Holy Dustbuster Batman

[wateroff]

For those of you flying later on the east coast - pack your dustbuster - vis dramatically reduced in Bris Vegas - looks, smells, tastes like a good Mt Isa Red - dirt that is.

Looks like a sunny afternoon in Hong Kong!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:E:E MMMMMGOI

[Ultralights]

is it as bad as this?

http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv139/philfong/BrokenHill.jpg

[PlankBlender]

..almost, vis down to less than half a mile in Brissie, turned around this morning south of Kingaroy when the sigmet was issued, and am very happy I did so.. wouldn't wanna be caught in this under any circumstances, together with the 40 knot winds a recipe for disaster :eek: Emerald seemingly looks similar, forecast as far north as Croydon!

loved the 165 knot ground speed on the way back (115 TAS) though :ok:

Unreal how different it was on the ground at YBAF even on my return at 6.30, scattered clouds at around 6500, almost no wind at the surface at all!

Where you see the crow in the pic you'd normally have the Brisbane skyline.... I can taste and smell it sitting at my desk, it's coming through the smallest cracks and forming a nice yucky layer of dust everywhere :{

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww65/PlankBlender/IMG_1670s.jpg

[Ultralights]

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6970248,00.jpg

[The Green Goblin]

At least you city slickers can get a bit of red dirt on your nav gear and look the goods of a bush pilot :ok:

[PlankBlender]

wow, Ultralights, there I was contemplating a little bike ride myself, won't bother now :\

[The Green Goblin]

A Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said flight SQ221, a Boeing A380 due to fly to Sydney from Melbourne before continuing to Singapore, has been delayed indefinitely. She said Sydney Airport was likely to suffer delays all day.

These reporters must be born with two dicks, cause you can't be that silly playing with one!

[Jabawocky]

This sounds better than it really was.......... :eek:

BRISBANE (YBBN)

METAR TTF SPECI YBBN 230216Z 24023KT 0200 HEAVY DUSTSTORM VV003 27/02 Q1005
RMK RF00.0/000.0 FM0216 24020G30KT 0500 BLOWING DUST NSC FM0216
MOD/SEV TURB BLW 5000FT

TAF TAF AMD YBBN 222351Z 2300/2406 32020KT 9999 SCT040 BECMG 2301/2303
27018G28KT 1500 BLOWING DUST NSC BECMG 2303/2305 25018G28KT 0500
DUST NSC BECMG 2306/2308 27018G28KT 4000 BLOWING DUST NSC FM231000
25012KT 8000 NSC RMK FM230000 MOD TURB BLW 5000FT TILL230100
FM230100 MOD/SEV TURB BLW 5000FT TILL231000 FM231000 MOD TURB BLW
5000FT TILL231500 T 27 28 25 20 Q 1006 1003 1005 1008

ATIS ATIS YBBN F 230217
APCH: EXP INSTRUMENT APCH
RWY: 19
+ OPR INFO: START CLEARANCE REQUIRED.
RWY VISIBILITY RWY 19, 600 METRES
AT TIME 0216 UTC.
BRISBANE VOR AND DME NOT AVBL DUE MAINT.
HIAL ON, LOW VISIBILITY PROCEDURES IN PROGRESS
WND: 240/20G30KTS
MAX XW 27 KTS RWY 19
CLD: SKY OBSCURED
+ TMP: 27
QNH: 1005
SIGWX: MOD TURB FCST B050

[Ando1Bar]

YBAF:
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu13/alearmonth/P9110877.jpg

http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu13/alearmonth/P9110878.jpg

[The Green Goblin]

Looks like it would have been a good time to strip the paint off a few that were due to save the cost of having someone do it by hand for a new paint job!

[Ozzie Mozzie]

Hey Ando, any chance of a link to some high-res versions of those photos?

[remoak]

You guys need to remove the yellow filters from your camera lenses before you take pictures like that... here, let me help you... ;)

http://www.blueskiesdesign.co.nz/nodust.jpg

[Ultralights]

i dont think anyone will be able to top his!

goes completely black, imagine flying into this!

Broken Hill, today.

