I can only say that techie is 100% correct. IR or OR as they call them now can be raised for any reason , we had a Nimrod hit a deer last month on landing , yes a bizzare thing but an OR highlights things at a higher level. The bird spotting man probaly has to check for deer now wandering near the runway as a result of that. (i dont know for sure) but it brings into practise things that can avoid that in future.
Nice to see some old school NMSU about exrigger , I thought we were a dying breed !!!
Just on a note about the AAR system, the refuelling probes that were fitted to Nimrod were I belive ex Vulcan probes !! I only know that as we used to keep a big pile of them on the NMSU many moons back. I rememeber the fit with the huge rubber pipe down the inside of the jet till the mod was done to hide it underfloor. It was one big bulky pipe
