Originally Posted by
ex-fast-jets
sandiego89.......
The GR3 with the 330 gal ferry tanks was a bit of a dog - but it flew OK as long as you were gentle with it. It was very "g" limited (2.5g rings a bell in my tired old brain). The biggest problem with the tanks was that they could be unreliable and fuel transfer could be a problem. The plus side is that if they worked, they worked - if they didn't, you generally found out in time to turn round and go back home.
I did the 9 hours UK to Ascension - we then unloaded the tanks for the short flight to VL on Atlantic Conveyor. I suspect that the flights to which you refer were the four flown from Ascension direct to HERMES - by then, Atlantic Conveyor was on the bottom. The four pilots that flew those 9 hour flights did a terrific job and had never before landed on a boat. They had to jettison the 330 gal tanks before they could VL on HERMES - and they carried outboard 100 gal tanks (empty - the outboard pylons were not "wet") to augment the ones we had on HERMES, some of which had a few holes in them from small arms or shrapnel. Plus a couple had been jettisoned into the sea. We had lost 4 of the 6 GR3's we took down, and the replacement 4 GR3's needed the 100 gal tanks to replace the 330 tanks that they had had to jettison before they could land. The 100 gal tanks were necessary because of the distance the carrier was from the Islands.
Hope that makes sense...............
Yes perfect sense, thank you. I had miss-remembered the ferry flight was from Ascension to HERMES (not Conveyor) - quite an adventure!
As I understand it the Harrier had limited capability to move fuel around. How many plugs did you have to do on the long ferry flight? and how many pounds would you take on each fill? I assume the feed would drain from the ferry tanks first. Hope I'm not a bother with questions. Thank you.