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And on the subject of fuel exiting the airplane through a hole in the wing, you should know enough about your fuel system to decide what to do if that happens. Specifically, once all the fuel is gone from that wing, it's often preferable to shut off the engine fed by that wing and operate on a single engine, rather than leave that engine on and cross-feed it from the other wing. Why? Because in the cross-feed mode, roughly half of the fuel coming from the other wing ends up in the leaky tank and will go out the wing.
In fact, if fuel conservation is critical (say, over a wide expanse of water), then one should consider doing the opposite cross-feed -- so both both engines are fed from the leaky tank -- as soon as you confirm that fuel is going out the wing. Not only are you now feeding both engines from fuel that will soon be gone, but you are actually moving fuel from the leaky tank to the good one (obviously, this accumulation in the good tank only happens if there is space in that tank, because you've already used some). And in that mode where both engines are fed from the leaky tank, it may be wise to use up as much of the fuel from the leaky tank as possible before it's gone, by climbing to a higher altitude at maximum climb rate. In a utopian scenario, fuel from that tank runs out when you've reached maximum altitude and regained cruising speed. At the slightest sound of fuel starvation -- and it will be very noticeable because both engines will starve -- promptly switch the cross-fed engine to its regular (non-leaking) tank (if you do it quickly, you should not even need to use the boost pump to regain full power) and shut off the other engine.
Disclaimer: These are my procedures based on my understanding of the fuel system, and are not intended as recommendations. My only recommendation is that you learn how your fuel system works and use that knowledge if you encounter a fuel starvation problem.
Ernie
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03-20-09, 11:18 AM
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