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Can anyone advise the order in which the fuel in the fuel tanks in an A380 is used please? My understanding is that the inner tanks empty first but I just wanted to check.

Center tank first for wing bending relief would be the only sane choice...

I'm pretty sure the 380 has no center tank, at least in the current version. But if it did, that would always be emptied first.

Typically you'd empty from inboard and out, but with quads it becomes a bit more complex. I think the 380 has four tanks per wing plus the trim tank.

Looking at this diagram, my guess is something like this:
- Inboard engines fed from feed tanks "2". Outer engines fed from feed tanks "1".
- Inner tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Mid tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Trim tank transfers to the feed tanks once at a certain fuel level or at a certain time before arrival.
- Outer tanks transfer to the feed tanks.

How does a plane with that many systems, toilets, fuel tanks, lights, kitchens, passengers etc fly without a jack of all trades who can fix anything fixable? Kind of like a 'supe' in a luxury apartment tower. Obviously at the beck and call first of the pilot, down to a passenger who just threw up in the toilet. In this case do the tanks ever have to be managed manually?

frmrCapCadet wrote:

How does a plane with that many systems, toilets, fuel tanks, lights, kitchens, passengers etc fly without a jack of all trades who can fix anything fixable? Kind of like a 'supe' in a luxury apartment tower. Obviously at the beck and call first of the pilot, down to a passenger who just threw up in the toilet. In this case do the tanks ever have to be managed manually?

I don't fly the 380, but the 330 doesn't exactly have the simplest fuel system either. Or as described by one of my instructors: "obviously designed by a lunatic..."

That being said, unless there's an emergency, all we do is turn the fuel pumps on during cockpit prep, and turn them off after we park. All the magic of trim tank transfers, outer tank transfers, APU feeding from different locations and so on is automatic. If there is an emergency, most likely ECAM and/or the QRH will tell us what to do. Of course we have to understand the intricacies in case something happens, but the finicky stuff doesn't exactly come up on a daily basis.

There used to be a flight engineer to deal with all the fiddly bits. Done by computers now. Not to say a flight engineer wouldn't be handy every now and then (they certainly knew the systems), but stuff like managing pressurization manually in normal operations is a thing of the past.

Starlionblue wrote:

I'm pretty sure the 380 has no center tank, at least in the current version. But if it did, that would always be emptied first.

Typically you'd empty from inboard and out, but with quads it becomes a bit more complex. I think the 380 has four tanks per wing plus the trim tank.

Looking at this diagram, my guess is something like this:
- Inboard engines fed from feed tanks "2". Outer engines fed from feed tanks "1".
- Inner tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Mid tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Trim tank transfers to the feed tanks once at a certain fuel level or at a certain time before arrival.
- Outer tanks transfer to the feed tanks.

That's pretty much it according to page 158 of the following PDF

http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/A380_B ... rt%202.pdf

Regards, JetMech

jetmech wrote:

Starlionblue wrote:

I'm pretty sure the 380 has no center tank, at least in the current version. But if it did, that would always be emptied first.

Typically you'd empty from inboard and out, but with quads it becomes a bit more complex. I think the 380 has four tanks per wing plus the trim tank.

Looking at this diagram, my guess is something like this:
- Inboard engines fed from feed tanks "2". Outer engines fed from feed tanks "1".
- Inner tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Mid tanks transfer to feed tanks.
- Trim tank transfers to the feed tanks once at a certain fuel level or at a certain time before arrival.
- Outer tanks transfer to the feed tanks.

That's pretty much it according to page 158 of the following PDF

http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/A380_B ... rt%202.pdf

Regards, JetMech

Thanks for that PDF. Very interesting.

It seems they started with the 330/340 fuel system and made it more complex. So much complexity. That fuel panel is giving me nightmares.

I can see it now... 5 hours left on a loooong line check sector.
Check captain: "All that was good, but let's talk about the fuel system."
Pilot being checked thinking ***I wonder how much it will hurt if I stab myself in the eye with this plastic fork***