Fuel Dump enabled on the Ground?

In an Instant Action mission starting on the ramp with the plane ready for taxi, I had inadvertently left the Fuel Dump switch in the ON position. When I switched to F2 view I saw what I thought was some strange steam streaming out of the vertical stabilizers. Obviously, I would be immediately transferred to infantery or worse if I flooded the ramp with fuel in real life. But my question is: Is the fuel dump really enabled with Weight On Wheels? In real life, that could cause disaster and I would think that fuel dump is disabled when there is WOW.

I don’t see anything mentioning WOW connectivity with fuel dump switch. It does mention if

-fuel reaches bingo level or

-tanks 1 and 4 are empty or

-either engine feed tank drops below FUEL LO level or

- switch is flipped to off

will cause the dumping system to stop.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Good find. It would be interesting to find out how things really goes in real life with fuel dump on the ramp.

I would surmise that this would be disable while the aircraft is weight-on-wheels.

I don’t see anything mentioning WOW connectivity with fuel dump switch. It does mention if

 

-fuel reaches bingo level or

-tanks 1 and 4 are empty or

-either engine feed tank drops below FUEL LO level or

- switch is flipped to off

 

will cause the dumping system to stop.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Mistakenly splashing fuel off the tail on carrier deck or on the ramp with other aircraft running could be hazardous.

Yeah, if you just flick it with the mouse, it goes back to 'off'.

If you hold LMB, it stays on. I guess if you use a physical switch, it would also stay on.

Infantry wouldn't take you either. If you can't handle a fuel switch they sure wouldn't want you around a hand grenade would they? :music_whistling:

Infantry wouldn't take you either. If you can't handle a fuel switch they sure wouldn't want you around a hand grenade would they? :music_whistling:

:megalol:

+1

Cheers,

Don

It would be poor aircraft design to hook the fuel dump to WOW.

A failure of the WOW system would result in the inability to dump fuel.

It would be poor aircraft design to hook the fuel dump to WOW.

 

A failure of the WOW system would result in the inability to dump fuel.

Yeah but with that logic it would be poor aircraft design to tie it to anything, like the weapons or ability to retract the gear.

Yeah, if you just flick it with the mouse, it goes back to 'off'.

 

If you hold LMB, it stays on. I guess if you use a physical switch, it would also stay on.

Correct. The real switch is one that is electrically held in the DUMP position and spring loaded to OFF. Using a normal switch would cause the loss of that function.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah but with that logic it would be poor aircraft design to tie it to anything, like the weapons or ability to retract the gear.

You are missing the point.

The purpose of fuel dump is to allow you to reduce to landing weight quickly.

One of the primary reasons to dump fuel is in an emergency/abnormal situation.

Here is a simple one.

WOW fails, gear won't retract.

If the fuel dump switch is tied to WOW, now you can't dump fuel and you are limited to 250 knots.

Only marginally related, but back in the dark old days ( 1978 ), I was at Tyndall AFB, in Florida supporting a work up by our pilots (and our F-4E's) for William Tell. During a morning practice sortie, two of our Phantoms were going up with two F-106A's from Air Defense Command. The 106's taxied out and took off first, with a 10 second trail launch. The second F-106 started dumping fuel as it started the takeoff roll. It was a dramatic amount of fuel, which splashed and pooled on the end of the runway. From my point of view in the "Red-Ball" truck at the end of runway taxiway, the fuel was whipped into a big misty cloud by the afterburner of the second F-106. As our two F-4E's took the runway, they lined up in the fuel cloud, and executed a formation takeoff. As the flight lead lit his afterburners, the cloud of fuel ignited, engulfing the second F-4 all the way from the tail to the intakes. The SOF (Supervisor of Flying) called an IFE (In Flight Emergency) on the second Phantom, and directed the pilot to not raise the gear (in case burning fuel was still on the tires), and had them come back around and land. Luckily, no damage to the F-4E, and the guilty F-106A also had to return, as the pilot was unable to close the fuel dump switch (or stop the dumping).

An exciting morning, for sure, and no, aircraft shouldn't dump fuel (other than small amounts at engine shutdown) with weight on wheels.

=

I read the emergency procedures and the Fuel Dump switch is electrically locked on only with weight off wheels.

With weight on wheels the switch must be manually held on to dump fuel.

If the switch stays on without power, it would be a reportable bug/error.

Yeah but with that logic it would be poor aircraft design to tie it to anything, like the weapons or ability to retract the gear.

But that's exactly why the WOW circuit exists. To prevent firing weapons with the gear down...raising the gear inflight if there is a malfunction (think gear struts not fully extended, nose gear not centered things like that) or raising the gear while sitting on the deck.

The ability to dump fuel is a safety of flight issue. Let's say i takeoff and smash a flock of Geese. One smashes into my nose gear and takes our my WOW circuit and another goes in my Port engine...I'm probable gonna need to dump gas and probably jettison weapons to maintain aircraft control. At the very least I am gonna need to dump gas down to a landing weight. If the fuel dump switch was tied to WOW.... baaaaad JuJu Now I can Jett weapons but I'll still have a lot of gas I can't get rid of. And if there is one thing you don't want at the scene of a crash...it's an excess amount of fuel.

I'm pretty sure the WOW circuit is off of the Battery direct bus. If the bus is powered it'll work. But I need to check a NATOPS to be sure.