Tristar dumps fuel at EDI
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He was in the hold at EDN for around 30 mins at 5000' with gear down. He stated 80 POB and would be landing at around 180kts as unable to deploy any flaps, so brakes would be hot and requested to be met by fire crew as a precaution. After vacated and a quick inspection, continued taxying to block 33.
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why not head to leuchars , Lossiemouth or Kinloss ? ie a R.A.F. Base ?
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Try telling that to the SNCO mover in the Falklands a couple of years back
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A SNCO mover is the sole person responsible for dispatching a flight out of the Falklands area. No one else is aware of times to meet flights, JCCC / JOC. Falklands Ops etc.
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Ron
Unless it has changed, Having done 2 trips to Brazil escorting comps, and spending 4 months working in JABC down south. All comp flights were classified and booked by the comp cell in the UK and then backed up with a signal to the JOC down south. I was always told the timings by either JCCC or the JOC.
Unless it has changed, Having done 2 trips to Brazil escorting comps, and spending 4 months working in JABC down south. All comp flights were classified and booked by the comp cell in the UK and then backed up with a signal to the JOC down south. I was always told the timings by either JCCC or the JOC.
Getting Compassionate cases home when necessary is one thing the RAF does get right I'm pleased to say. Laying on an aircraft/helicopter as and when, or diverting en route not a problem.
Coming back was another story though.
From the aircrew perspective, compassionates are very rewarding! Cruise at max permitted, ask for as many directs as you can and explain the situation to the air traffickers.....
We once brought a chap back whose relative was on her last legs. Landed on RW26 at Brize, full reverse and firm braking to make the intersction and to hell with normal noise rules. Stopped on the waterfront, steps were all ready and the movers had a wagon sitting ready to go with its engine running. As soon as we'd stopped the ALM had the guy and his bag ready at the door; door open, steps up, DAMO rushed the chap into the wagon and over to a 32 Sqn 125 which had cranked up as we taxyed in. On board, start the second donk, take the intersection and it was taking-off before we'd parked and finished the shut down checks - the chap had been on the tarmac for less than 30 seconds! He made it before she passed away - job done!
And that's how we do that!
We once brought a chap back whose relative was on her last legs. Landed on RW26 at Brize, full reverse and firm braking to make the intersction and to hell with normal noise rules. Stopped on the waterfront, steps were all ready and the movers had a wagon sitting ready to go with its engine running. As soon as we'd stopped the ALM had the guy and his bag ready at the door; door open, steps up, DAMO rushed the chap into the wagon and over to a 32 Sqn 125 which had cranked up as we taxyed in. On board, start the second donk, take the intersection and it was taking-off before we'd parked and finished the shut down checks - the chap had been on the tarmac for less than 30 seconds! He made it before she passed away - job done!
And that's how we do that!
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a flight which always intrigued me. In the mid 1980's I met a chap (his parents ran the Bull Inn in Cavendish, Suffolk) who'd been flown out of the Falklands in a Hercules with an axe stuck in his head. He was a contractor working on MPA, and there'd been an argument over snoring in the dormitory, which ended up with another worker axing him while he was asleep. When I met him he seemed totally recovered.
The story as he knew it (I guess he wouldn't have been awake at the time) was of a low-level Hercules flight to Ascension, followed by a VC10 back to the UK.
Now my question - just how low would that Hercules have flown to reduce any risk of brain damage due to bleeding? It strikes me it must have been a heck of a flight
Sorry, not quite a "compassionate" flight, but close to it
The story as he knew it (I guess he wouldn't have been awake at the time) was of a low-level Hercules flight to Ascension, followed by a VC10 back to the UK.
Now my question - just how low would that Hercules have flown to reduce any risk of brain damage due to bleeding? It strikes me it must have been a heck of a flight
Sorry, not quite a "compassionate" flight, but close to it
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James, the answer to your question is as low as safely possible. High altitude cerebral edema (HACE) is the end-stage of AMS (conversely AMS can be thought of as the mild form of HACE). When you have HACE, your brain swells and stops working properly.
