When I set 50% of fuel (in FMB) on a plane that carries droppable fuel tank. How is it handle by the game ?
- Does it reduce the load of each tank (internal and external) to 50% ?
- Does it reduce the overall quantity of fuel to 50% beginning with the droppable fuel tanks (so it is almost empty and the internal are full) ?


I'm sure the question was answered several times, but I could not find it in the forum. Sorry for that.

The tanks should be independant of the 'fuel' state selected. The tanks should be full as far as I know

It's two seperate things- you can have 50% fuel with no drop tanks, or drop tanks with full fuel, etc. The drop tanks should be outside of the % of fuel you choose or at least that's my experience

Try setting fuel to 0% and adding drop tanks. If you can still fly around, then you have your answer

lol imagine a green(beginner) pilot with drop tanks flying very long to target but isnt noticing fuel level.
just before he reaches target his internal tank is empty but he dosnt notice. when some enemy fighters show up. hes flight leader says. DROP TANKS(for better performance) but as soon as he does that hes engine wents out.

if he forget to take the external fuel first

quote:

lol imagine a green(beginner) pilot with drop tanks flying very long to target but isnt noticing fuel level.
just before he reaches target his internal tank is empty but he dosnt notice. when some enemy fighters show up. hes flight leader says. DROP TANKS(for better performance) but as soon as he does that hes engine wents out.

Impossible. In IL-2, fuel is consumed from the drop tanks FIRST, just as in real life.

Aviar

In real life, the pilot had to select which tank to provide the fuel for the engine, drop tanks were used first. In IL2, drop tanks always start completely filled and the game engine uses the drop tank fuel first. Fuel gauges in real life and in IL2 only show internal fuel, not drop tank quantity.

My squadron routinely flies with 50 to 75% internal fuel load plus drop tanks. The reasoning is that we have plenty of gas to get us to the engagement/target area, then drop the tanks and with less than full internal fuel we can maneuver better during a dogfight, but we still have enough fuel to get us home... usually.

Chuck,

In other words, the fuel setting in the game only affect the "internal" fuel capacity..

So if I set to 25%, the load out will be
25% on internal
100% on drop tanks.

correct ?

Setting fuel state does not influence drop tanks. They are always full

quote:

Originally posted by general_kalle:
lol imagine a green(beginner) pilot with drop tanks flying very long to target but isnt noticing fuel level.
just before he reaches target his internal tank is empty but he dosnt notice. when some enemy fighters show up. hes flight leader says. DROP TANKS(for better performance) but as soon as he does that hes engine wents out.

if he forget to take the external fuel first<div class="ev_tpc_signature"><br/><br/>what have you got to lose?
You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!) -life of Brian

[DJP] Could happen in a game of course. Here's what happened to my cousin Lyall in real life. He was flying in England in August 1943. He was still under training. At 1500 ft, his engine cut out. He panicked, and tried to bail out. Tragically, his parachute fouled the prop, and the plane dragged him down with it. He was flying a Miles Magister I think.

cheers

David Prosser

quote:

Originally posted by stansdds:
In real life, the pilot had to select which tank to provide the fuel for the engine, drop tanks were used first.

Yes, I've read many stories of pilots that in the heat of the moment dropped tanks and forgot to switch to internal fuel. A few seconds later, jst as they are getting ready to engage....<sputter>.

That happened a lot with gun safeties/arming switches, too.

Something tells me both of these items will be modeled in SoW.

Forgetting to switch between internal tanks (e.g. from wing to wing) was also a huge danger.

I remember reading an article (I think by Corky Meyer) that it was the greatest cause of non-combat deaths for USN pilots in WWII. It may even have been the greatest cause of ALL deaths, though I haven't got the article anymore, so unfortunately can't check.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil_K:
Forgetting to switch between internal tanks (e.g. from wing to wing) was also a huge danger.

For all the bad things you can say about CFS2, it modelled this reasonably well if you had all the difficulty settings on. I remember getting shot up on a long mission (which means no time compression/jump to next action) and having to micro manage fuel balance all the way home because aileron trim wouldn't work, the ailerons were so badly shot up they gave no fine control and it was that or get captured. IIRC I was switching between wing tanks every two minutes for nearly two hours.

quote:

Originally posted by Aviar:
Impossible. In IL-2, fuel is consumed from the drop tanks FIRST, just as in real life.

I think I remember Oleg saying that the fuel management draws from all tanks equally regardless of internal or drop. I may be wrong but I seem to remember that from a long time ago...

Ah, fuel management. Something I really miss from CFS2. Oh well, maybe SoW will have it?