Looks like you are slowly joining the dots LB about a PICs responsibility. You have to give yourself the best chance of avoiding the pitfalls of marginal aircraft, remote airports and unreliable forecasting.
I understand him to be saying that you have to know the specific gravity of the particular fuel to be uploaded, as the weight of the fuel and the weight of medical staff, patient, patient’s partner and medical equipment all contribute to MTOW. It also makes a difference to how much ‘thrust for the buck’ that you get. And TOW affects how quickly you can get ‘up there’.
Apparently the SG of jet fuel varies, substantially, across various ports.
I understand one conclusion of his analysis against the applicable requirements is that the Westwind couldn’t actually comply in many operational circumstances.
Nothing new here and none of it would have or should have been unknown to the crew.
My summation (which could be wrong) of their analysis is that even if the PIC of NGA could legally have uploaded full fuel (which they say he might not lawfully have been able to do), he still ends up with insufficient fuel to make it to somewhere else after being unable to land at YSNF.
You are not wrong but refer to my previous comment and also Checkboard's comment:
Maybe. If he had turned up with 2 hours holding, then the chance of finding a weather window and performing a successful approach would have been strong. ... and if not, then the preparations for ditching (in the aircraft and on the ground) would have been significantly better.
So the question is why wouldn't you load as much fuel as possible? R Davies has never flown a Westwind, B Aherne has never flown fixed wing so I lean towards the experience of someone like Checkboard who reckons that full fuel was possible. Going to somewhere like NFI its the only thing that going to buy you time when the weather turns bad. That's a Captain's decision. I don't accept the mob rule that the PIC was an innocent victim. Sure the system was flawed but it always has been.