Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - PMDG 777-300ER insufficient fuel

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | PMDG 777-300ER insufficient fuel

DVA088
Captain, B757-200
Platinum

Joined on July 05 2001
B757 100 Club
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Flying Colonel
Three Million Mile Club

Clarksville, TN USA

1,634 legs, 7,122.2 hours
560 legs, 2,144.5 hours online
1,310 legs, 5,992.0 hours ACARS
1 legs, 7.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on July 31 2024 17:23 ET by Buchanan McArthur

Hello,

I am writing to bring to your attention an issue that has arisen with the PMDG 767-300 ER aircraft since its release. Specifically, I have encountered excessive fuel burn, leading to insufficient fuel warnings on the EICAS, regardless of trip length or duration.

After extensive testing and troubleshooting, I have identified the Delta Virtual Airlines ACARS as the root cause of this problem. When flying without ACARS, the fuel levels at the end of the trip are generally accurate, within a few hundred pounds of the planned fuel consumption. However, when using the Delta ACARS program, the fuel burn is significantly accelerated from takeoff, resulting in greater fuel consumption at each waypoint compared to the planned figures. This discrepancy leads to insufficient fuel warnings and, in some cases, fuel exhaustion before the flight's completion.

I kindly request your assistance in determining if others have encountered this issue and if there are any settings within the ACARS that can be adjusted to rectify this situation. Your insights and expertise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best regards,

Buchanan McArthur

DVA043
Senior Captain, MD-11
Platinum
OLP

Joined on June 10 2001
Event Half Century Club
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"Col. Panic"
Marietta, GA

2,347 legs, 9,466.0 hours
240 legs, 553.9 hours online
2,005 legs, 8,259.1 hours ACARS
75 legs, 196.3 hours event
2,383 legs, 9,600.9 hours total
91 legs dispatched, 66.4 hours

Posted onPost created on July 31 2024 18:19 ET by Luke Kolin

All ACARS does is read data. Are the instantaneous fuel burn numbers higher in the EICAS?

Cheers

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA10286
Captain, B777-200

Joined on November 05 2011
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"ASEL - Instrument Rated"
San Diego, CA

1,103 legs, 5,003.2 hours
1,100 legs, 5,000.2 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 01 2024 01:46 ET by Thomas Weber

Do you have the autosave feature enabled in ACARS? I know I experienced the sim locking up for several seconds at a time when the autosave happens, so I turned it off. Maybe something in the PMDG fuel burn algorithm (which I believe is custom and not the default from Microsoft?) goes off the rails when the sim freezes for a few seconds?

That is about the only thing I could think of, since otherwise ACARS only passively listens to data coming from the sim (as Luke mentioned).

I assume you are loading the aircraft the same way (e.g. from a SimBrief flight plan via the PMDG interface) with and without ACARS?

Thomas Weber (DVA10286)

Posted onPost created on August 05 2024 17:03 ET by Buchanan McArthur

Thank you for you responses. I turned auto save off. I'm not sure why the fuel burn is accelerated only when I use ACARS. When I disconnect ACARS Fuel Burn normalizes

DVA7693
First Officer, CRJ-200
OLP

Joined on August 26 2009
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""O! for a horse with wings!" ~W.S."
Mason, OH

807 legs, 2,540.3 hours
412 legs, 1,054.8 hours online
798 legs, 2,521.5 hours ACARS
3 legs, 11.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 07 2024 09:33 ET by Brian Berendts

This is good info - thanks

Brian Berendts

First Officer, CRJ-200

Posted onPost created on August 07 2024 11:19 ET by Luke Kolin

Buchanan McArthur wrote:

I'm not sure why the fuel burn is accelerated only when I use ACARS. When I disconnect ACARS Fuel Burn normalizes

How can you tell? Is there an instant decrease in fuel flow?

Cheers

Luke Kolin

Senior Captain, MD-11

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