Two Engines Out Mid-Flight |
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Flying Kiwi
Check-In Staff Joined: 13 Mar 2017 Location: Wellington, NZ Points: 21 |
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Posted: 30 Sep 2017 at 6:59am |
I am flying a DC-8-55F (with Air Canada Livery) from Christchurch to Singapore as part of an Air Hauler 2 ferry mission. Somewhere over the middle of Australia, two of my engines have died suddenly. I've put the remaining two engines on full power, but I'm bleeding airspeed and not far from a stall. I have tried starting the two failed engines with Ctrl + E, but it does not appear to be working. (Of course, I have paused the flight to compose this message.)
Checking the fuel, I have observed that Center Tank 2 and External Tank 1 are out, while Center and External Tank 2 are nearly out. Meanwhile, Left Tip, Right Tip, Left Auxiliary, Right Auxiliary and Center 3 are all full. I loaded up the aircraft with the engines on and in a "ready to taxi" state. So I naïvely assumed that the fuel would be correctly configured. (I'm using the latest service pack, which has certainly helped with autopilot operation!) I guess it wasn't. But even after studying the manual, I really have no idea what to do right now. :( TIA for your help. |
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Martyn
Just Flight Staff Development Manager Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Location: Huntingdon, UK Points: 7615 |
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Can you submit a support ticket via the website and send a screenshot showing the fuel panel in the virtual cockpit and the fuel/payload menu?
Thanks Martyn |
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Martyn
Just Flight Ltd |
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Flying Kiwi
Check-In Staff Joined: 13 Mar 2017 Location: Wellington, NZ Points: 21 |
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So I worked out that I needed to switch the engines to the alternate tanks before restarting them. So then I was back to four engines. However, the other two engines then shut down. So I switched them to the alternate tanks and restarted them. Once again, back to four engines. But then all four engines shut down despite Center Tank 3 being full. No matter what I did, I couldn't access this tank to restart the engines. So my plane naturally started plunging towards disaster, and at that point, utterly fed up and frustrated with this fuel management madness, I exited P3D. I'm not ruling out flying the DC-8 in future, but this is certainly the last time I'll attempt a long-haul flight in it. All this engine shut-down malarkey is just ridiculous!
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Martyn
Just Flight Staff Development Manager Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Location: Huntingdon, UK Points: 7615 |
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Hi Rowan,
See my post above. If you can submit a support ticket then our support team can investigate and address the issue. Thanks Martyn
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Martyn
Just Flight Ltd |
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Flying Kiwi
Check-In Staff Joined: 13 Mar 2017 Location: Wellington, NZ Points: 21 |
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I think I submitted my second post at almost exactly the same time you submitted your reply to my original post! I have now submitted a support ticket.
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Mustang1977
Check-In Staff Joined: 08 Mar 2014 Location: Austria Points: 17 |
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Yo,
I've already discovered this error. See my last post here: http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=28478&title=fuel-crossfeed If you want I can give you my "optimized" Fuelconfig from the aircraft.cfg. With this it is possible to make a "balanced flight" (without the Center3 Tank). |
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Flying Kiwi
Check-In Staff Joined: 13 Mar 2017 Location: Wellington, NZ Points: 21 |
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Yes, I think your final post in that other thread nails my problem. This inability to get fuel from Center Tank 3 is still a major bug in Service Pack 2, obviously, even though some other fuel issues have been fixed.
Does your fuelconfig work for the 55? I suppose the fuel management is much the same for all the variants. Couple of suggestions for Just Flight: firstly, a new service pack is needed to address the Center Tank 3 bug, because right now, it is clearly not possible to access the fuel in that tank, which rather shortens the aircraft's range and makes for a very frustrating premature end to long-haul flights. The issue of engines shutting down when the main tanks run dry should also be addressed. Secondly, maybe the manual should be updated a little more to make it very clear what settings the fuel levers should be on at the start of a flight and what if any changes need to be made during the flight. Better still, make those fuel settings the default when the aircraft is loaded in a "ready to taxi" state. |
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Mustang1977
Check-In Staff Joined: 08 Mar 2014 Location: Austria Points: 17 |
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Hey hello,
Puh, yes I think so. The key solution is, that you allocate the fuel that is in the Center3 to the remaining tanks. For my DC-8-32 I worked out this: [fuel] //Longitudinal (feet), Lateral (feet), Vertical (feet), Usable(gallons), Unusable (gallons) //DC-8-32 150,017 lbs, 22,058 gals @ 6.8 #/Gal Center1=7, 0, 0, 3474, 0 ;No.1 Main Center2=7, 0, 0, 3474, 0 ;No.2 Main Center3=5, 0, 0, 1, 0 ;Center Wing Aux External1=7, 0, 0, 3474, 0 ;No.3 Main External2=7, 0, 0, 3474, 0 ;No.4 Main LeftTip=5, -24, 0, 2040, 0 ;No.1 Alt LeftAux=5, -20, 0, 2040, 0 :No.2 Alt RightAux=5, 20, 0, 2040, 0 ;No.3 Alt RightTip=5, 24, 0, 2040, 0 ;No.4 Alt As you can see in the - de facto unusable - Center3 is no fuel any more. With this config you only have to care between the MAIN and ALT-Tanks to respective engines. So a "balanced flight" is no problem any more. |
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