To declare an emergency or not...this is the question.

[Spectre230]

Flightplan: KSFO to KLNK B737
Problem: On taxi to active RNWY I notice fuel leak from left wing tank. My numbnuts copilot said nothing.
If I taxi back to the gate, will FSP even register the flight? Do I need to declare emergency on the ground?

I ended up taking off and as soon as I reached initial altitude I requested IFR clearance back to SFO (crappy weather, that's why I didn't request
VFR). Initially, things were OK, the plane was stable. I turned on the fuel pumps and heard them operating but nothing was happening on the
guages and the plane was increasingly going out of balance. Still landable though and I didn't want to declare an unneccessary emergency and not
follow my own advice to another poster "if the co-pilot ain't bitchin', it's not an emergency".

Next dilema: the flight attendants start serving food/drinks and the seatbelts come off - I have this set to automatic and now I can't people back in
their seats. NORCAL approach isn't clearing a path for me and vectors me all over the place. The left wing tank is nearing empty and the right wing
is carrying nearly 6000 lbs, the crossfeed pumps aren't working....this is going to be a tough landing! PAN PAN PAN

I declare the emergency but this doesn't seem to increase the controllers efforts to get me down - vector here, vector there. Finally vectored to final, I
configure the plane for landing. I keep the airspeed up as I know the plane is heavy (do I dump fuel at this point??? / keep circling to burn it off ???)
As I turn onto final, both oil pressure lights come on and the plane instantly goes into a stall at 2000 ft. Finally my chimpanzee of a copilot speaks
up.....do something, do something

I did do something....I pressed the esc key.....I'm not sacrificing a career with several hundred hours
vested only to start over - especially when I recognized the problem before take off.

So back to my initial question: If I taxi back to the gate, will FSP even register the flight? Do I need to declare emergency on the ground?

[Joeflyer]

I've not had a situation where the aircraft was leaking fuel prior to takeoff but if you notice it, declare the emergency and go back to the gate.
Obviously if it wasn't a FsP made failure but the built in aircraft failure (like some aircraft software has), FsP won't recognize that failure and
you'll be penalized for falsely declaring an emergency. Have you made sure that you've disabled any failures for the addon aircraft software? I'm
assuming that it is an addon

At any rate, what could it hurt? Like you said earlier....hit the ESC key and get out of the false failure...should it be one of course.

[timtomairways]

also. i would not use default ATC once an emergincy is delcared. I just cancle IFR and monitor the Appropriate Freqs.
Vector yourself in to a RW. Remeber you are in distress. you have priorty.

As far as the weight on landing. With a fule leak and crossfeed not working. you can circle to get below MLAW, or try an Overweight landing. I
would probly do the former depending on wich tank the leak is on.

Just FYI, just caues the copilot aint Bitchen, that dosent mean its not an Emergincy. Several times iv noticed things that he diten. Once on a KATl-
KTPA flight. i had a fule leak at 34000ft over TLH. i Declared a emergincy and landed. Co-pilot sat twidling his thumbs the whole time

[whiskey-zulu]

Sadly, you cannot declare and emergency when you're on the ground, or at least that is my experience when I've noticed things that really shouldn't be
happening to my birdy.

[Spectre230]

I was flying a default FSX Boeing livery 737. The fuel leak must have been generated by FSP.

[Joeflyer]

@ Whiskey...you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. I was considering the fuel leak while airborne...not on the ground The only ground
issue I know of is one engine developing less power than the other, but no emergency declaration is necessary for that one. Aborting the takeoff takes
care of that one

The fuel leak scenario is different though....just take off, declare emergency and return for landing before the fuel imbalance makes the airplane
crab too much on landing

[gbapache]

I will secound Joes' motion. More beer for everyone!!

[marianoberna]

As a newbie, I have a Question

Do the pilots in this forum Drink before flying??? In that case I sugest we implement someting like this

When you reach the flight-simming shed, if you have not fallen more than two times, and, haven't get any bleeding injuries, you are cleared to fly. We
could save thousands of virtual lives!

[gbapache]

I'll drink to that. But then I'll drink to anything.

[Joeflyer]

I use to drink before flying the sim but I have since received intensive therapy. Instead of drinking vodka before and during each flight, I drink
beer

[marianoberna]

Joeflyer wrote:
I use to drink before flying the sim but I have since received intensive therapy. Instead of drinking vodka before and during each flight, I drink
beer

It led to violent, painful, expensive returns to Mother Earth?

[overkiller]

I recently had a fuel leak generated by FSPax. So is it the groups consensus that a fuel leak (disallowing add-on aircraft failures) is likely caused
by FSPax and therefore is an "emergency" while in flight? I didn't declare an emergency as my cross over pumps seemed to work (PMDG B1900C) and
landed without problems. My fuel leak occurred at about 40nm out so fuel exhaustion wasn't a concern for me.

If I get another fuel leak, would I be wise to declare and land? I didn't want to get docked points for an unnecessary emergency.

In the OPs situation, I prolly would have just returned to the gates. I think FSPax will dock you points but at least my pilot would have no chance
of crashing and I can 'repair' my aircraft.