Retnek

Can confirm report by MeierZwo - started with all fuel-tanks filled up from St. Johns CYYT to Corvo LPCR. Fuel-tanks were emptied as expected again. Btw: Lady Moo is a bit thirsty - that flight was ca. 1050 nm. Mostly flow at 21.000 to 25.000 ft with an indicated fuel-consumption between 400 and 450 lbs / h. Winds more or less insignificant, pushed a bit in the beginning, headwind at the end. Straight flight from start to touch-down. Made it to Corvo with ca. 300 lbs in the main tank. That way I can't see how to get a range of 1400 nm plus reserve as given in the manual.

Tom, two further problems ahead, sorry. Please let me know if you prefer to handle such reports in an extra-posting per topic. 1) Selecting a 10-nm-away airborne approach results in partly switched-of systems like battery or radio. Switches are off and systems do not work, that's consistent. In contrast the engines are running - but RCS-switches are off, main fuel valves closed. Bringing them into the supposed correct positions it switches off the engines. Looks like the settings are correct, but these switches indicate wrong. Tested it with the 4- and 5-blade-OEM - same results. Starting on ground with engines off or on I couldn't find any problems. 2) The com-radio-frequency-dials no longer show the freq. automatically set by using the ATC-window. Communication with ATC (within the usual limits) isn't affected, but it's confusing to see the dials differ from those called out.

Cited just to understand the topic: a) Looking at the fuel-lines installed the only source of fuel for both engines is main tank #3. So I would expect the output of engine1tank# should be "3" all the time. Maybe it is coded in a way the engines first use a "virtual fuel line" from the tip-tanks, secondly the wing-tank and the main-tank finally. To avoid extra-code virtually pumping the fuel from the wing-tanks into the main tank. b) According to your handbook the capacity of the main fuel tank is 1040 lbs. The gauge is presenting lbs and 1040 was maximum until 12.07. My pictures show values around and well above 1100 lbs. Flying a bit longer the needle is moving above the zero-value to the left. So that tank is overloaded by the recent code for sure. No critics intend here, your first-class module just ran into trouble with the 12.08-beta-update. There's an easy work-around by re-arranging the level of fuel via the "flight" and "edit weight & balance"-options every hour or so. Disabling the "auto"-option in the Mu-2's fuel-pump-section will stop the transfer from wing tanks into the main tank. As long as the wing-tanks have fuel the engines do fine.

Tom, tanks for checking this. It needed two Mu-2 wrecked in bad weather somewhere South of Gander. Until then the Mu-2 was my bug-free reference-plane - if something went wrong, it was my fault. Later I stumbled over the part in Austins video where he proudly presents his code simulating jet fuel-tanks used as oil-coolers. Hmm ... maybe he changed that part of the code a bit too much?

Installing 12.08b1 I see some strange interaction between the fuel-tanks and the engines,too. After some try-and-error I re-installed the Mu-2-module and tested with the 4- and 5-blade-OEM-version. Lua-scripts or alternative acf-files to manage fuel and passengers were not installed / used. I started with 100% in main-tank #3, empty wing-tanks #2 and #4 and 100% in tip-tanks #1 and #5. What's strange: a) the engines get the fuel from the tip-tanks #1 and #5, later the right-hand engine switches to tank #4. The correct and only option should be the main tank #3. b) the "auto"-option for the fuel-transfer immediately starts to balance the level of fuel between tanks #1 and #2 and #5 and #4, resp. That's strange, too, since there should be no way to transfer fuel that way. From all wing-tanks it's just one-way into tank #3. Tank #3 get some fuel from the wing-tanks, too. Sadly on top of the already 100% in the tank. This pic was made during early climb. tanks #1 and #5 are balancing with their #2 and #4. Main tank #3 get's fuel from the wing-tanks, too, beyond it's capacity already. Engines get fuel from their tip-tanks. Some minutes later #1 / #2 and #4 /#5 are balanced. tank #3 is completely overloaded and engine 2 switched from tip-tank to the wing-tank #4. As soon as the (auto-balanced) pairs of wing-tanks are empty, the engines shut down. Main-tank isn't used and remains overloaded. One can cheat and "re-fuel" the tip-tanks in flight. Given the real-world manual it's possible to start the engines in flight. I wasn't able to re-start before my altitude was gone. It's quite a few steps, with some proper training it should be possible. It would be kind if my findings could be checked and confirmed by others? Thanks in advance, Ulrich