Originally Posted by Art_Of_Flight
Scuffers, it most certainly is not the standard practice to land with less than MLA fuel, it's not something that can be covered up. The police crew would be aware of it (they are an integral part of the challenge and response pre-landing checks and the refuelling process, and it would require collusion to falsify the tech log records....not something the police are going to do. If it did land with less than MLA, I would expect an MOR to be raised and a degree of de-briefing from management to take place. We still have no evidence that Dave knew he would land with less than MLA though I agree that the flight time suggests strongly that would be the case.
What I am trying to get at here is that if the 400Kg's initial fuel load figure is correct, (ie. some ~150Kg's below topped tanks) and given a pilot experienced in Police work of this nature would have a pretty good idea of what his endurance would be, why would you:
1) not just start with a full fuel load knowing that you could be called on to divert, etc at any time and thus give you the maximum flexabilty?
2) not aim to be back on the ground well within MOP limits? (I would have more sympathy with this if he had been in rural airspace with plenty more options to put down in a fuel emergency and further away from base.)
yes, you're quite right, without data recording, we just don't know what he was looking at, however, as a total non-pilot type looking at it from the outside, I find it impossible to understand how he managed to miss all the warnings/signs of fuel starvation and not at least go for the Xfer pumps even if the gauge was showing zero (what have you got to loose?)
The other bit I can't get my head round is that he much have been aware he was in strife before asking for clearance?