J430,
Unfortunatley it is very much the case. In a perfect world, in a metro that fly's true and in balance (there are a few around) the opening of the crossflow would on it's own, in balanced and unaccelerated flight, rectify a fuel imbalance situation. However, and I'm sure many metro drivers will agree, the most efficient method of balancing the fuel load is to introduce some slip and expedite the transfer. On it's own and without auto-pilot not an eventful scenario. With the use of A/P.....dunno....never done it.
We used to operate a very low time M23 that would in fact transfer the fuel from the low side to the high side if no slip was introduced. And yes, engineering confirmed on several occasions that the aircraft controls were rigged correctly and that it did fly in a balanced condition if trimmed correctly. We never worked out why and to this day I assume it still behaves in this manner. There were others that by simply opening the crossflow valve with no sideslip the imbalance would be rectified very quickly. I can offer no reasons for these anomolies but will say this. I have several thousands of hours on type and although never once bitten by the beast, always operated within the limitations and treated it with great respect. Indeed I loved flying the metro. Albeit a relatively simple turbo-prop to operate I would never throw caution to the wind whilst flying her. I am sure the lads that payed the ultimate price did not throw caution to the wind either. The old girl just bit very hard on that fateful night. A very sad event.
Fly Safe
Onya
Last edited by onya; 11th Aug 2006 at 08:12.