NOTAM: British airspace closed!!

[Oddball]

Since early this morning the airspace around Northern Scotland was closed to all traffic due to a volcanic eruption on Iceland. All airports cancelled flights and this restriction spread southwards until all flights  around Britain got grounded since the ash cloud is being blown South East due to the Jet Stream, the only flights allowed currently is Rescue/Emergency aircraft.   This will be the case until at least 0600Zulu Friday 16.04.10.  As far as I can tell from news reports Northern parts of Europe could also be affected to this ash cloud.

[gibbo_335]

  WOW!!!! I saw this in the paper this morning HOLY HECTAPASCALS!!!!

[Gulfstream Driver]

Heard this on the radio, too.  Sounded like most of Europe was shut down.

[Oddball]

Flights are being allowed out of Prestwick and Glasgow on a limited basis along with Ireland since they are on the West Coast and its a bit clearer there.  But airspace in England is still closed and still could be until 01.00 Zulu 17.04.10 and is being reviewed hourly by the National Air Traffic Service and the Met Office.  Heard yesterday the ash cloud was around 40,000ft and today its could be as low as 18,000ft

[Oddball]

Well after Scottish airspace being re-opened at 1900Zulu yesterday its now closed due to a shift in wind blowing the ash cloud back over Britain and this restriction will remain until 0100Zulu 18.04.10.

[Fabo]

STUPID STUPID STUPID Eurocontrol!!!

I am an aspiring glider pilot in Kladno, Czech Rep.



Our airspace is pretty limited. Right next to Ruzyne CTR, right under Ruzyne TMA. Usually, we have a coordination agreement, that lets us go as high as possible into TMA.

Today, things were different. Today, LKPR Prague Ruzyne was closed.

One would hope, hey, no flight restrictions, for the first time in maybe 50 years

But nay, sayeth the Eurocontrol, for not only flights into LKPR are forbidden, but all flights to CTR and TMA are

So, we ended up with beautiful sunny day, without airliners going all around us, AND WITH RESTRICTIONS WORSE THAN NORMAL!!!

arrgh...

[Oddball]

Only thing that was allowed to fly out of Scone (EGPT) Fabo was General Aviation and the air taxi that flies off the river Clyde between Glasgow and Oban.

[Fabo]

Well yeah, we towed all afternoon long, but it was only standart pattern and "terrain langings". No flights for me (I am still at the very beginning - and I need altitude for stalls&spins)

[Frank N. O.]

In DK it's closed at least until 14:00 monday and there's a growing unrest about the financial disaster with all the stranded planes and passengers. I heard on the radio that british aviation is loosing 2 billion a day
Some are saying the closure of the airspace is a total overreaction but I'm not so sure, what do you think? Depending on how dense the cloud is and at what altitude then it might not cause a crash would it? I seem to remember hearing about a 747 flying thrue ash from a nearby vulcano eruption and the passengers in the rear of the plane went into panic as the restarting of the engines caused flames to spew out the exhuasts but as they'd cleared it the engines came back on and they landed normally (I'm not sure I remember the details correctly though).

Frank

[Oddball]

I've seen photos from the British Airways Speed Bird 9 flight that went through a ash cloud over Java in the 1980's. Rolls Royce stripped down the engines and found the fan and turbine blades basically ruined.  Even if metal/ceramic technology has advanced since then I still don't want to be up there a ash cloud hanging around.  There is talk of the Royal Navy getting involved using the amphibious fleet to transport people home and using Spain as a transport hub.

[croatian judge]

I've seen photos from the British Airways Speed Bird 9 flight that went through a ash cloud over Java in the 1980's. Rolls Royce stripped down the engines and found the fan and turbine blades basically ruined.  Even if metal/ceramic technology has advanced since then I still don't want to be up there a ash cloud hanging around.  There is talk of the Royal Navy getting involved using the amphibious fleet to transport people home and using Spain as a transport hub.

I remember seeing the episode of "Mayday" on that and I can say I wouldn't want to be in a similar situation.

[Rooster Cruiser]

It would appear to me that there may be some short term prospects for Caribbean tour ship operators to commence trans-Atlantic service.  The last time this volcano erupted in 1821 it didn't stop erupting for two years!  

Ash clouds are simply too dangerous for turbine powered aircraft to fly though.  The microscopic ash particles are like shards of glass, and they sandblast leading edges of airplanes and ruin the engines.  There hasn't been a fatal accident yet, but it would just be a matter of time if the airlines just flew through the clouds with impunity.

Since its too dangerous to fly a jet through the ash clouds, the alternatives are to press all the surviving old piston engine airliners back into service (with extra large air filters) or get the QE2 and other large ocean liners into service if they can withstand the stormy seas of the North Atlantic.  The airlines that operate into Europe are simply SOL until that volcano dies down.

I think it'd be awesome to see some old DC-6's and DC-7's fly the North Atlantic again!

RC

[Mike]

It would appear to me that there may be some short term prospects for Caribbean tour ship operators to commence trans-Atlantic service.  The last time this volcano erupted in 1821 it didn't stop erupting for two years!  

Ash clouds are simply too dangerous for turbine powered aircraft to fly though.  The microscopic ash particles are like shards of glass, and they sandblast leading edges of airplanes and ruin the engines.  There hasn't been a fatal accident yet, but it would just be a matter of time if the airlines just flew through the clouds with impunity.

Since its too dangerous to fly a jet through the ash clouds, the alternatives are to press all the surviving old piston engine airliners back into service (with extra large air filters) or get the QE2 and other large ocean liners into service if they can withstand the stormy seas of the North Atlantic.  The airlines that operate into Europe are simply SOL until that volcano dies down.

I think it'd be awesome to see some old DC-6's and DC-7's fly the North Atlantic again!

RC

Yeah, that would be really cool!!
Maybe the DC-3 doesn't need to retire after all....

[Fabo]

It would appear to me that there may be some short term prospects for Caribbean tour ship operators to commence trans-Atlantic service.  The last time this volcano erupted in 1821 it didn't stop erupting for two years!  

Ash clouds are simply too dangerous for turbine powered aircraft to fly though.  The microscopic ash particles are like shards of glass, and they sandblast leading edges of airplanes and ruin the engines.  There hasn't been a fatal accident yet, but it would just be a matter of time if the airlines just flew through the clouds with impunity.

Since its too dangerous to fly a jet through the ash clouds, the alternatives are to press all the surviving old piston engine airliners back into service (with extra large air filters) or get the QE2 and other large ocean liners into service if they can withstand the stormy seas of the North Atlantic.  The airlines that operate into Europe are simply SOL until that volcano dies down.

I think it'd be awesome to see some old DC-6's and DC-7's fly the North Atlantic again!

RC

Yeah, that would be really cool!!
Maybe the DC-3 doesn't need to retire after all....

Like this? http://trainz.dtnet.cz/FS2004/txt/cls38-05_schema_4c.gif

[4X-NTY]

I saw in the news that some of the restriction in Europe had been cancelled.