TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Randy Conrad on May 05, 2024, 02:03:59 AM
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Several nights ago I watched a documentary on Amelia and her life and flying. Very interesting documentary as it covered pretty much of everything. One of the videos shown was her giving a detailed account of her having to circle back when the weather got bad so she could fly the Vega safely. As I thought about that I wandered with the Electra how much fuel would she have lost in the transition. If so what emergency procedures or procedures would she have taken to overcorrect her fuel usage. Also, at the Amelia Conference we talked about how much fuel she would have left in her tanks at the 150 mark. Very interesting topic. So my question is to balance out the Electra in the fuel transition...what standard procedures did they have back in 1937 and with Amelia and the Electra and all those reserve tanks...how did that fuel system work and did she have an emergency resource available should something drastic to happen. Curious to know if she worked from side to side as a balance or worked from left...then right with her fuel usage. It will be interesting to find out from you Ric or Andrew Mckenna as to how this would work with all the changes and modifications it did to the tanks overtime. Let me know...thanks
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Also on that note and additional question is if a plane uses more fuel on one side of the plane than the other will the weight difference force the wings to either move left or right or angle off. Let me know...thanks
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Curious to know if she worked from side to side as a balance or worked from left...then right with her fuel usage. It will be interesting to find out from you Ric or Andrew Mckenna as to how this would work with all the changes and modifications it did to the tanks overtime. Let me know...thanks
Pilot's normally switch tanks periodically to keep the ship balanced. Some fuel systems are more complicated than others. Earhart's was necessarily very complicated. I don't know exactly how she managed her fuel because I wasn't there.
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Also on that note and additional question is if a plane uses more fuel on one side of the plane than the other will the weight difference force the wings to either move left or right or angle off. Let me know...thanks
More weight on one side tends to make the plane tip toward that side.