AC OVEE
I have been reading some of your recent postings and am frankly, astonished by some of your comments:
For example, on the subject of flying the Nimrod you said. ‘Yes, I would. And yes, I would do AAR. Why? Because AAR in a Nimrod is no more dangerous than AAR in any other aircraft’
On what exactly do you base that comment? Do you not think that with the several recent AAR fuel leak problems with the MR2 and the loss of 230, AAR in a Nimrod is just slightly more dangerous than say an E-3 or a VC-10 or a fast jet maybe?
You also said: ‘XV230 experienced a fuel fire due to any one of a number of causes, and I know that ALL of those causes have since been identified and mitigated. XV235 suffered ONLY a fuel leak. Yes, it sprayed into the bomb bay, but it would never have become a fire because there was nothing in there to ignite it’
That implies that you know what caused the fire on 230. Can you tell us what it was please? Can you also tell us what exactly has been done to eliminate the possible causes of fire in the bomb bay? I would suggest to you that ‘ONLY’ a fuel leak of the magnitude that 235 appears to have had, is a pretty major event. Certainly it was serious enough for the aircraft to be withdrawn from theatre, so it clearly wasn’t a ‘minor’ incident was it?
And your comment: ‘Those who know what a Mayday means will form the impression that the crew were in imminent danger. They were not. They never were’
This shows a high degree of ignorance on your part and implies that the crew and captain were wrong in their actions. Perhaps you were on board at the time, and can tell us how it really was? FYI I am a captain of a large 4 engine aircraft, and if I had a major fuel leak similar to that of 235, then I wouldn’t hesitate in putting out a MAYDAY, because you ARE in serious and imminent danger, and you DO need immediate assistance (CAP413)
I will refrain from commenting about what you wrote about Fuel and Ignition, because you are fundamentally wrong. High pressure fuel vapour is NOT difficult to ignite at all (why do you think we have such severe restrictions around aircraft during fuelling?)
You are quite correct however, when you say that ‘Crew captains, sat in the front of the jet, trying to locate the tanker in scattered cloud do not want their co-pilots, radar ops and beam lookouts being distracted by thoughts of, "we should not be doing this, I read it on pprune, etc"’ But the loss of 230 was a fact, and the fuel leak on 235 WAS a fact, as were all the other incidents of fuel leaks/AAR problems. PPrune isn’t responsible for that, and to suggest that the crews wouldn’t have known about it if they hadn’t read it on PPrune is stupid. And to say that PPrune doesn’t have a voice – how wrong you are! I would think that the postings from the likes of Tappers Dad and others on this forum has been a major factor in the delay in the publication of the BoI.
I look forward to your reply.
The Winco