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How do I transfer fuel from a full tank to one that needs fuel. Larry my engineer would like to know also because he is bad about allowing engines 2 and/or 3 to flame out after tanks 2 and 3 become empty when I have plenty of fuel in tanks 1 and four. I folowed the instructions in the pilots manuel but those instructions (switching to manafold to tank) caused engine 1 and 4 to flame out also and I was left flying a glider with a very poor glide ratio.

Can you confirm exactly what each fuel selector valve was set at (engines 1 through 4), and which fuel boost pumps were on?
The reason I ask is that if the fuel selector valves and boost pumps are configured properly, then there shouldn't be any issues with using the outboard tanks to feed the outboard engines,(Tank to engine and Manifold, Booster pumps ON) and also the the inboard engines too (Manifold to Engine).

Regards
Matt

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Hi and thanx for the reply. Here are my settings.
The feed tank is: pump on, valve set tank to engine and manifold.
The feeding tank is: pump off, valve set to manifold to engine.
In this configuration the feeding tank fuel quantity neither gains or loses fuel. This is fine to just keep the engine running but it dosen,t help me if I had to actually transfer because of a fuel leak or to maintain CG. Hope this makes sense.
Thanx again-Cliff

Hi Cliff,
in the 377, you don't actually transfer fuel from one tank to another. All that happens is the feed tanks effectively feed a communal reservoir, which is the manifold (Tank to Engine and Manifold). The engines running with the selector set at Manifold to Engine are using fuel from that communal source to stay running.
So those empty tanks won't gain fuel quantities, and the CG issue is something that you'd just have to compensate for. And in the event of a pretty catastrphic fuel leak, you could always dump fuel from the other tanks to maintain some semblance of balance, albeit at the cost of not making your planned destination and having to divert.
Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on the 377, and this knowledge is purely from flying the thing around and the manuals.
I don't know the correct procedures that would have been used in the event of major fuel leaks etc.
I did test the eventuality that you described with the VFE on, in that tanks 2+3 ran dry and stopped mid flight. The VFE changed the fuel selectors to the correct positions for running engines 2+3 off tanks 1+4, but was a little late in doing so, and as such I had to do an air restart on engines 2+3.
I only tested this once though, so I can't say whether this is what happens every time.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Matt

_________________
"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese"
- G.K. Chesterton.

i7 2600K, 8GB Vengeance RAM, Asus P67, GTX 580.