Ah, I misunderstood how you wanted to compare the two images.
The only thing I can think of is that the cabin superchargers are driven by the outside engines (1 & 4).
I’m wondering if the flight parameters of the second screenshot required more work from the cabin superchargers which put a slightly higher load on the outer engines and they are using slightly more fuel, as a result.
I’ve had inboard engines use more fuel in the past, it’s random when you press ‘repair’ on the tablet!
I believe that is realistic variance because no two engines are the same. If you fully repair the aircraft’s engines using the tablet then which engine uses the most may change. You’ll also find that some engines are ‘thirstier’ and consume more oil than the others.
These aren’t precision built modern turbofan engines, they’re piston pounding radial engines out of the 1940s afterall! They are going to be different to each other
Interesting on the repair randomizing the engine behaviors.
I believe @kaha300d said they had the realism turned off, so I’d have thought engine wear would be turned off, as well, and the engines “normalized”.
I’ve never used the DC-6 with realism off, so I’m unfamiliar with how that may or may not change the parameters of the “individualizing” of the engines behaviors.
My understanding is that if you turn realism off, you’re quite right that they won’t take damage or wear etc. but I don’t think they are ‘normalised’, each engine still has it’s own unique characteristics. It just won’t degrade when you abuse it 
It should be easy enough for @kaha300d to test though, they just have to press the repair buttons on the tablet and see if the thirstiest engine isn’t any more 
Good point on the test, for sure.
Contributing to this has me wanting to fly the “Six” today (when it’s not 03:46 in the morning…).
Haha, me too! 11:46am here and now I’m itching to get up amongst the clouds, it really is a beautiful aircraft
That’s why I posted screenshots from 2 different flights. In the first screenshot engines 1 and 2 don’t differ. It’s different on every single flight.
I will “repair” the engines (can I do that with realism off?) and see if this changes anything.
You can certainly click the button 
, whether it does anything if the engines aren’t damaged I’m not sure.
If it doesn’t do anything because they are already fully repaired, you’d have to: turn realism on, run the engines for 30 seconds, then turn it off again, and repair them
They could even be random each flight because realism is off!
I’ve never flown without realism on, so I only know that the engine characteristics stay the same until you repair in that scenario
I always try to figure new aircraft out by myself rather than resort to tutorials but the DC-6 is proving a complex bird. I’m still struggling to get the throttle lock off two of the engines!
That’s the Gust Lock, see Introduction manual p.66.
Looks like I’ll have to. This one has me beaten! Cheers…
You can shift the throttle lock to cage engines 1&2, 2&3 or 3&4. This is to allow for a runup of each engine with gust lock engaged.
Thanks. Yes, I noticed that I could shift the lock to inhibit engine pairs. Just got to locate the gust lock now…
It’s a lot different than the aircraft I typically fly in the sim!
It’s the long red lever down at the left of the pedestal.
If you hot start on the runway the gust lock will be enabled, so that’s a fun gotcha you’ll probably forget a few times…
Has the thing with the VOR-following when having installed the non-GPS avionics been fixed? Last time I tested after an update that allegedly addressed this error, I still had to switch through the CDI modes to get it following the radial.
Yeah, there are quite a few configuration problems when hot starting on the runway. I actually reset to ‘Cold and Dark’ and then go to ‘Ready to Taxi’ before running the AFE through the remaining checklists if I want a fast start for practicing/messing about
There was a small update which seemed to do precisely nothing. I just do it as a startup checklist item now.
No, but it’s weirder.
I flew yesterday with Bendix radios (I do 99% of my DC-6 flights with them).
On my first flight, while still on the ground, I switched to the GNS and found the CDI was in GPS mode, so I set it to VLOC and returned to the Bendix and had no issues during that flight.
On my second flight, (after quitting to menu and setting up a new flight plan) I forgot to check the GPS. I took off and engaged the gyropilot and believed I was tracking my first VOR waypoint via radio (the runway happened to be aligned very well with my first leg towards my first VOR.), but upon reaching my next course change, the gyropilot “automagically” turned the aircraft to the next heading and began flying to my next VOR.
I hadn’t changed radio frequencies, nor had I changed the OBS to my new course heading. I set the gyropilot to Gyropilot mode, swapped frequencies, set the CDI to my new heading and reengaged Localizer mode. The aircraft didn’t alter course to center the CDI. It continued to fly a heading that had the CDI slightly offset. I rotated the OBS a few degrees and the aircraft still didn’t alter course.
I can only assume that it was behaving as though it were following the GPS’ magenta line, even though I didn’t have the GPS selected.
Weirder still, when I switched to the GNS to toggle the CDI, the CDI already indicated VLOC and the GPS had no flight plan loaded (this was extra odd since I’d set up a flight plan in the World Map). Furthermore, since I was curious, I programmed the entire flight plan into the GNS and noted it couldn’t calculate the desired track, distance and time to the next waypoint. For schiggles I set the CDI to GPS and allowed it to fly the final part of the leg. When it reached the end of the leg it just blew past the waypoint and kept flying straight.
I set it back to VLOC, toggled back to the Bendix radios and had no issues for the remaining 3+ hours of the flight.
The long of the short is, prior to taking off, switch to the GNS, cycle the CDI to VLOC (or VLOC to GPS to VLOC) and switch back to the Bendix.
Honestly, I’m having more issues with the GNS and autopilot relationship in various 2nd and 3rd party aircraft that support it, that I’m not even sure that I should “blame” PMDG for this. There is some “known” GNS hot swap issue that is causing issues since SU14.
Part of the problem with this hot swap issue is that even if you’ve configured the DC-6, for example, to load with the Bendix, the default is to load with the GNS. Therefore, during the load of the aircraft for your flight, the GNS loads first and then the user configuration is read during the loading process and the swap is made to the Bendix, so you still can suffer any issues that may occur from the hot swap.
For when he kept his promise. captain