It is hard to see the talk of errosion of paint (& props), the damage to the inside of engines being very well informed when directed to light aircraft flying at low levels when the "ash" is above FL100 or more likely FL200.
The small amounts of "ash" that might fall to earth are likely to be so small that it is likely to be pushed aside by stagnated air ahead of a slow speed aircraft.
As to the dust damaging the engine, just observing the differance between the dirt washed out of an air fliter in the summer vs the dirt from an airfliter in the winter will show just how much dust is floating around during the summer as well as how well the airfilters remove fine dust from the induction air. I have yet to see people on these forums recomending that we dont fly in the summer due to the dust!
So given the fact that there is very little volcanic ash at low levels, the aircraft has a good air filter and that the engine works in a diferent way to a turbine there is very little chance of engine dammage and no flight safety risk. In fact the flight safety risk is probably lower due to the lack of other air traffic.
He should probably have just done it. Everyone's bound to have their feet on the desk and either zzzzing or reading or picking their nose...... In fact, now's the time for a low level pass under Tower Bridge!!
Is that why they posted you to the desert?? Your comment could not be further from the truth, your a kind understanding pilot that us airtraffikers love to have to deal with....take care and keep the sand out of your sandals!!
Cessna 172 asking for a cross country clearance via the Heathrow overhead at 1500 feet!
Was going to go up and ask for one of those myself today until I saw this thread. I'd planned a low approach and go around along the runway. Why not, perfect opportunity and keep those LHR tower people busy but clearly some jobsworth says no.
Isn't it nice to see that one strange result of this event is that lots of light aeroplanes are out flying, doing unusual things and above all, communicating with airfields and requesting clearances without the threat or worry of infringement or mixing with busy traffic
I should be in Florida at Sun n Fun but am still at home, waiting for the non existent communication from our beloved company
Well I risked life and limb flying a rag and tube aircraft in this terrible aviation disaster. I was constantly checking to see if my windscreen was being sandblasted but I could not see through the scratches to be sure so I figured as this stuff was so abrasive it was probably going to vaporise the fabric on contact so chose to keep an eye on the wings through the open window. I am pleased to say the the aircraft is still as dirty as ever, non of the flies stuck to it were even disturbed and I am here to fight another day.
All I could see was blue Sky and at the end a pleasant sunset.
I will report back again in an hour so on this mornings flight.
I'll be following Bose's example on Saturday and go and do some Austering. I'm particularly looking forward to asking for an East-West (runway direction) transit across my local international airport!
PS I wiped the bugs off Annie the Auster's wings and it increased the cruise speed by approximately 0.0000001 mph, a useful gain as I'm sure you'll agree.
The flightradar link doesn't work. Maybe the radar got swamped by ash deposits. Apparently the Dutch Aviation Authority wanted to be really safe, so they closed down the whole airspace. So not even any VFR traffic at all until at least 6:00 on saturday morning.
eharding, I love the Blade Runner quote; thats exactly what I was thinking when I read the steely-eyed super-pilot referring to these incredible things that we couldn't even imagine
I intend to fly tomorrow, and assuming Schipol is still closed to the airlines, we'll be trying for a fly-by or even a touch-and-go!
Once again a cracking flying day here in Scotland......a very busy shift so far for me at Scottish Information....every man and his cat and dog now seem to be flying VFR of course!! .....just had a peek at the uk radar picture and the whole screen is covered in 7000 codes down south!!!
It's bollox - at least at FL055 where I flew ~ 400nm today, or below. Vis is mostly unlimited, and there is no way for "dust" to be around with that kind of vis.
Higher up, possibly. I was just above the tops (below cloud it was rough as hell, as usual on a warm day) and there were some quite dark layers at maybe FL100 plus.
Apparently Farnborough were ordered to offer a BS only. Probably to stop exec jets operating VFR, contravening their company manual to always have a radar service when OCAS
