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Old 8th Sep 2008, 09:35
  #1837 (permalink)  
Swedish Steve
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
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It is obvious to me that the centre tank contents is warmer than the wing tanks. The centre tank is emptied on every flight. The tank has packs under it, a warm cabin above it and a lukewarm freight hold in front of it. Even the wheel well behind it is warmer than ambient.
So why no save a few tons of fuel in the centre tank, and use it for the final descent and landing? All you have to do is turn off the centre tank pumps at say five tons remaining, and turn them back on at TOD. The higher delivery pressure of the OJ pumps would ensure the warm (how warm?) centre tank fuel is delivered to the engines, with reserve fuel in the wings to take over if necessary.

I believe there are reports (sorry - can't find references at present) of water-in-fuel warnings at start up which sort themselves out during taxi.
These warnings are not visible to the crew, but are stored in EICAS memory.
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