100% MEL if it’s fitted it has to be serviceable plus the outer tanks form part of the trimming facility.

The transfer pumps operate between 1 and 7 tanks, 5 tank has nothing to do with the “trimming facility”. The APU tank vents into 4 tank 4 group so there are no issues there. The potential problem of having an empty aft tank in an outer group is that more fuel will have to remain in 7 tank for CofG maintenance. This implies less fuel in 1 tank (or 2 tank) of that group. No 1 and 2 tanks are essential loads,i.e.they are still available after electrical load shedding therefore a good place to have fuel.

It’s possibly a collector tank that the engines feed from.

No such animal, it’s tank to engine or via the cross-feed line.

The Minimum Equipment List (MEL) issue is that the Vulcan does not have one. There is no list of allowable deficiencies, if it’s fitted it must be serviceable. To despatch with a tank inoperative would entail manual control of the fuel system and a similar procedure to a sequence timer failure. Doable, but not desirable.

exmpa

exmpa