HACE symptoms include a number of signs of mental functions failing: confusion, fatigue and weird behaviour. But the most reliable one is gait ataxia, and you can test it by walking heel to toe along a straight line on the ground. Healthy people can pass this test easily; anyone who has difficulty balancing while they do it is showing signs of HACE.
HACE is extremely serious, and you may only have a few hours to help someone with HACE. The main treatment for this is descent, but a person experiencing these symptoms will need significant help. Dexamethasone is one drug that can be used to relieve symptoms, but it is just a temporary bridge to give more time for descent.
HACE symptoms include a number of signs of mental functions failing: confusion, fatigue and weird behaviour. But the most reliable one is gait ataxia, and you can test it by walking heel to toe along a straight line on the ground. Healthy people can pass this test easily; anyone who has difficulty balancing while they do it is showing signs of HACE.
HACE is extremely serious, and you may only have a few hours to help someone with HACE. The main treatment for this is descent, but a person experiencing these symptoms will need significant help. Dexamethasone is one drug that can be used to relieve symptoms, but it is just a temporary bridge to give more time for descent.
I remember, 1990 ish, a jag mate who was auth'ed to take a jet home from Deci when his wife went into labour unexpectedly, landed at Norwich, and arrived at the hospital before the mother-in-law who lived 4 miles away.
Also provided chauffeur service for one of our navs in a similar situation- 3:15 from phone call in Deci to bedside in North Yorkshire, and we brought a bent jet back too.
Also provided chauffeur service for one of our navs in a similar situation- 3:15 from phone call in Deci to bedside in North Yorkshire, and we brought a bent jet back too.
We were laid up for the day in a coppice on a two-week LRRP exercise in Denmark when an RAF Puma suddenly landed right next to us.
"Yippee" we thought, here was the chance to "capture and destroy" an "enemy" aircraft. We pepper-potted out of the coppice blazing away with blanks and thunderflashes and within a couple of minutes had the protesting crew on the floor, trussed up and gagged, and the aircraft rigged with dummy demolition charges. We dragged the crew back into the coppice, tied them to some trees, nicked their ratpacks, then legged it as fast as we could to another coppice a few klicks away.
Once back under cover, we set up the HF radio and jubilantly fired off a sitrep giving the location of the "destroyed" enemy helicopter and crew. We settled down to get a brew on and scoff all their chocolate, and after a few minutes the reply came back - loosely decrypted as "you f*cking cnuts". It turned out that the Puma had come to compassionately evacuate our Jock whose wife had gone into premature labour. We legged it back to the crew who, to their great credit, took it all in very good spirit.
"Yippee" we thought, here was the chance to "capture and destroy" an "enemy" aircraft. We pepper-potted out of the coppice blazing away with blanks and thunderflashes and within a couple of minutes had the protesting crew on the floor, trussed up and gagged, and the aircraft rigged with dummy demolition charges. We dragged the crew back into the coppice, tied them to some trees, nicked their ratpacks, then legged it as fast as we could to another coppice a few klicks away.
Once back under cover, we set up the HF radio and jubilantly fired off a sitrep giving the location of the "destroyed" enemy helicopter and crew. We settled down to get a brew on and scoff all their chocolate, and after a few minutes the reply came back - loosely decrypted as "you f*cking cnuts". It turned out that the Puma had come to compassionately evacuate our Jock whose wife had gone into premature labour. We legged it back to the crew who, to their great credit, took it all in very good spirit.
Last edited by Trim Stab; 7th Sep 2011 at 18:12.
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A story that I had heard at Lossie back in the early 1980s- don't know if it is true.... However,
Duty crew sat in 8 Sqn ops late one night waiting for the night flying Shack to arrive back. A phone call came from the Navy - they had to get a wife who was in Aberdeen to the bedside of her husband who was somewhere on the south coast (forget where) and had been critically injured.
