Range fuel burn
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Hi All,
Firstly, I really love the Vulcan and have really enjoyed flying it.
I was just wondering how people have been finding the range and fuel burn on the longer flights? I tried to do an Akrotiri (Cyprus) to Waddington flight earlier and found the Vulcan to be a bit more thirsty and I didn't manage to make it, even with a full fuel load and saddle tanks installed?
Has anyone got any tips for getting the most range out of the Vulcan? Would be great to be able to do those ranger flights the aircraft was famous for.
Cheers,
Scott
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I join the OP in congratulating Just Flight for their amazing Vulcan.
But I have also seen fuel burn issues when trying longer trips. I did a series of flights Scampton - Akrotiri - Gibraltar - Scampton. The first flight, ~1800nm, I did with full internal fuel plus full saddle tanks and landed with very little left, even with tail winds all the way. On the subsequent flights I focused on fuel consumption, and I can’t see how to get anywhere near the maximum range.
The best conditions I have found so far are at altitudes 43,000ft - 52,000 feet, running the engines at 88-89% RPM. With these parameters I get a fuel flow of around 250 lbs/min, equating to 15,000lbs/hour. Even with a full maximum fuel load of ~98,000lbs (internal + cylindrical tanks), if you assume 450kts TAS then you’re looking at <3000nm maximum ferry range, far below the quoted ferry range of 4750 miles (4084 nm).
It would be appreciated if Just Flight could have a look at this, as fuel management is one the principal considerations on longer trips!
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@CavalierDuck @swayne01 I think the fuel burn is realistic. Cruising at 50,000ft, I burnt 50% (37,000 lbs) for a flight of 800 NM. If you do the calculations, a 100% fuel load with the cylinder tanks installed (98,000 lbs) would give you a range of slightly above 2000 NM, which is quite close to the real life range of the Vulcan.
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@amrit199 The Just Flight Vulcan manual, in agreement with a number of online sources, quotes the Vulcan's ferry range as 4,750 miles (~4,084 nautical miles). Other range figures, found in various places online, may be referring to what is sometimes called combat range (exact terminology varies) - the maximum range for a round-trip with ordnance and stores - which will be somewhere under half of the ferry range; close to 2,000 miles would be a realistic combat range, and consistent with the >4000 mile ferry range.
I flew my test flights under ferry conditions. The fuel burn you obtained is consistent with my tests, but that places the Just Flight Vulcan's range considerably short of the >4000 mil ferry range quoted in the manual.
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@CavalierDuck If that's the case, I, for one, would welcome the range increase since it would make round trips to and from Moscow easier, if ya know what I mean haha.
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Sorry to have not responded sooner - still on holiday 😁
Okay, that is an odd one because range was brought up in testing and prior to release we had somewhere a good way north of 7000km showing in the MSFS debug tool after top of climb. Just rechecked and it's now nearer 4000km.
Something's obviously gone awry, will dig into it - thank you for bringing it to our attention.
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A more precise adjustment will make the next release version, but for now if anybody wants the additional range and you're confident editing text files, open the Engines.cfg and scroll down to the jet_density_on_ff_table. Replace the entire line with the one below, should give you roughly 6500km (4000 mile) range in the 50,000ft zone.
jet_density_on_ff_table = 0.000230:0.229000,0.000600:0.380000,0.000710:0.554000,0.000910:0.761000,0.001020:0.887000,0.001280:0.983000,0.001430:1.074000,0.001770:1.161000,0.002060:1.219100,0.002380:1.39600
Ensure you climb at 250kts/93% rpm to 20,000ft then 300kts/96% rpm until that coincides with 0.8M then maintain the mach number. Top of climb, level out and let speed build to 0.87M and adjust throttles to maintain.
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@Delta558 Many thanks for looking at this! I'll test it out later today.
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@Delta558 I tried the above mod, that’s fixed it nicely. Fuel flow at 48,000 feet was 143lb/min, which under ferry conditions should give a range >4000nm. And plenty for a round trip to Moscow with munitions…
Thank you again! 👍 -
Hi folks,
Just wanted to bump this since the update was released today and I didn't see the range/fuel flow fix listed on the changelog- was this actually included?
-Jonas
Edit: It would appear not, as at 48,000 ft the airplane burns roughly 250 lbs/minute, the pre-fix value.
