Manual fuel tank selection, especially for drop tanks

[Tiberius]

In the F51, there is a fuel tank selector, which enables to chose between the different tanks, especially to select the external drop tanks. This enables the use of fuel in external tanks first, for the to jettison them, when empty.

Currently, in the game, every plane uses fuel from different tanks at the same time, which leads to the drop tanks being emptied alongside the regular, onboard tanks.

An option to choose tanks would enable the drop tanks to be used first, then dropped empty, and after that the usage of the internal tanks. So, an option to use drop tanks first, would be more realistic and also highly appreciated, to use the drop tanks in a more logical and realistic fashion. Either modelling the selector, where available in the plane, or at least make an option to choose between external and internal tanks would help a great deal.

Otherwise, I love the game already, realism and atmosphere are at a very good balance. Really awesome!

Kind regards, Tiberius

[Tiberius]

Afterthought: or model the system so that the drop tank fuel is used first. Anyway like that would be helpful.

[Dash,Polder]

You have to be careful, some of these aircraft required a certain amount of fuel in internals to be burned off prior to using external fuel.  There was no fuel pumps in these tanks and vacuum or high pressurized air was used to transfer, so transfers can't be regulated.  If your tanks are too full to receive the full amount, your fuel is vented overboard as part of the built in standard pressure relief found on nearly every aircraft capable of doing a fuel transfer. 

[Gavrick]

14 часов назад, Tiberius сказал:

Afterthought: or model the system so that the drop tank fuel is used first. Anyway like that would be helpful.

Currently, control over the fuel system (tanks and valves) is not available to the player (although we do intend to make it accessible in the future).
However, the fuel system itself is modeled correctly.

The fuel consumption logic depends on the aircraft. For example, on the Mustang, fuel is always drawn from the rear tank (at least partially), then from the drop tanks, then from the wing tanks — with the left and right tanks switching periodically to prevent fuel from remaining on only one side.
On the Yak‑9 and La‑11, fuel is consumed from the central feed tank, which receives fuel by gravity from the wing tanks, so it may appear that fuel is being drawn from all tanks simultaneously.
The F‑80 has a rather complex fuel management system with transfer pumps moving fuel from the wing tanks to the fuselage tank.

And yes, in the simple instruments, you can enable a simplified fuel tank display. If the aircraft allows selecting which tank is feeding the engine, that tank will be highlighted in white (if not, as on the Yak, all tanks are highlighted). The systems screen also shows the actual fuel quantity in each tank.

[Tiberius]

Got it, thanks for the feedback!

[Whittle]

On 7/6/2026 at 7:37 AM, Gavrick said:

Currently, control over the fuel system (tanks and valves) is not available to the player (although we do intend to make it accessible in the future).
However, the fuel system itself is modeled correctly.

The fuel consumption logic depends on the aircraft. For example, on the Mustang, fuel is always drawn from the rear tank (at least partially), then from the drop tanks, then from the wing tanks — with the left and right tanks switching periodically to prevent fuel from remaining on only one side.
On the Yak‑9 and La‑11, fuel is consumed from the central feed tank, which receives fuel by gravity from the wing tanks, so it may appear that fuel is being drawn from all tanks simultaneously.
The F‑80 has a rather complex fuel management system with transfer pumps moving fuel from the wing tanks to the fuselage tank.

And yes, in the simple instruments, you can enable a simplified fuel tank display. If the aircraft allows selecting which tank is feeding the engine, that tank will be highlighted in white (if not, as on the Yak, all tanks are highlighted). The systems screen also shows the actual fuel quantity in each tank.

In an F51 with no damage, it ended up with 5 gallons in one wing and more than 30 in the other - I think this needs to be checked.

Secondly, in the P-51 in Great Battles, when around 60% fuel or less was selected before spawning in, the rear tank would be empty. This does not appear to be the case in Korea. Is there a reason for this?

[Artfactial]

Quote

On 7/5/2026 at 11:37 PM, Gavrick said:

Currently, control over the fuel system (tanks and valves) is not available to the player (although we do intend to make it accessible in the future).
However, the fuel system itself is modeled correctly.

The fuel consumption logic depends on the aircraft. For example, on the Mustang, fuel is always drawn from the rear tank (at least partially), then from the drop tanks, then from the wing tanks — with the left and right tanks switching periodically to prevent fuel from remaining on only one side.
On the Yak‑9 and La‑11, fuel is consumed from the central feed tank, which receives fuel by gravity from the wing tanks, so it may appear that fuel is being drawn from all tanks simultaneously.
The F‑80 has a rather complex fuel management system with transfer pumps moving fuel from the wing tanks to the fuselage tank.

And yes, in the simple instruments, you can enable a simplified fuel tank display. If the aircraft allows selecting which tank is feeding the engine, that tank will be highlighted in white (if not, as on the Yak, all tanks are highlighted). The systems screen also shows the actual fuel quantity in each tank.

 

Ah, excellent, good to hear! That would explain the very limited fuel valve/tank selection keymapping options at the moment.
Looking forward to having more control on that in the future.:)

[FeuerFliegen]

On 7/5/2026 at 5:37 PM, Gavrick said:

However, the fuel system itself is modeled correctly.

It is not modeled correctly.

 

The F-51 will take fuel from the main tanks when the rear tank is empty, fill the rear tank back up to about 9 gallons, and repeat over and over. And sometimes it'll have a few hundred pounds more fuel in the right tank vs left tank. 

 

F-86 won't use its drop tanks completely before using the internal fuel.

 

Fuel gauges are messed up on Yak-9P, La-11, and F-80C.

