CXA546 asked: What is the reason for shutting off the pumps on 1 & 3? I don't have an engineer, or a co-pilot, so if I forget to check my fuel config, by leaving the pumps on, if the center tank is depleted, the 1 & 3 should feed all engines because the cross-feeds are open? I seems safer to just leave the pumps on and use the valves to direct the fuel.

The lack of a "good" flight engineer on the 727 is a problem, but you do have to keep an eye on the fuel & keep it in balance both in pitch and roll. If you kept all the cross feed valves opened and left all boost pumps on you would only use the fuel from the center tank and would exceed the operating limits of the 727 in having wing fuel and no center fuel. CG & Structural limits.

If you don't care about operating the fuel panel in the correct manner, sure you could let the tank run dry and have the wing tanks try to feed all engines. You might just find that one of the boost pumps in tanks one or three is putting out a bit more pressure than the others and soon you will have a roll balance problem.

It would have been nice if CS had given us a "good" F/E (auto oilier) who would watch the systems...  :-/

Lou