NSW Dust storm approaching (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlD22HwPvI)

[Desert Flower]

Couldn't help laughing this morning when I saw on TV Sydney being hit by the dust storm, & all the whingeing that was going on. I've just lived through two days of that - at one stage watching several sheets of corrugated iron on my front verandah lifting up & flopping back down again & waiting for it to part company with the rest of the structure & disappear!

DF.

[Flying Binghi]

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageservices/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Copy-of-duststorm-postcard-.jpg

Fierce dust storms became regular events in Broken Hill from the 1890s. Here you can see a dust storm in 1907.

Powerhouse Museum – Photo of the Day (http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageservices/)

[Ando1Bar]

Ozzie - pm me your email address and I'll send them through. Photobucket, where I uploaded them, isn't much better than what you see above.

remoak - nice one! Looks like we're back in the 80s though.


Fierce dust storms became regular events in Broken Hill from the 1890s. Here you can see a dust storm in 1907.



But Today Tonight told me it was all because of climate change. :hmm:

[BRL]

Ultralights, I would cry my eyes out if my Ducati looked like that :{ :{

[PyroTek]

Planky, nice picture! did the crow have its CIR???:}

[Capt Claret]

I paxed to BNE from CNS today with QF, landing about 1240 after half an hours holding. I've never seen anything like it. Approaching 19, the sea was just visible before we crossed the coast, and rolling through on the RWY, the terminal was not visible.

[MCKES]

Yep A380 driver thats exactly what it reminded me of especially when i saw my car covered in dirt reminded me of all the abandoned cars over there:ok:

[ekoja]

Now some of those pics would fool the "where was this taken"experts:ok:

[Flying Binghi]

Re the Broken Hill video, have a Google Earth look-see of the area South through West of Broken Hill - its all open cut mines and tailing dumps.

[Jabawocky]

......... yeah and what heavy metals did they mine there........ :uhoh:

Broken Hill has been and still is a town dominated by the mining industry. The mines founded on the Broken Hill Ore Deposit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Hill_Ore_Deposit) - the world's richest lead-zinc ore body - have until recently provided the majority of direct employment and indirect employment in the city.

[Flying Binghi]

....lead-zinc ore body...

Hmmm, that explains why the dust cloud was so black at Broken Hill...:ok:


A dust boffin had this to say -

(extract)
Griffith University dust expert Craig Strong said a combination of strong winds and dry conditions caused the 800km long storm front.

A northerly wind at the start of the week had dust airborne from the Lake Eyre Basin and Simpson Desert before a southwesterly turned it eastwards. As it travelled, sediment was collected over a vast area from the Channel Country to Toowoomba.

"What makes this event particularly big is the (Queensland) flooding in January," Dr Strong said.

"It deposited large amounts of sediment around Lake Eyre. That sediment caused a lot of the load that hit Sydney and Canberra."

Dust from the interior would make it about 3500km to NZ while material crossing Queensland and northern NSW would be recycled north in one to two days, with the potential to reach as far as Darwin.

"In extreme cases we've seen it travel all the way up Cape York and cross the Gulf, arriving in Darwin three or four days later," he said.

Via - Dust storm heads north, with another one due Saturday | The Courier-Mail (http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26116494-952,00.html)

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

So, can anybody advise how 'abrasive' this sand dust is?

Obviously, not as abrasive as the volcanic dust that caused such 'mayhem' all those years ago?

A 'fair while ago' now, I was working at Derby FSU when the night flying "Dizzy9', DN to PH, also flew into some volcanic dust and descended fairly rapidly into OCTA territory....the NAUGHTY BOY!!.....but, of course, at that time of night / morning, we had 'No Traffic' for him!!

He was trying to protect his engines and leading edges no doubt.

Anybody notice any 'power' probs??

