Fuel Tankering (An economic question)?

[Ex-Ascot]

In a bit late on this one. With the airline as the Capt says post three. Used to have graphs to calculate tanker or not depending on fuel costs down the route. In the Royal Air Force we were encouraged to load flight plan fuel. Then one year they limited your Sqn fuel allocation to that of the previous year! So we put on loads of "training flights' Wives and girlfriends (not on the same flight) to the Caribbean etc.

Royal and VIP half way up the windows to get the job done on time.

The VC10 burnt 10% of the tankered fuel an hour.

[Boac]

10% per hour??!! A real guzzler. It would make a 10 hour tanking flight interesting..............

[Ex-Ascot]

10% per hour??!! A real guzzler. It would make a 10 hour tanking flight interesting..............

You can't make that much noise without burning gas. My longest flight on the VC10 was Caracas to BZN, 8 hrs 35 mins with HRH PC and King Constantine of Greece. No idea why we went into Brize instead of LHR apart from the fact that, ah I remember now. No press.

A colleague made LHR to Harare direct with HMQ on board, not sure of the flight time. It was a Commonwealth conference. I had the PM and cabinet on my jet. There was no way I could see doing it direct. Banged into Cairo (Capt Slasher's favorite place) for a top up. I am sure that my colleague landed on fumes. But he had been flying the aircraft for about 1,000 years and knew it better than anyone. Also, he was a lower TOW. HMQ leaves the crown at home. Politicians carry their egos with them.

[Pontius Navigator]

Digressing again, on long range rangers we were generally limited to 5 hour legs. That meant always V-bombers staging via Goose for flights from the US. I have a particular captain in mind, Holmes iirc, who realised, with the jet stream, he could make Waddington direct from Offutt, with a go/no go decision overhead Goose. Flight time would have been about 6.30 and doable as it avoided a climb out from Goose. Permission denied.

I remember another Goose return, this time the nav was a Tony Court. They did it in a shade over 3 hours, Doppler groundspeed needle in the stops at 700kts and beat the customs officer from Scampton by a good hour and a half.

[Ex-Ascot]

Digressing again, on long range rangers we were generally limited to 5 hour legs. That meant always V-bombers staging via Goose for flights from the US. I have a particular captain in mind, Holmes iirc, who realised, with the jet stream, he could make Waddington direct from Offutt, with a go/no go decision overhead Goose. Flight time would have been about 6.30 and doable as it avoided a climb out from Goose. Permission denied.

Flight authorisation in the Royal Air Force was a farce, particularly in Transport Command. Fly the jet from A to B any questions? If you can do it faster or more efficiently do it. I used to sign all the authorisation sheets the night before and the Capt would sign it in the morning without me even speaking to him. Can you imagine in civil aviation having to have authorisation to fly the jet. You just went and did it.

[ian16th]

I remember another Goose return, this time the nav was a Tony Court. They did it in a shade over 3 hours, Doppler groundspeed needle in the stops at 700kts and beat the customs officer from Scampton by a good hour and a half.

Got me thinking, did this.

Although you didn't have a direct indication of ground speed, I think your 'Miles Flown' counter and the feed to the NBS, would have been correct.

I wonder if your mate attempted to use this info?

[Pontius Navigator]

Ian, that I don't know. I will probably figure it out tonight. There was a mileage counter but it was an air mileage unit, air miles only.

[ian16th]

Ian, that I don't know. I will probably figure it out tonight. There was a mileage counter but it was an air mileage unit, air miles only.

Green Satin didn't know anything about airspeed. Ground speed was calculated from the raw Doppler frequency.

The Miles Flown counter showed 'ground' miles.

What I am trying to remember is, was there any 'stop' on it. As you say, the GSI stopped at 700kts and the pointer couldn't travel any further. But the syncro would be trying to drive the pointer further. If my memory is correct there was no stop on the Miles Flown mechanism, so I think it would have operated accurately.

But it was 56 years ago that I last touched one!