Originally Posted by
Nuasea
Although fuel analysis revealed no indication of water, it was always the RAF practice to fill Chipmunk fuel tanks completely at the end of the day’s flying to avoid condensation within the tanks collecting st the bottom. By the pilots own admission, this was never done with his aircraft so could water droplets have entered the carburettor during the take off and caused the loss in power.
All good in theory, except that in this day and age leaving an aircraft full of fuel overnight just increases the likelyhood that your fuel will go missing overnight. As to whether it could have been a factor, well of course it "could" have been....as could an awful lot of other things. Which is why we have ATSB investigators whose job it is to mull it over.