Just curious is all......:ok::ok:

Cheers, and very glad to see you all made it safely home...:D:D

[frigatebird]

Also some time back, when I was doing some International Transiting in the area, used to descend with fine weather, and divert a little to give the passengers a better view of the really big volcano, Ambrym, in Vanuatu. Quite impressive on a fine day, with it's big quarry like craters glowing at the bottom, and big poisoned ash plain. (The one the Vila Aero Club bogged their 206 on after a bit of rain) Could smell the sulphur through the air conditioning. Then heard about the All-engine failures in British Airways and another 74 up near Jakarta. Thought "I better not do this any more", the pax had to be content with the long view from upwind after that. My turbines could have gone quiet, or the pax and crew could've too, had anything serious been concentrated enough. We had some great sunsets out over the Pacific about that time from the Indo. eruptions.

[404 Titan]

frigatebird

It was actually Singapore Airlines and British Airways, not Qantas.

[frigatebird]

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/volcanos/scan0001.jpg



O.K. -- Thanks.

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/de-stessing/scan0014.jpg

[185skywagon]

"It (the flood)deposited large amounts of sediment around Lake Eyre. That sediment caused a lot of the load that hit Sydney and Canberra."
Dr Strong


The notion that the quantity of dust, such as we have just seen, could come from recent deposits into Lake Eyre alone, is completely absurd.

Lake Eyre would have been lucky to have 30% coverage from recent flooding.
A dust storm that covered from YBHI to the southern gulf of Carpentaria couldn't come from Lake Eyre alone. It is not that big.

In fact, Strong et al (Dustbusters)would be well advised to run some tests on said dust. This is their field of study afterall. Until they do, their media utterings, are only mildly educated conjecture.

[Desert Flower]

A dust storm that covered from YBHI to the southern gulf of Carpentaria couldn't come from Lake Eyre alone. It is not that big.

Methinks half the Simpson Desert passed through my location skywagon! :{

DF.

[185skywagon]

And the better part of the GVD and Strezlecki as well.

how's life down there these days??

[Flying Binghi]

The notion that the quantity of dust, such as we have just seen, could come from recent deposits into Lake Eyre alone, is completely absurd.

I think your right 185skywagon. The dust front was to wide spread even as it came through Birdsville.

[Chimbu chuckles]

Clary I landed at 1218LT from AKL and as we rolled out on 19 (Cleared to roll through) the Tower asked us if we were 'on the ground'?

Yup:}

'Good because we can't see you'.:ok:

Grnd asked us to report parked on the aerobridge.

Interestingly there was NO MENTION on the ybbn TAF of DU when we were flight planning - NONE - twas just another glorious SEQ day with a bit more wind than normal. Half way across the Tasman we were listening to the HF Volmet and all of a sudden 5000m DU was reported FRM 0100Z. Then 30 minutes later it was 3000m DU - I did suggest he stop listening to the Volmet at this point but he kept it up. Sorta like people who 'enjoy' watching scary movies I suppose. 30 minutes later 1500m DU. So far it was like arriving at DXB for a greater part of the year - no biggy.

Then about an hour out of BN we get selcal - BN radio informs us that BN now requires Tempo holding due all of the above. Now as it turned out we had sufficient fuel but, I am sorry BN Radio, had we not we were coming to BN anyway - yssy was out of the question before we departed (xwinds in excess of aircraft limit + BLDU) so we didn't have fuel for yssy - we had ybcg as an alternate but I am sure it was as bad as ybbn but with no ILS:eek:

800m reported vis as we were vectored onto the ILS. As we slid down the ILS the tower kept giving us new reported vis - 660m - 550m - geez guys, please, STF up:rolleyes::ok:

After we reported parked GRND thanked us and we wished them luck:}

We had 8100kg of fuel after shutdown - ybrk was our bolt hole had BN been out of the question.

At the minima we could see exactly what we needed and not 1 cm more. As we stood in the aerobridge waiting for the cabin crew we heard someone Go Around and another as we boarded the crew bus.

I'd be fascinated to know why there was no mention of DU on the BN TAF at AKL:ugh:

[Desert Flower]

And the better part of the GVD and Strezlecki as well.

Probably! Hubby drove to Innamincka on Tuesday (because he had to, not because he wanted to!) & he had to stop for about two hours because he couldn't see where he was going.

how's life down there these days??

In a word - boring! ;)

DF.