Volcanic Ash Causing European Travel Problems

It's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than being in the air wishing you were on the ground
 
portlandatheist said:
It's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than being in the air wishing you were on the ground
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Well, not always.
If you're on the ground you may be wishing all your life.
If you're in the air, you'll soon be on the ground. One way or another.
 
Given the chaos this is causing I feel slightly guilty about enjoying the shut-down - I live not too far from Heathrow and usually you see dozens and dozens of planes everyday but on Saturday the weather was fantastic and there was not a cloud in the sky and no planes and contrails! I cannot remember ever seeing the sky so clear since my childhood when we lived on the edge of the Sahara.

And although we don't consider the noise from planes a problem around here, this weekend when I was walking in the country I really could tell a difference, the only sounds were those from the birds and other sounds of nature. Fantastic.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Well, not always.
If you're on the ground you may be wishing all your life.
If you're in the air, you'll soon be on the ground. One way or another.
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Yeah, but chances are it will take your entire remaining life to get there.

McHrozni
 
An update on the plane crash in the UK.

A light plane crashed in England on Saturday, but any connection to ash has since been pretty much discounted.
 
rjh01 said:
I wonder how much enhancement has been done to the photo? For example is the lightening added?

The camera used is a model that is 6 years old.
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on TV, moving picture, it looked the same. awsome.
but indeed the lighnings look like aded. but thats how it looks anyway.
 
Toke said:
No major surprise. :D

Do they have a big sign up.
"We are still flying" or such:)
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No, but the boss gave a radio interview to the (rather gloating) tune of "here in Egelsbach, flight operations continue normally".
 
SnidelyW said:
Actually, Travis, the transcript of the cockpit communication of KLM 867 says differently.
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I think he's talking about BA Flight 9, which was another 747 that suffered failure of all four engines after flying through volcanic ash. The crew were oblivious of the ash cloud, and even as they descended they had no idea why the engines had stopped.

Worth noting that the aircraft didn't fall 10,000ft as someone previously mentioned. They put the aircraft into a glide and started to calculate a good ditching spot, but when the oxygen masks deployed one of the aircrew's masks was broken so the pilots increased their rate of descent to get them down to a safe breathing altitude more rapidly.
 
mummymonkey said:
Strikes me there is a big difference between the incidents that happened previously and now. The current "cloud" is nothing of the sort. It's more a barely discernable haze. Massive over-reaction in my view.
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Finnish fighter jets damaged by volcanic cloud

HELSINKI - Finnish fighter jets which flew through the volcanic dust covering much of Europe suffered damage and the air force warned Friday the cloud could have a significant impact on planes.

The air force F-18 Hornet jets were on training flights in northern Finland on Thursday morning, when airspace was still open, and the engines were later found to contain fine, volcanic ash dust.

"Based on the pictures, it was discovered that even short flights in ash dust may cause significant damage to an airplane's engine," the Finnish Defence Forces said in a statement.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technol...ets+damaged+volcanic+cloud/2914603/story.html
 
rjh01 said:
I wonder how much enhancement has been done to the photo? For example is the lightening added?

The camera used is a model that is 6 years old.
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Where did you find the camera info?
Just from looking, it is a large-format film camera, probably Ektachrome,or Fujichrome, which always gives fantastic resolution. I've seen many such images from 6x7, 4x5, and even 70mm cameras in the past...
 
rwguinn said:
Where did you find the camera info?
Just from looking, it is a large-format film camera, probably Ektachrome,or Fujichrome, which always gives fantastic resolution. I've seen many such images from 6x7, 4x5, and even 70mm cameras in the past...
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It was a digital camera (Finepix S3 pro), not a film-cam.
 
mummymonkey said:
Hawaii fully booked?
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The co-worker, Stephen, lived in Aberdeen for two years as a teenager. They had friends they wanted to visit and managed to get a really good deal on the flights and hotels, so off they went! Jenna has never been out of the US (not even into Mexico), so I'm sure it's been an experience for her as well.

They're being told that there will be "no problem" getting out this afternoon on the flight to Amsterdam. Here in the US, we're hearing that practically no flights are getting out.
 
rwguinn said:
Ok--but where did you get the info? I can't seem to find it...
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That is saved in the JPG file info. data. Save the photo to your disk and open with a program capable of reading Camera Data from the JPG.
 
gumboot said:
I think he's talking about BA Flight 9, which was another 747 that suffered failure of all four engines after flying through volcanic ash. The crew were oblivious of the ash cloud, and even as they descended they had no idea why the engines had stopped.

Worth noting that the aircraft didn't fall 10,000ft as someone previously mentioned. They put the aircraft into a glide and started to calculate a good ditching spot, but when the oxygen masks deployed one of the aircrew's masks was broken so the pilots increased their rate of descent to get them down to a safe breathing altitude more rapidly.
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I DID think he was referring to the KLM incident, as it was probably the incident which received the widest media coverage.
 
Darat said:
Given the chaos this is causing I feel slightly guilty about enjoying the shut-down - I live not too far from Heathrow and usually you see dozens and dozens of planes everyday but on Saturday the weather was fantastic and there was not a cloud in the sky and no planes and contrails! I cannot remember ever seeing the sky so clear since my childhood when we lived on the edge of the Sahara.

And although we don't consider the noise from planes a problem around here, this weekend when I was walking in the country I really could tell a difference, the only sounds were those from the birds and other sounds of nature. Fantastic.
Click to expand...

I can echo that statement from here in North America. I live on a bluff overlooking Lake Ontario, and every evening between 1700 and about 2000, aircraft fly over on their way to Europe, to land there around 0700 ish GMT.

The lack of outbound air traffic is quite noticeable, and I am usually outside around that time. I live about 30km from Pearson Int'l and the aircraft are still in their full power climb to altitude.

I understand the disruption and economic penalty for so many which the ash cloud is wreaking, but the respite from trans atlantic jet traffic is quite refreshing, actually.
 
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