As a general rule, fill to full is the best use of a tanker offload. Certainly a large receivers burn will increase significantly during the whole of the period which includes pre-positioning. The on-load rate, however, will drop as tanks fill so the last few lbs may well be unproductive with the receiver burning fuel as fast as he gets it. Choice of level,speed etc is ideally picked to obtain best overall fuel consumption for the whole formation, not necessarily the best for the receiver and not always best weather-wise.
The Black Buck missions involved so many refuels, both Victor/ Vulcan and Victor/Victor, all essential for success and fraught with equipment problems, South Atlantic high level haze and turbulence and sheer pressure on the crews. In those circumstances it was vital to get the maximum value out of every successful contact.
Last edited by Art Field; 10th Sep 2007 at 11:12.