BA27 Fuel dumping

[Falcon666]

FR24 showing BA27 currently holding over the North Sea.
Second A380 in two days to return to LHR , QF2 yesterday with Cargo door problem.
Wonder if tonight’s is tech or medical?

[Airbubba]

Tonight it seems to be a flap problem according to social media sources.

https://www.flightradar24.com/BAW27/1f70aa0f

[DB777]

Planefinder now showing 2:40 for fuel dumping. QF around 90 mins last night. Both 12/13hr flights.
Very coincidental, same type, same time, same dep airport

[Airbubba]

Planefinder now showing 2:40 for fuel dumping. QF around 90 mins last night.

There might be some restriction on dumping fuel with the flaps out. They may possibly be burning the excess fuel rather than dumping it.

[jumbodriver]

A380 can dump in any config and any speed-will still be overweight having dumped so probably burning the residual to reduce further.

[DaveReidUK]

A380 can dump in any config and any speed-will still be overweight having dumped so probably burning the residual to reduce further.


Forgive my ignorance, but are you saying that there's a maximum amount of fuel that an A380 can dump, and it's not enough to get down to MLW when fuelled for a LHR-HKG sector ?

[Eau de Boeing]

Correct.

You can only dump from the aft galleries on a 380 so the aircraft will quite feasibly still be overweight for landing.

However this isnt isn’t normally an issue. In a dire emergency you can return immediately and land at MTOW.

If if there was a flap/slat issue then they probably dumped just to reduce Vapp and landing distance a bit and not to hammer the brakes/tyres.

[Capt Fathom]

You can only dump from the aft galleries on a 380
In layman's terms, you can only dump fuel from the transfer tanks, but not from the 4 main feed tanks!

Good Description Here On The A380 Fuel System (https://captaindave.aero/2017/09/07/the-a380-fuel-system/)