furd

Totally agree with the Flight Engineer sentiments. As a retired New Zealand FE I look back with many great memories of my time in this profession. My military time was spent on Sunderland flying boats and C130H's. My 29 years of airline flying was on Lockheed 188C, DC8, DC10 and the Boeing 747-200/300, a total of 38 years and 21000 hours logged. I look back and wonder where the time has gone so you new guys enjoy your flying time as all too soon it will be over and you will also join the ranks of retired FE's. Happy and safe flying.

Google "RAAF F111 fuel dump and burn" to see video's of their displays. You will not see any certification tests however this is the closest you will get to an aircraft with a trailing fuel fire.

If you are fast enough it would not matter what type of aircraft it was. The flame propagation rate ( flame advancement rate ) of any fuel would easily be calculated in a laboratory and I doubt if it was ever put to an actual flight test. That said the Australian Airforce had a display routine with their F111 at airshows that involved dumping fuel then igniting it with the afterburners. The aircraft flew the length of the runway at about 2000' with flaming fuel behind it and at an aircraft speed that was ahead of the flame front. A very impressive routine to observe. The DC8 that I flew many years ago had the minimum dump speed of 167kts listed in the QRH Emergency Proceedures for dumping fuel along with other airmanship considerations. The airline used those same considerations for all their aircraft types.

Minimum speed for fuel dumping is 167 kts indicated. Operation at or above this speed will ensure you are ahead of any flame front in the event of an engine fire. This minimum speed is FAA mandated for aircraft certification and flight operation.

A compressor wash was standard maintenance procedure following foreign object ingestion. In 1968 I was the FE on a New Zealand Airforce C130H on short finals to RAF base Changi Singapore ex Vung Tau Vietnam. A large Fish Eagle Struck the No 3 Prop at 300 feet decaying the engine rpm and partially blocking the intake. We shut the engine down as we entered the landing flare to minimise engine damage. After consulting our engine maintenance manual ( we carried a full library of C130 maintenance manuals at all times) I carried out a prop runout check, removed the compressor bleeds and scope checked the compressor blades for damage. I called in a fire truck and during the engine run they hosed a considerable amount of water into the engine intake; following satisfactory power indications on the run we did a test flight to confirm normal engine operation which was ok and the following day we flew the aircraft back to NZ. All this was in complete compliance with the manual. Murray Rutherfurd