Sid I suspect you believe the supply tanks were indicating full. Is that what you are referring too? If it is then are you also telling me the main tank was indicating empty?
However if the supply banks indicated full and the main tank was also indicating its actual contents then the the helicopter would have "made" and extra 30-40 minutes of fuel during the tasks. Surely this would be obvious to a regular 135 pilot such that when the low fuel aural and visual warnings from the supply tanks activated a penny would drop.
Also with still 80 kgs indicating in the main tank the TRFR pumps should have been on.
Above all Sid the lesson here is that none of us should try routinely to second guess the FM Emergency Responses. If the pilot followed the requirements of the FM that night he should have RTBed at the first Low Fuel Caption. There are good reasons for the procedures being written this way. They are written in respect of the design failure modes of the aircraft.
I come across this a lot these days. Pilots who operate falsely believing the FM is flawed or inadequate because the manufacturer is hiding something or can't be bothered. In the major manufacturers this is very far from reality as the TPs who post on this site will tell you. Safety in design or procedure, or lack of it, is devastating to business.
In the last few years we have had other instances where FM procedures are not respected leading to loss of life. The Newfoundland S92 for eg.
The problem is that afterwards the naked and awful truth seems so hard to accept. People look for answers as to why the individual may have behaved the way they do. In the Newfoundland case, flying over a cold inhospitable ocean, it's not too hard to forgive a pilot who, armed with a little ****e knowledge, choose to press on for home hoping he could spare his pax a ditching ordeal.
In this case, accepting routine tasks over land when the warnings the helicopter was issuing required a land ASAP within 10 minutes seems very different.
Sid the acid test here for you is this. Armed now with the detail of the report, flying tonight and the Low Fuel Warnings illuminate would you check you pumps and land within 10 minutes OR just carry on accepting task.
Which action conforms to the FM.
thats really all I have to say and sorry Sid if you think I am accusing you of something. It's just the white noise you perpetuate confuses what is a simple issue.
Sid I did manage 5 years Police and HEMs so I hope that qualifies as more than a toe dip! I will give you one war story though. Arriving in BAOR as a young Subaltern Pilot I was asked by my new OC to pick him up in my car on my way to work. I had never met the guy before and he was really upset that on the way to work we ran out of fuel! I could not understand why he found this such a big problem especially as I had gone out of my way to get him. Then my QHI explained it to me. A lesson I never forgot.
Last edited by DOUBLE BOGEY; 8th Nov 2015 at 07:17.