Air Refueling - Disconnect
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Does the boom automatically disconnect in real life when the tanks are full? If yes, it is normal procedure to let the disconnect happen or do pilots manually disconnect just before?
This assumes we want to top it off which I assume does’t happen often because gas is limited.
Thank you
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gas isn’t that limited…the kc-135 can hold about 265,000 gallons and the kc-10 can hold about 350,000. It is uncommon though, most of the time you’ll hear them trick or treat for 1000 or 2000 pounds on a return leg. Combat tanking is different.
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Does the boom automatically disconnect in real life when the tanks are full?
Yup, pressure sensing lets it tell how full the tanks can be. Although this can backfire and cause you to take on less fuel than planned, if you have air trapped in the external tanks.
Whether you are topping off or not depends entirely on the plan for the fuel. Way back when the mission planner was thinking about how to accomplish the mission you got fragged, they had to plan fuel for that mission (and a whole bunch others, too). So you will have a fuel allocation from the tanker, not “as much as I want”. If the plan says 4000 lbs, thats what you get.
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gas isn’t that limited…the kc-135 can hold about 265,000 gallons and the kc-10 can hold about 350,000. It is uncommon though, most of the time you’ll hear them trick or treat for 1000 or 2000 pounds on a return leg. Combat tanking is different.
The unit of measurement is incorrect. That should read ‘pounds’ of fuel, not gallons.
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Yup, pressure sensing lets it tell how full the tanks can be. Although this can backfire and cause you to take on less fuel than planned, if you have air trapped in the external tanks.
True, to a certain extent. As to ‘early’ disconnects, the tanker pilots can reduce the fuel flow by shutting off one of the refueling pumps. This happened often enough while I was a boomer, especially with older fighters.
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The unit of measurement is incorrect. That should read ‘pounds’ of fuel, not gallons.
A gallon in the US is different volume from a gallon in the UK - so pounds was a clearer measure.
Do they use pounds in Europe or litres for aircraft fuelling?
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Do they use pounds in Europe or litres for aircraft fuelling?
Depends on a/c … C-130 is in Lbs, A-Jet is in Liters, C-160 is in Kg … etc …
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