Diamond DV20 excesive fuel consumption

Bug Reporting Hub Aircraft & Systems
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1

I think the fuel consumption is wrong. According to the manual, when cruise at 55% of power, it should get about 12-16 fuel flow. If I set on GNS430 to show fuel flow, it always shows 28, and I think that is correct, that it always is consuming 28.
I set the economical cruise at 55% and I can barely travel 300 and some NM, while it should reach much longer.

Manual (cruise performance at PDF page 69):
http://support.diamond-air.at/fileadmin/uploads/files/after_sales_support/DV20_Katana/Airplane_Flight_Manual/Basic_Manual/40102-r3-DV20-AFM.pdf

2

Have you checked if the units are identical?

3

According to distance should be. The aircraft is specified for 600 and some NM, and I can travel barely half.
Comparing with other aircrafts, to take into account the wind and others (real case), with the Robin DR400/100 Cadet, it is specified for 550NM, and I can travel about 460-480 in the real case.
The difference from specified 630NM to 300 and some for real case seems too much in any case.

Also the other option are gallons, in which case would be not possible to have a fuel flow 28. According to manual, the full max fuel flow are about 25 l/h, that is much closer to that 28 shown than the corresponding 6.6 gal/h.

And it always shows 28, no matter if climbing at full power or cruising at 55% power.

4

28 l/h looks right for 100% power at sea level; sounds like it’s just super buggy and incomplete and it’s not simulating fuel flow correctly. :frowning:

(I’ve also seen fuel going down faster than I expected in the DV20, so this explains it…)

Screenshot_20210910-051123
Screenshot_20210910-0511231080×803 148 KB

Update

I took a look in the sim; couple things to note:

  • it shows 28 as fuel flow even before you start the engine! so it’s not connected to the actual state of the engine at all
  • it’s labeled as 28 lb/h (pounds per hour) – at 6 lbs per gallon for 100LL this means 4.67 gallons per hour, or 17.66 liters per hour?

So I wouldn’t necessarily trust that figure to be accurate to anything at all… fun. :smiley:

5

It is not connected, and/or it always consumes all that. Because the range is much reduced compared to the specifications.
Whatever, it needs a fix as it is a great aircraft so it is a mess that can only be used for very short flights. You have to do so many stops for refuelling.

Opened a ticket at zendesk. Hope it will receive a fix.

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6

Well DV20 updated today and the fuel consumption issue continues.
Created a flight plan that with 50% of fuel should be more than enough, and barely have traveled half distance until fuel empty.
Not sure what has been fixed, didn’t noticed any other issue in the past. And used a lot this aircraft.
Really disappointing, I hope it will be fixed at some time.

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7

Hi,
According to the RL manual, the DV20 should fly 6 hours at 55% of power. (At 2000ft)

In msfs, you can fly 4 hours at 55%. (At 2000ft)

So yes, the fuel consumption is too high.

I hope they will fix it too.

8

Where do you see the fuel flow on the GNS430 ?

9

I know I have gone a lot further. For the three single engine diamonds that come with MSFS only the DA40 seemed to have fuel issues, but I don’t manually lean. I let the computer do it. Maybe the lean controller is broken so you’re running rich. Try turning on auto lean and see if you get better range. Even if you don’t want to fly that way you’ll know where the problem is.

Now I’ve not flown it in a while too, so if something broke in the last update - I’ve not flown since then.

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