[majorqc]

Indeed in the f86 the fuel tank should empty fully before it start taking any internal fuel but right now it take from the wing internal tank mostly and little bit from the fuel tank till the internal one are empty then it start fully feeding from the wing external tank 

[FeuerFliegen]

I really appreciated the fully simulated fuel systems in Cliffs of Dover.

Say I'm in a twin engine, such as a Bf110
 

I normally draw fuel from two tanks at the same time.  But I get a fuel leak in one of those, so I stop taking fuel from the undamaged tank and have both engines draw all of their fuel from the tank with the leak, so I can utilize that fuel as much as possible before it all leaks out.  Then when that tank is empty, switch to taking all fuel from the undamaged tank.   Then you have two auxiliary tanks, which you would normally transfer to the two main tanks when they get low, but I can choose to transfer that fuel ONLY to the undamaged one.

After using this system, Great Battles felt overly simplified and it was frustrating when I'd get a fuel leak, and even though there are 4 fuel tanks, they all acted as one and that fuel leak would eventually drain your entire fuel supply

[Gavrick]

19 часов назад, FeuerFliegen сказал:

The F-51 will take fuel from the main tanks when the rear tank is empty, fill the rear tank back up to about 9 gallons, and repeat over and over. And sometimes it'll have a few hundred pounds more fuel in the right tank vs left tank. 

On the F‑51, the rear tank gradually fills up in flight — because the carburetor drain and fuel return line go there.

The fuel gauges on the Yak and La‑11 can indeed show an incorrect remaining fuel value. This is because in reality it's a float‑type gauge installed in one tank, but calibrated to indicate the total remaining fuel for all connected tanks — and it will only read accurately if the fuel level is the same in all tanks. If the fuel level in adjacent tanks becomes uneven (for example, fuel from the outer tank flows into the inner tank during a turn), then the gauge starts to give false readings.

[FeuerFliegen]

On 8/12/2026 at 9:20 AM, Gavrick said:

On the F‑51, the rear tank gradually fills up in flight — because the carburetor drain and fuel return line go there.

The fuel gauges on the Yak and La‑11 can indeed show an incorrect remaining fuel value. This is because in reality it's a float‑type gauge installed in one tank, but calibrated to indicate the total remaining fuel for all connected tanks — and it will only read accurately if the fuel level is the same in all tanks. If the fuel level in adjacent tanks becomes uneven (for example, fuel from the outer tank flows into the inner tank during a turn), then the gauge starts to give false readings.

 

Got it, makes sense for the F-51.  Still rather select it on my own though... My left tank is at 70 gallons, right at 92, and my pilot just finished the few gallons in the rear tank, and selected the left tank again, instead of the right.  And even after doing a full cycle of using that until it refilled the rear tank again to 9 gallons, switching to using that, it went back to the left again, while the right still had 92 in it.

 

Do you know how much fuel would typically be returned to the rear tank?  By the time my left tank went from 70 to 67 gallons, my rear tank had already refueled by 2 gallons.  Is it basically taking the amount of fuel to run at max power from the fuel tank, and dumping the rest in the rear tank?       2 gallons being returned after taking 3 seems like a lot, especially as I was doing 51" at 2700rpm at the time.  But maybe not?   

EDIT - maybe it was a rounding error; by the time it filled up the rear tank to 9 gallons, 24 had been drained from the left main fuel tank.  So that'd be 37.5% of the fuel taken was sent back to the rear tank, which I guess makes sense if it's taking enough fuel for max power?

Are you saying everything works correctly in the La-11 and Yak-9P fuel gauges?

Edited August 16 by FeuerFliegen

[Whittle]

1 hour ago, FeuerFliegen said:

 

Got it, makes sense for the F-51.  Still rather select it on my own though... My left tank is at 70 gallons, right at 92, and my pilot just finished the few gallons in the rear tank, and selected the left tank again, instead of the right.  And even after doing a full cycle of using that until it refilled the rear tank again to 9 gallons, switching to using that, it went back to the left again, while the right still had 92 in it.

That was exactly what my testing showed. The pilot would sometimes select the lower of the two wing tanks after draining the rear, which doesn't seem optimal. Secondly the pilot allowed a difference of 45 gallons to develop between the left and right, which also doesn't seem optimal.

I also tested the rear tank flow rates a few weeks back. At 8x speed, and using the in-cockpit clock to measure the time between re-selecting the rear tank (presumably the instant it hits 10 gallons) and selecting another tank.

At 2000 rpm/30" the rear tank refilled to 9/10 gallons in 3 in-game minutes - ie a flow rate of at least 180 gallons per hour. At 2700rpm/45" it took a bit longer.

[FeuerFliegen]

On 8/12/2026 at 9:20 AM, Gavrick said:

The fuel gauges on the Yak and La‑11 can indeed show an incorrect remaining fuel value. This is because in reality it's a float‑type gauge installed in one tank, but calibrated to indicate the total remaining fuel for all connected tanks — and it will only read accurately if the fuel level is the same in all tanks. If the fuel level in adjacent tanks becomes uneven (for example, fuel from the outer tank flows into the inner tank during a turn), then the gauge starts to give false readings.

 

I spawned into a Yak-9P to see what the fuel gauges would do.... I could fly level for 15 minutes straight, or I could do hard turning maneuvers, spins, etc. and it had zero effect on the fuel gauge.  They were usually showing less than what they had in them, sometimes more, sometimes correct.   Other flights I've seen one gauge show different than the other but the systems menu showed the fuel being equal, and I've seen them be way off other times on both.  Can you explain this?

Edited August 16 by FeuerFliegen