Winco:
Forget about licensed engineers and all that nonesence and concentrate on the important matters here. The hard fact is that at ISK (and probably elsewhere in the RAF) you DO NOT use up-to-date kit to locate fuel leaks do you? You use a method that we have all used for years when we have had a puncture on our bikes! Unfortunately, as has been proven and shown (in my last posting) this is NOT reliable, and should not be used. ENDEX
The RAF uses appropriate test equipment to check for fuel leaks, just like any other aircraft operator. I would go further and state that the Nimrod fleet is probably the only operator that checks vent pipes for leaks, in addition to post fit examination, etc. After all, they are not pressurized pipes, they are open to atmosphere and they direct air into, and out of, fuel tanks. 90% of the vent system is submerged in, or is routed above, fuel. There are some relatively short lengths of pipe, in the Rib 1 areas, that interconnect the fuel tanks. Air leak tests of these pipes, however they are achieved, ARE NOT MANDATED by the designer.
Its a matter of opinion if the absence of leak tests on vent pipes makes an aircraft unsafe. Therefore, its also a matter of opinion on how any such tests are best carried out. The fact that we are doing them, now, and the method employed does not necessarily infer that it was unsafe to omit them before. The IPT are simply acting on an observation made by 3 senior officers (the BOI).