I've just pulled my post over from the Nimrod thread. In a way it proves that what goes round goes around.
Someone suggested that AAR training could continue on the Nimrod pending a fix of a potential system fault using a dry proding technique.
I recalled:
Unless the AAR system has been changed since I had my training many moons ago, and indeed I may be talking b*ll*cks, but I believe a dry prod is not exactly dry.
The hose was full of fuel at full trail. When the receiver engaged and pushed forward the fuel in th ehose has to go somewhere. The somewhere used to be in to the receiver. Only a few pounds at a time but several prods later was sufficient to extend the range of the receiver and shorten the pubrise time for the tanker.
This was as taught at the Valiant OCU to us would be Vulcan receivers back in 1964.
This was then partly confirmed by RAF Techie:
I believe the hose of the tanker has to be pressurized with fuel to stop it flapping about in the airflow and keep it vaguely steady. Again, I too may be talking rubbish but that's what I've been led to believe.
and finally confirmed by ORAC:
Correct for the centreline HDU IIRC, which of course is all that is relevant . . .
[I left my last sentence out
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