So in the AP+ announcement post, there were so many replies on experiences, bugs and many other things. One thing I particularly highlighted is the fuel issue, where in the fuel is not really getting consumed as in real life.
So a few staff told me that, it is intentional that the fuel flow is reduced in AP+ and I thought its reasonable.
But for every long haul flight, even spanning 16-18 hrs, I am getting left with a lot of fuel and I am pretty much always having to dump fuel before landing. And its not even marginally higher than MLW. Usually 30 to 40 Tons > MLW
So, to know to what extent the fuel flow is reduces, I have done something unconventional. I have started a flight on an A321, from VABB to EGLL. In real life, it shouldn’t be able to make it.
This is the load I have started with:
The fuel flow I see at M 0.78 is about 6000tons/ hr. So 7 1/2 hrs should mean a fuel consumption of some 45000 + KG of fuel consumption, while I didn’t even have that much on board at the start of flight.
And finally at the end of flight, this is the fuel left after more than 8 hrs of flying on an A321
I mean I get it, that as the players will be away, it would probably a good idea to have reduced fuel flow, bug its okay as long as the efficiency is up by 10 or 15%. But in these cases, with such a reduced fuel flow, I think we are going much farther from realism.
Please let me know what you all think of it. And hope this will change a big in the next update.
The staff are aware of the “issues” with fuel burn being “excessively low/high” when AutoPilot+ is engaged. (It’s actually higher than usual in some aircraft - I think the fighter jets). It will hopefully get tweaked in future update(s).
Given its the first version of this feature in Infinite Flight (and really the first time this feature as been in any flight sim natively), its going to have creases (like fuel burn) that need to be smoothed out.
Now that i think about the only aircraft I have this issue with is the 747-400. long haul flights are impossible, if the flight is 8 hours plus you are not making it . I will do a test flight just to make sure if it was just a bug or something. I evem either put extra fuel or just flat out fill the tank. Whenever i do long haul especially10 hour plus fligths i always add extra fuel. But thw 747-400 is definingly give me a hard time.
I did the LAX-DXB flight on the a380. Was literally at MTOW and I came back and I was at 1,100,000 pounds approaching Dubai. My landing weight was supposed to be 800k pounds, so that’s a HUGE difference. Not complaining, but yeah, I think I’ll let the devs fix it when they get to it. It was just funny to me especially since I never had to dump fuel before.
To rectify those differences you should check in multiple times and adjust your altitudes if you do step climb that can help alot and as well correcting the speed difference as well. AP+ in current state doesn’t work with wind alofts so fuel consumption will never be accurate.
As @BennyBoy_Alpha said: AP+ is actually in Version 0. Staff needs to keep the first version as simple as possible and as complex as neccesary. So, the fuel burn is a bit reduced and the wind is “frozen” at the moment you leave the game. Now, Staff can check, how servers react to the increased traffic and how much headroom is left for increasing the parameters for AP+. In the end, thousands of players want, that there flights behave like they’re running live on their devices. But, don’t forget, that the server must therefore also have the power to calculate all the parameters for every single flight, that is probably done by your devices. That’s a lot of performance needed and to preserve a crash of servers and ruining the experience of thousands of players, IF increases this amount of parameters transfered to the server, when in AP+, slowly, checking, that no new parameter destroys the already existing ones. Give them time! This feature is an incredible thing we have now, saving us time and giving us oportunities we only dreamed off a few weeks ago. If you plan ahead to use AP+ in a long time for your flight, pack a bit less fuel or use M10 in SimBrief, to reduce the fuel thats given to your plane. I know, Fuel Dump is an option, but only on bigger planes. A320s or 737s don’t have this. So if you need APPR Mode for landing and you know you use AP+, take less fuel with you.
Another thing would help: log in to your game at least once an hour to update the wind and maybe do a step climb. Could increase fuel burn, cause you then may experience a headwind for example.
OR! use IF Remote! You can leave your flight running actively on your iPad and can controle it with your iPhone. Keeps it all realistic, but keeps occupiing the device for IF. It’s up to you. @Saf , @EthanO and @likeablegeek put a lot of heart into this project and it works incredibly well, with features like holding patterns, step climbs, notifications and so on. I love it.
AP+ will get better and it will be very quick, I guess. Enjoy this feature. We can call us lucky to have it already as it is.
