QF refuelling at Melbourne from an A380????
 

News is reporting AJ has sent a fully fuelled 380 to Melbourne to refuel planes from during the refueller pay strike.
I doubt this is even physically possible, but if it was, who’s equipment are they going to use and who is going to do it?
You would have to have some qual to refuel an airliner, Kevin from catering isn’t going to do it.
those who know, is this the biggest BS story of the century from mainstream media?
I’ll bet QF has no plane to plane refuelling chapter in their ops manual!
did some $hit for brains see a 380 landing and assume it was a tanker!

I think you’ll find most domestic aircraft will tanker fuel in to Melbourne so won’t require any fuel today.

The 380 may be defuelled using standard defuelling procedures into a tanker truck and then that fuel may be used to refuel international aircraft that are unable to tanker.

Just because you have not heard about it before doesn't mean its not a procedue.
QF have a track record of doing this, I think they used a 744 to do it in NZAA some time. A company I worked for had a procedure to be able to do it between two jets and even practiced the procedure when the fuel at a remote destination was U/S.

There was a thread last month about the difficulties faced when needing to remove excess fuel from an aircraft due to last minute load changes. https://www.pprune.org/australia-new...uel+%2Boffload
The only Airbus I know of that has an inbuilt defuel facility is the KC30 MRTT. Did the government come to Qantas assistance?

An A380 using a ‘QF6000’ callsign positioned from SYD to MEL yesterday afternoon.

It is possible.
There are procedures for it.
QF does have the equipment in MEL to carry it out.
Either aircraft to tanker, or aircraft to aircraft.
Engineers can refuel/defuel aircraft.

Let's think about it. If they knew that it wasn't possible (which it is by the way), then why would they send an A380 to Melbourne in the first place? It's not a cheap thing to do. Let's cut QF management some slack here.

Easily QF's most expensive and most useful asset right now!

QF Engineers do thing like change engines, landing gear, do heavy maintenance……
FFS it’s just transferring fuel from one aircraft to another for which they are capable of doing. If there’s not a procedure then create one!

Pilots seem to really over complicate things. I once remember a captain refusing to accept a fuel docket on a stick thru the window of an A320 because there wasn’t a ‘procedure’ in the ops manual for it. 🤦

This sort of tankering goes back to the days of yore, remember when fuel was a problem decades ago when a mere slip of a lad and we had DC-9's coming to Whyalla to fill the tanks to the brim and transport same to Adelaide, pilots thought it great sport, empty aircraft. First time Whyalla saw a jet.

Inter-plane fuel transfers were very common at Qantas in the 1980s during times of industrial strife. Qantas designed and manufactured the gear for these transfers . The protagonists invariably involved the TWU and/or the Storemen and Packers who weren’t even employed by Qantas. The B747 was a great tanker, bringing fuel up to its MLW for distribution to other aircraft. I dare say the A380 was planned into Melbourne with fuel to its MLW.

A380 MLW 392,00kg & Ave Empty Weight 290,000kg.

They'd probably be aiming to get up to 100T usable on arrival.

As an aside, with 400 pax and a bit of other stuff and some dodgy weather at the destination, it was not unusual to be above MLW until the last hour of the flight.

It’s expensive but it also breaks the strike which is pretty much what Q is good at.

C441,
Very interesting but the venerable 747 was a superior tanker. The 380 would be stranded if all of the landed fuel was sucked out. Ital ost as useless as the SPs.

It may minimise the impact on some longer flights, but contrary to the way some media organisations are depicting it, the dispute is not between Qantas and the refuellers rather between the refuellers and their employer who happens to supply fuel to Qantas. However yes; the current Qantas executive do have a history of subverting strike action by any means legal or dubiously legal and regardless of the goodwill impact it may have on their customers. Goodwill towards staff (and vice versa) began disappearing during the tenure of the previous CEO and has been non-existent in operational fields since the current CEO took office.

Its true
Aircraft arrived with lots of fuel
Aircraft parking behind 380 refuelling direct from aircraft

I get it, its an anonymous bulletin board, but seriously what is this post?

Really puts into perspective a lot of "qualified opinions" you read on here. Mine included too.

Well at the very least, you have learnt something today.

When AKL had a fuel shortage a few years ago Qantas flow a couple of fuelled up 747's across and used that to fuel Qantas and Jetstar aircraft. Fuelers were not involved, all done by engineers. Same in MEL I am guessing.

Standard procedure in Heavy to pump out the fuel from the next heavy check into the one just leaving heavy, did it heaps of times on the 767

Also did it in on Boeings in the 70's but at main base as problem looking after the special Self Sealing fuel hose + bonding wire, the former could not be air freighted with remaining fuel/vapour inside. Reason at main base was often no de-fuel tanker available, the fueling Co. did not often keep one empty and if it did, the fuel removed had to be used by same operator pretty soon after, then they had to do extra checks to that tanker in-case of contamination.

Current Qantas executive? I think you need to talk to someone who was around in the 70s and/or 80s. Qantas has had people subverting industrial action since way before it was entered on the stock exchange (again) and long before the current and previous CEO(s) tenure. I remember management loading aeroplanes in the 70s and into the 80s when the company was under government ownership (and during periods of ALP government too).