILLING the tanks  without taking a drop out of the hydrostatic tanks...

I hope this makes it clearer for you and enables you to find a solution, preferably with a slower pump rate (now the tanks are at 100% in an instant) and in particular with lowering the levels in those tanks the fuel is taken from so that the overall amount of fuel stays correct and the plane is not overflowing with fuel.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Have a good start into the new week and take care,
Cheers Juergen

P.S.
If you can give some more details on the correct procedure to use, that would be very useful, too... like one or both pumps to use and generally how to proceed (all I found so far is from the original manual sold on the internet, but it is pretty foggy also....)




 

Edited January 10, 20215 yr by Scorpio47

Hello Juergen

Did you change the fuel selectors WITHOUT turning the pumps off? That will break the fuel pumps but doesn't account for everything you are seeing.

I agree that there is a nasty with the port wing tank that does cause to it snap to full when fed from the port inboard hydrostab tank.

Edited January 14, 20215 yr by dragonflightdesign

Okay, got it. Some setups have the port wing tank (center) as both from tank and to tank. Doh!

Copy/paste error

All fine, but the REAL problem is that NOTHING is taken out of the lower tanks. Their fuel levels stay constant while the wing tanks get filled. 

That is CHEATING 😉

The "giving" tanks should loose the same amount of fuel that is added to the receiving tanks...

Thank you for your continued support,

Cheers Juergen

 

P.S.
Did you update the downloadable files on the site to take care of that copy/past thingy?

Edited January 15, 20215 yr by Scorpio47