Having tried (unsuccessfully) to make contact with Sqn execs, the duty crew contacted the Shack and asked for the fuel state. The Shack captain was only too happy to help - the Shack landed at Aberdeen and took the wife to an airfield where she was collected and reached her husband before he died the next day.
The Navy was most grateful. A signal of thanks was sent to CinC and AOC in addition to info copies to Stn Cdr Lossiemouth and OC Sqn, commending the excellent inter-service co-operation.
The result was that the aircraft captain and the officer manning the Sqn Ops desk were summonned to Group and given a one way b*ll*cking because the flight to carry a civilian had not been authorised iaw GASOs.
So much for initiative.....
Duty crew sat in 8 Sqn ops late one night waiting for the night flying Shack to arrive back. A phone call came from the Navy - they had to get a wife who was in Aberdeen to the bedside of her husband who was somewhere on the south coast (forget where) and had been critically injured.
Having tried (unsuccessfully) to make contact with Sqn execs, the duty crew contacted the Shack and asked for the fuel state. The Shack captain was only too happy to help - the Shack landed at Aberdeen and took the wife to an airfield where she was collected and reached her husband before he died the next day.
The Navy was most grateful. A signal of thanks was sent to CinC and AOC in addition to info copies to Stn Cdr Lossiemouth and OC Sqn, commending the excellent inter-service co-operation.
The result was that the aircraft captain and the officer manning the Sqn Ops desk were summonned to Group and given a one way b*ll*cking because the flight to carry a civilian had not been authorised iaw GASOs.
So much for initiative.....
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Puzzled about the questions about dumping fuel over the Jocks. Last time I looked Edinburgh was a few miles from the coast, so returning the fuel to the North Sea (whence it may have come) would seem to be the easy answer, so I assume there was a good reason not to use whatever fuel dump system the Tristar has.
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Is it still permissible to routinely dump fuel in these 'green' times?
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Was it "Allied Force" when the last day's missions were all cancelled because of bad weather sausage side? Unfortunately someone forgot to cancel the tankers. There was a bit of fuel dumped that day as well.
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Karma022202 wrote
Which, if you knew anything about modern aviation , is patently bolleuax.
You would fly the patient at 0 feet cabin pressure altitude. Depending on the aircraft and the max pressure differential permitted could be any reasonable flight level. Once brought a wife back from AKT into Northolt, following a major RTC with serious head injuries. This just meant that my workload was slightly increased keeping the cabin at 0 feet and we had to divert around the alps, as by going over the top would have raised the cabin above 0 feet.
James, the answer to your question is as low as safely possible.
You would fly the patient at 0 feet cabin pressure altitude. Depending on the aircraft and the max pressure differential permitted could be any reasonable flight level. Once brought a wife back from AKT into Northolt, following a major RTC with serious head injuries. This just meant that my workload was slightly increased keeping the cabin at 0 feet and we had to divert around the alps, as by going over the top would have raised the cabin above 0 feet.
Axe in the Head:
I can remember when I was flying Argosys with 105 Sqn in Aden, one of my mates did a low-level casevac from Masirah back to Aden.
The Pakistani imam had married a local girl to one of the Pakistani workers. The local sheik took great exception to this turn of events and laid about the holy man with a scimitar (sword not Vickers) splitting his skull in a couple of places.
The brief was to fly not above 500 feet which was easy, out to sea.
The patient made a full recovery in the QE hospital in Aden and announced his intention of returning to Masirah. Our political masters were unhappy about this idea and repatriated him back to Pakistan.
I can remember when I was flying Argosys with 105 Sqn in Aden, one of my mates did a low-level casevac from Masirah back to Aden.
The Pakistani imam had married a local girl to one of the Pakistani workers. The local sheik took great exception to this turn of events and laid about the holy man with a scimitar (sword not Vickers) splitting his skull in a couple of places.
The brief was to fly not above 500 feet which was easy, out to sea.
The patient made a full recovery in the QE hospital in Aden and announced his intention of returning to Masirah. Our political masters were unhappy about this idea and repatriated him back to Pakistan.