Freebies?
Point Seven, I don't think that a few kn**bheads are trying to get freebies. It is genuinely useful to undertake a familiarisation flight occassionally. Moreover there was a rather bad airmiss a few years ago and the AAIB identified a lack of understanding or appreciation on the controller's part of the performance characteristics of the aircraft involved..AAIB 4/98. In its submission to the board NATS recognised the value of familiarisation flights. Safety recommendation 4.2 of the report ,also referred to as Recommendation 98-36, directed ATS providers to ensure that controllers are familiar with the operating characteristics of the aircraft for which they are likely to be responsible.....etc. I respectfully suggest that fuel management is an integral part of the operating characteristic of a modern airliner. I cannot agree with your point of view that such flights are merely "freebies".////Kick the Tyres, had to chuckle a bit, I was at Pershore for a while and the Meteor with the Tornado Radar Nose used to take off for a 59 minute sortie with one hours fuel....his idea[ Blackbox callsign] of a fuel emergency was when he had to shut one down on the downwind leg in order to have enough juice to taxi back to the hangar!