Avionics Bending: Fuel Consumed Indication

L-1011 Fuel Consumption Indication System

The Engine Fuel Consumption indicator in the L-1011 cockpit consists of two instruments. The "Fuel Used" instrument located on the Second Officers lower console and the "Fuel Flow" (FF) instrument located on the main instrument panel. There is one of these instrument combinations for each engine.

The instrument on the right is the Fuel Used indicator which receives signals from the fuel flow meter installed as part of the engine fuel flow system. The signals received from the sensors are then routed through the Fuel Used instrument to the Fuel Flow instrument shown on the left in the image above.

Fuel Used Schematic 

From Lockheed L-1011 WDM, 1981

The Fuel Used Instrument is a GE 8DJ171 LWA 3

Fuel Flow Schematic 

From Lockheed L-1011 WDM, 1981

The Fuel Flow Instrument is a GE 8DJ170 LWA 1

Typically on the L-1011 every instrument has a test switch right on the instrument that drives the indicator to a predefined position. However, as you can see, the Fuel Flow instrument (on the left) does not have a test switch, because, it is tested via the Fuel Used instrument.

Below is a short video the shows the test of the Fuel Used and attached Fuel Flow instrument using the two position test switch on the Fuel Used Instrument

Original Flight Hardware: Engine Cluster

The Lockheed L-1011 has an awesome engine cluster. It is home to the EPR, N1, EGT, N3 and FF gauges. In the picture above, you actually see instruments from a Boeing 747. I chose the B747 instruments because the will be easier to automate and control with the flight simulator software.





Another deviation from the standard L-1011 engine cluster that you might have noticed by now is that I, for now, substituted N2 gauges for the L-1011 N3 gauge. The reason being that the N3 gauges are pretty difficult to find. However, it does not mean that I will not replace the B747 N2 gauges with N3 gauges that better fit the 3 compressor stages of the L-1011 engines.



As you can see from the picture above, there are quite a few things still missing from the center panel. I don't have any of the standby instrumentation ... which will hopefully come soon.

Panel Location


L-1011 flight station picture used with permission from Sam Chui. Retrieved from airliners.net