F-15 venting fuel?

[The Phantom]

A friend in Norwich sent me this photo (taken March 31st) that she had taken of a pair of F-15s going over at home and was asking me about why one had a vapour trail and the other didn't.
I said that the one is venting fuel - which I took to be because they were heading back to base and was carrying too much so was draining it off.
But she then said that they weren't heading back to base, but going the other way heading for the coast.

So is it venting fuel? And if so, why would it do that near the start of their mission?

[TeeJay]

Looks to be venting. There was an F15 declare IFE on 31st, so dumped fuel to adjust weight for rtb LN.
His wingman is to his right and more than likely escorted him back to base.
Trev

[tomw]

He had a fuel leak, Then declared an IFE and vented more to get to a safe landing weight, Heard it all on the scanner

[TeeJay]

He also couldn’t pump fuel from one of his conformal tanks and was worried about weight and balance on landing.

[mirage41]

When adjustment to all up weight is required (dumping fuel) it is normal procedure to proceed to "The Lake" to perform this activity.

[TeeJay]

Just to clarify ‘The Lake’ is The Wash for those that don’t know......

[mr stihl]

I think it’s procedure to dump fuel over the sea wherever possible.

[DevelopedBug]

As others have said, this photo is of the actual leak, not the dump (the F-15 dump mast is out the wingtip, and typically done over the sea).

I'm working from home at the moment and watched as it came tearing OTT here on the way out to the EAMTA and it caught my attention as it seemed lower than usual and also faster - and despite being only a few thousand feet up was producing a very noticeable single vapour trail. In honesty, there had been a Typhoon around during the day, and I looked up hoping it was that!

I heard them on the scanner getting clearance out to the EAMTA and watched as his previously unseen wing man swooped down from high altitude and formed up, closely followed by STOUT declaring an IFE due to a fuel leak. A few minutes later they passed back this way in formation, with one aircraft still having a single trail behind it and the other one nothing. I got a photo on my phone but not as good as the OP's. They seemed to spend a good 30-45 minutes dumping before actually RTB.

[Blackjack56]

A big thank's to TeeJay,i learned something today,i always assumed they were talking about lakenheath when i heard"The lake"mentioned,Thank's!

[The Phantom]

Thanks for all the info - very interesting.

Just to clarify - what are the couple of acronyms please:
IFE (something Fuel Emergency?)
STOUT
EAMTA

[tomw]

Thanks for all the info - very interesting.

Just to clarify - what are the couple of acronyms please:
IFE (something Fuel Emergency?)
STOUT
EAMTA

IFE is In Flight Emergency
STOUT was his callsign
EAMTA is the East Anglia Military Training Area

[Fibrous Freddie]

Thanks for all the info - very interesting.

Just to clarify - what are the couple of acronyms please:
IFE (something Fuel Emergency?)
STOUT
EAMTA

Phantom
Thanks for posting the image... it has led to an informative thread.

However to gently derail the thread....
If your 'couple' involves three.... it must be a rather 'sporty' arrangement!

[The Phantom]

However to gently derail the thread....
If your 'couple' involves three.... it must be a rather 'sporty' arrangement!

That would be because I was going to ask about IFE and EAMTA - then at the last moment suddenly thought of STOUT as well and stuck it between the other two.