Fuel tank control- calclassics DC-7B

**MaddogK** · December 28th, 2009, 07:43

Am looking for a working fuel tank control panel for the CalClassics DC-7B aircraft. The tank levers on the pedestal are almost non-functional and I'd like more control over the tanks, mainly fuel transfer between tanks. Does anyone have a working valve system, or know where I can find one ?

**lemonadedrinker** · December 28th, 2009, 12:08

Hi,

I am just posting to ask if you have tried the calclassic site for responses to this?

www.calclassic.com

there are forums there for just this sort of question!

Andy.

**MaddogK** · December 28th, 2009, 14:40

Not yet, I did go thru the first 41 pages of the 'CalClassic discussion' forum only to find the same question asked about a DC6 panel, that Tom says the crossfeed levers 'do nothing', was hoping it was fixed in the last year, but the sites search function turned up no results.

My problem was I took off with empty saddle tanks, and after 1000 miles ALL 4 engines drained the right main tank, and both right engines stalled while the lefts continued to run.

Very weird,

The only way I could restart the rights was to pull the tank lever down to 'aux', but I was unsure which aux tank would be drained next. And without a 'sure-fire' way to select a tank and no way to transfer fuel between tanks I'd hoped someone had fixed the problem (being an older a/c). I even re-downloaded the entire pack, and the tank valve xml's havent been edited in nearly 5 years.

**MaddogK** · December 28th, 2009, 20:50

Thank god, there is a fix. Found in CalClassics 'old' forums (http://calclassic.proboards.com/inde...play&thread=25), a reworked DC-6B found at flightsim.com "dc6b_mgc.zip" containing the DC6KMGC.CAB with the reworked fuel tank levers.

From the 'new' panel docs:

6. Fuel Tank Selector Lever: With the lever forward (default) fuel will be drawn from the main tanks. Engines 1 & 2 from the left mains engines 3 & 4 from the right mains. With the lever in the middle fuel will be drawn for the Auxiliary tanks. Engines 1 & 2 from the left aux engines 3 & 4 from the right aux. With the lever full back the tanks are closed. There are three click spots on the lower part of the lever. The "UP" or "+" spot puts the lever in the forward or main tank position. The plain "HAND" selects the center or Aux tank position. The "DOWN" or "-" selects tanks off.

13. Left Wing Fuel Crossfeed Lever: In the forward (default) position there is no crossfeed between any tanks. With the lever in the middle position crossfeed will occur between the left tanks (not active at this time). With the lever in the back position you will get crossfeed across all tanks.

14. Right Wing Fuel Crossfeed Lever: In the forward (default) position there is no crossfeed between any tanks. With the lever in the middle position crossfeed will occur between the right tanks (not active at this time). With the lever in the back position you will get crossfeed across all tanks.

Will try it out tomorrow. It's not the solution I was hoping for but apparently an improvement over what I currently have.

**HighGround22** · December 29th, 2009, 16:07

.
Ah! Good, useful data, Maddog! Many thanks.
.

**MaddogK** · December 29th, 2009, 19:22

Still no crossfeed between same sided tanks, but the single tank usage problem seems to have vanished on my rig. Maybe just a coincidence as my first 2k run with the new levers everything worked as they should, but I'll be making a few more long runs with this new config to see if it's race corridor ready on my puter.

**tgibson** · December 30th, 2009, 12:43

Hi,

I examined the fuel tank select and crossfeed gauges and they appear identical in all three versions of the panel (Mitch's original, mine, and George Carty's panel you found above). I think the fiddling did the work.

I hope to look into this, but from initial inspection I don't see how to be able to both control the flow of fuel to specific tanks (i.e. avoiding the main tanks since selecting those drains the AUX tanks first, THEN the mains) and allowing both tanks in the left wing (Main and AUX) to serve engines #1 and #2 (for example), since you cannot specify more than one tank as a source (or you can choose Left, which (again) drains the left AUX tank first and then the MAIN). I tried studying the Connie fuel gauge code, but it's so far above me it looks like hieroglyphics...

Hope this helps,

**MaddogK** · December 31st, 2009, 07:00

Originally Posted by tgibson

Hi,

I examined the fuel tank select and crossfeed gauges and they appear identical in all three versions of the panel (Mitch's original, mine, and George Carty's panel you found above). I think the fiddling did the work.

I hope to look into this, but from initial inspection I don't see how to be able to both control the flow of fuel to specific tanks (i.e. avoiding the main tanks since selecting those drains the AUX tanks first, THEN the mains) and allowing both tanks in the left wing (Main and AUX) to serve engines #1 and #2 (for example), since you cannot specify more than one tank as a source (or you can choose Left, which (again) drains the left AUX tank first and then the MAIN). I tried studying the Connie fuel gauge code, but it's so far above me it looks like hieroglyphics...

Hope this helps,

Before I saw this, I examined the 'fuel tank select' code, and tho I'm not a programmer I did see what I believe to be a syntax error in the select coding. There appears to be a missing parenthesis at the end of the last statement. I dont have the code with me, but I added the missing symbol, and reverted my pedistal gauges back to the originals and noticed that when I select 'off' ALL the engines stall. Also BOTH mains drain together as they should.

They NEVER did that before on my rig, but that is how they SHOULD work IMHO. I was going to test further before I posted my findings but you have peaked my interest in this problem. I'm also experimenting (in another install) with fuel transfer across opposite tanks. Since my understanding of FS9 fuel transfer wont allow transfer between same sided tanks, transfer to opposite tanks IMHO would be better than nothing. I'll let you know how it turns out.

**MaddogK** · January 5th, 2010, 07:16

HU all,
Tom at CalClassics has addressed the fuel management problem on these fine a/c and has issued a new panel.
http://calclassic.proboards.com/inde...ay&thread=1944

:ernae:

Excellent work IMHO.

**tgibson** · January 5th, 2010, 07:39

Hi all,

Thanks for the kind words. Please note that the panel I have altered is the DC-6 panel, not the DC-7 panel (and it's currently in a public beta test). But don't worry, the DC-7 panel will get the same treatment shortly.

Take care,