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DHC-2 Beaver...Fuel system help needed

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
I have been working on John Woodwards DHC-2 Beaver....new skin template reflecting the plane's metal construction, totally repainted interior with a really treatment of the panel. Have made a new prop blur thingie...not great but better than the one that came with it. Added exhaust effects and adjusted lighting.

I noticed that when I fired the plane up in Spot view to check the prop or exhuast effects, then switched to VC to fly the plane...the plane would shut down. I am pretty sure the problem is the fuel tank selector...when this happens the selector is always in the OFF position. So, I need to place a different tank selector on the panel....but before I do that I want to get the tank locations and sizes dialed in. In stock form, there were 3 tanks....Left Main was 26 gallons, Center was 35 gallons and Right Main was 35 gallons. All three tanks were positioned at 0, 0, 0....which is probably why it takes a BUNCH of down trim to get this plane to fly level.

Currently, I have Left and Right mains at 35 gallons and positioned up in the wing roots. Center tank is 26 gallons and positioned in the fuselage floor behind the pilot and co-pilot seats.

I have seen fuel capacities ranging from 95 gallons to 135 gallons on the sites I looked at trying to find the location and sizes of the fuel tanks. Also found that the Beaver had wing tip tanks as well.

Anyone know where the tanks were located on the DHC-2, how large they were and have a recommendation for a good readily available freeware tank selector to handle the fuel system on the Beaver.

OBIO
 
I have the fuel locations as follows:

Left Main, in the wing root, 35 gallons

Right Main, in the wing root, 35 gallons

Center, in the fuselage floor under the pilot and co-pilot seat, 25 gallons

This is the minimal fuel capacity of the DHC-2 Beaver. With the fuel relocated forward of the COG, the plane has better ground performance during take off. Before, the tail would not lift during the take off run. The plane would stay in a 3-wheel stance until it simply lifted at an angle once enough speed and lift was obtained. Now, the tail will lift like it is supposed to do.

I also added payload positions for pilot, co-pilot and four cargo locations. With a full load of fuel, 180 pound pilot and co-pilot, there is roughly 1000 pounds left for cargo...more like 1128...but I like working with easy to use numbers.

The plane's flight characteristics are also much improved. It no longer goes severe nose up in flight and no longer take a ton of down trim to get it to fly level. Once air borne and at your desired altitude, pull the throttle back to 30 pounds manifold pressure, give it a couple clicks of trim and you are set for a nice level smooth flight.

Now I just need to find a good fuel selector. The one I have in place now shows left and right mains as having 100 gallons of fuel and center at 30, even though the config file and the payload screen thingie show them at 35 for mains and 25 for center. And for some reason, the fuel is being drawn from the mains instead of center even though I had the center tank selected. Wait, I think I may have the sim set for auto-fuel management.

OBIO
 
I need some clarification on a small topic....how many tank selectors should be set for a plane with 3 fuel tanks? I am looking to use a tank selector with Right, Left, Center and Off (Off would be superb, but if all I can find is Right, Left and Center I can live with that.). Using ACM, there is a box to the right with Number of Selectors, and options for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. So, what should I set this too?

OBIO
 
Beaver's fuel tanks are in the lower fuselage under the floor... Not the wings. They should be front, center and rear.

Pull up one of the fs 2000 Beavers made by Yannic Lavine and use the fuel selector from that one. Should get you set.


Brian
 
Thanks for the info Brian. Will go back in and readjust the locations. Hopefully, having the tanks is the correct locations will not spoil how well the plane flies now....shifting the fuel forward of the COG really improved the plane's take off and flight behaviors. I will save a copy of my current config just in case the correct fuel locations play havoc on the plane's handling. It used to be seriously tail heavy and took tons of down trim to fly level...now it is very well balanced and trims out so easily.

OBIO
 
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