DC3 and Fuel

[simondix]

I am currently flying DC3's from the US to the UK. I have noticed whenever I put fuel in I am overweight to that effect ie if I put 385kg in I am overweight by 385kg. I then have to reduce load. The only time I am not overweight is with zero fuel. Is this a bug?

[DaveB]

Hi Simon

I'm not sure mate to be honest with you. The ferry flights you've been doing have been incredibly long which might account for it. However.. I recently took a Trislander from JER - GUE to keep my TR in date and I didn't have a fat lot of fuel onboard to start with. I added a bit more.. again, not a great deal, to keep a fair reserve and ended up having to lose a passenger or reduce the fuel :o I didn't take a DC3 out but will do so to see how that performs ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[simondix]

Cheers Dave,

Just going to relocate the first one to Jersey this morning.

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Simon,

In some aircraft, MZFW is the same as MTOW and the DC-3 is one such aircraft. In the early days at FlyNET we introduced an 'artificial' MZFW so that the aircraft wouldn't always be at MTOW with nil fuel. Since the introduction of the client being able to adjust the payload we put the MZFW where it should have been. You will always have to reduce the payload by the amount of fuel you load.

Regards

John

[DaveB]

Hi John

Yup.. that makes sense. However, I'm a bit miffed at the Trislander as it's designed to carry 17pax (that's what I got in FS anyway) with no cargo option. Seems odd to have an aircraft so designed that the aircraft can only fill every seat and remain on the ground :o :think: I dunno though.. stranger things have happened

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Dave,

Just took a look at the Trislander at FSA and noted that it was saying 18 pax so I've amended that to 17. With 17 pax at 102kgs and a top up with cargo to MZFW there's still room for 136kgs fuel.

Regards

John

[DaveB]

Hi John..

Yep.. just had a look through my log and found FSA gave me 17 instead of 18 pax. FOB at the time was a mere 31kg which is neither here nor there and the intention was to tank it up a bit by adding 40kg.. 71kg in total. However, this put it overweight but I chose to lose a pax rather than the fuel. 17pax is the correct number for the Trislander anyway ;-)
Just noted that the DC3 is also at MTOW with zero fuel.. AMWW had 106kg onboard when I picked it up and I was 106kg overweight before adding fuel. Swings and roundabouts I suppose

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[simondix]

I am glad that's cleared up, thanks. Still made a profit though. DC3 is now at Jersey.

[DaveB]

No Problem Simon ;-) With a fleet the size of the one we have, it takes time for all the changes FSA implements to feed down to us erks that fly

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[simondix]

Going to take the Marathon for a spin, to keep my TR I will see how that does.