Pitts,
You keep banging on about height, weight and temperature. Let me put that issue to rest for you.
Shoreham Airfield is 7 feet above sea level. Given the QNH on the day, no problems with pressure altitude. Display altitude was not a performance factor in this accident.
The aircraft was filled to full deliberately because of the need to transit, hold, display, transit, recover. To get from North Weald to Shoreham, avoiding that big bit of airspace between them called London, would have meant something in the region of 150nms at reasonably low altitude. Including SUTTO, transit and hold he would have burnt at least 2500lbs, which you mean the external tanks were empty and internals no longer full (mental dead reckoning on my part and we don't know how long the hold was). It would have been normal to get airborne from the display location with full internals and display after a short hold with similar fuel to this event). This was not a heavyweight display; he was flying the aircraft at or near to the usual all up weight.
Aircraft fit: G-BXFI was always flown with the external tanks fitted; it is not common practice to remove and fit the tanks. Configuration was the same as flown for all AH's displays and practices. Configuration is not an issue.
Temperature: 28 degrees is not an unusually hot day for jet performance and only 3-5 degrees above the average for that area in the previous two months (depending on which Met Office data you use). Close enough to the conditions he was used to in recent displays/practices. Temperature on the day was not a significant factor. Combine that with what i said earlier about pressure altitude, you can deduce that density altitude was not a factor.
Within the bounds of the limited information available, it is reasonable to ASSUME that AH's decision to fill to full was sound and did not lead to abnormal auw at the time of the display. Aircraft fit was normal and was the same as he had flown previously during displays and practices. The met conditions on the day were not significantly different from those he had flown in recently.
Another drum that doesn't yield a meaningful tune.
Last edited by Courtney Mil; 25th Sep 2015 at 12:29.