Hey guys I’m having issues with the plane. When I have around 3 gal of fuel the engine stop working. Why can I use all the fuel?
there is always unusable fuel in planes
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It’s bad for the fuel system to run it dry so there is always some amount of unusable fuel in the tank.
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If you have 3gal left and you are still in the air…….
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It’s not because it’s particularly bad it’s because the last bit of fuel is sitting in the tank in spots that can’t be extracted in regular flight. Every aircraft I know of has this and is a factor of the tank design (usually a wet wing) and the fuel pickup.
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Also to prevent any small particle’s of dirt, or water that form in tanks over time from being ingested into the full lines / engine if present.
Most pre-flights include draining water from the bottom of wing tanks and from the gascolator, the filter just before fuel enters the engine. With blue-dyed avgas, it’s easy to tell when the water is drained and your getting pure avgas.
it’s bad for your system…
On the unusable fuel - the gauge still reads about 1/8 remaining when it runs out. Aren’t aircraft fuel gauges calibrated to show the remaining useable fuel, like in cars?
It seems strange to me that the gauge doesn’t have some indicator of where the fuel remaining will be too low to power the engine.
Or maybe this is just the way it is done in aircraft - please educate me.
It really depends on the aircraft. Even my Piper Warrior doesnt have indications on where it is “safe”. Anyway you wouldnt be flying on reserves as you need ample fuel to your alternate airport plus 45 min reserve.
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So… The point is, you should be landing with I believe 45 minutes reserve per FAA regulations. And those regulations require that the unusable fuel not be included in the calculations. And, really, if you’re depending on your fuel gauges, for anything more than balancing between tanks and kind of when to switch, you will eventually run out of fuel if you think they are reading accurately as you get close to zero fuel in a tank.
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Your theory is sound but there are some complications. A modern digital fuel quantity system can have multiple calibration points to give an accurate result however the old original systems used in these era of aircraft have little calibration and the resistive sensors they tend to use are particularly inaccurate especially with age. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not implemented correctly in the sim.
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Yep: in real life in aircraft of this type, the fuel gauges are quite Mickey Mouse and notoriously inaccurate. I have flown Cessnas from C150 to C210, Pipers from Cherokee PA28-140’s to PA32-300’s, Beech Debonair, Rockwell Commander 114, Grumman A5 etc. in real life and I never considered the gauges in any of them to be anything more than a sort of general indication. For me, flight planning is based far more on full tank capacity and then burn rate over time. I have always considered part tank departures to be very iffy as it is very difficult to know exactly how much fuel is in the tanks. Some aircraft have a tab in the neck of the tank that (at least in theory…) show you how much fuel is in the tank if you fill it to the tab.
And as already mentioned, there are regulations in terms of fuel reserves required, In North America for VFR it is 30 minutes daytime, 45 minutes nightime beyond your first planned point of landing.
And even without the regulations, it would be a very… adventurous?.. pilot that ever plans on using even close to the stated capacity of the aircraft. While I never got anywhere near that point, unlike in the sim, running out of fuel in real life would be a very interesting event… And something the authorities tend to not look upon kindly.
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A wise man once said " a fuel gauge is only accurate when it reads zero"
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Can concur.
Either the tanks are visually verified full, to the tabs, or assumed empty. You can get “dipsticks” for certain aircraft to get an almost accurate fuel level, but even those devices (think a clear, graduated drinking straw) are prone to pilot error.
When I was flying my family in the club’s Cirrus SR20, I could never go with full tanks, even when the kids were little. I would talk to the line guys and order my fills as “tabs plus XX gallons per tank” to stay under MGTOW since the tabs were a known visual indicator, at 13 gallons each if I remember correctly.
GA fuel gauges are basically useless, and knowing your burn rates and going with a proper reserve are your best defense against starvation.
I personally use a 1 hour reserve for VFR IRL.
That being said, the fact that this aircraft doesn’t have the long range tanks modeled is terribly frustrating.
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I hate to say this…but I really like the Carenado V-35.
Carenado have never been known for their “flight dynamics” and because of that I hadn’t bought their software since FS2004. I only bought the V-35 because a) it looks nice and b) it was 12 quid.
However I was doing some crosswind tests today and I found that the V-35 was the only aircraft I could land safely in a 15-20 knot (near full) crosswind.
Either Carenado know something I don’t or Asobo have possibly tweaked the ground friction settings so that aircraft don’t fly off the runway on landing. Their default Cessna 172 despite CFD and NPS couldn’t cope and drove off the runway during take-off (despite full deflection rudder and into wind aileron).
I recorded the V-35 departing and landing in a live weather crosswind at Calais LFAC earlier. Hope you enjoy - excuse the sketchy take-off - it was quite twitchy in that wind. On approach I had to view the runway out of the side window 
It was a firm but safe landing and I managed to stay near or on the centreline. In real life I wouldn’t try this (crosswind limits) but in MSFS - what the hell!
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“And even then you can’t be quite sure…”
Me, too… too scary otherwise…
Pretty sure the release notes say they did something like this…?
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The ones used in the era of this aircraft are if not useless but not to be solely relied upon. The newer tech available today is much better. Cirrus and many other OEM’s now fit new digital senders and feed this straight into a glass cockpit with multi point calibration and other functions available in a modern flight deck.
That said there is no substitute for cross checking of data sources before you leave and during the flight.
There are some “ground” related changes:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/release-release-notes-1-27-21-0-sim-update-10/543606
Continued in another thread, so as not to go OT.
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Whats up with that Atittude indicator of the V-Bonanza? Its hardly moving when tilting the plane…