[OT] Volcanic fallout?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Quite simply, the ash is going almost astraight up to 20-50,000 feet before it disperses.

Its free of ash sideways...

[The Natural Philosopher]

C'mon now, keep your sense of humour..

It was a wry poke at all those veggy eating cyclists and eco-warriors who still manage to take foreign trips and eat airfreighted soya beans and vegetables..

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Nightjar saying something like:

The useless sods in the Irish Government have let a huge opportunity slip throught their hands - again. There's almost no dust to the west of Ireland and it could be business as usual to/from Shannon, with onward carriage by road/ferry to the rest of Europe.

But no, that would be too logical. There must be thousands of people stuck in the States and plenty of high-value/urgent freight waiting to go.

[Steve Firth]

Brilliant idea, whichis brought to its knees only by the teribble state of ferries from Ireland to the UK and from the UK to the (in)Continent.

[Bruce]

The pilot stayed to windward?

[TheOldFellow]

Time to get the old Piston-engine Aeroplanes out. I blame the Americans and their Jet Airplanes.

R.

[Bruce]

You'll have to blame the British, because the first commercial jet airliner was the De Havilland Comet, which was designed and built at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] (Steve Firth) saying something like:

Nearly always room for a foot passenger or two, even at peak times. If a parcel is man-carriable and is valuable enough...

[Dave]

Or it was piston engined, they don't suffer the same problems a jet turbine does.

Dave

[Nightjar]

There is a problem, in that most of the aircraft needed are already grounded in Europe. Apparently, even some internal flights in the USA are being affected by the lack of available aircraft.

Colin Bignell

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Nightjar saying something like:

Which is another madness. Most of the needed aircraft could be flown to the west well under

20Kfeet and then go higher once clear of Ireland.

[Steve Walker]

Apparently flights to and from Iceland have been able to continue throughout as the ash is going striaght up as you say, but then isn't blowing over their main airport!

It's also quite possible that our government has overreacted again, there has been a suggestion that the agreed international response to ash clouds is to fly around them, route through clear patches and fly low level where necessary.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

I saw that was what you meant, hence why I didn't need to reply.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

And for a while we lead the world. If it hadn't been for the metal fatigue problems that were pretty well unknown at that time and doomed the Comet, maybe we still would have. There again, we gave the jet engine technology to the Americans during the war.

In one form the Comet still flies of course - the Nimrod.

SteveW

[Andy Champ]

There's B***r all food carried on aircraft. Kenyan mange tout, Israeli melons, a few things like that. Tesco said "less than 1%".

But I'm feeling lucky as I flew home on Tuesday! >18 hours by train, even if I could have got a ticket (Wien)

Andy

[Dave]

Low level flight, around an airport and we have lots, is restricted to aircraft in a holding pattern for prep for landing. Not a good idea for crashing into each other.

Dave

[Dave]

Perhaps that is why 2 EU guvmints have flown an aircraft each to decide what the dust can do to the turbine part at the back of the engine. It's a simple test to find out.

Dave

[Dave]

Only bloody just. I saw how badly the development team worked in 1999. No focus, no incentive, need I go on?

Dave

[Steve Firth]

I did.

[dennis]

They do have experience of flying through such a cloud. A BA jumbo lost all four RB211 engines when it flew through one. They actually managed to restart them after they had fallen a few thousand meters but they were lucky. The engines were write offs as was the paintwork and windows. I doubt if the passengers would be prepared to pay for new engines just to go on holiday.

They could fly turbo jets at lower altitudes to airports where jets could take over.