I suppose the VFR heli-ban hysteria is because we aren't used to this situation.
If the volcano at Iceland had been active for several years, they wouldn't quit flying in Northern Europe....
The British 747 flew through the main eruption form the volcano with extremely dense ash, no wonder the engines stopped..
It's the same in countries with blue skies 364 days a year, and the one day with poor visibility, they don't fly.
In Norway we have winter and lots of rain/snow and poor conditions, but have learned to live with it, and fly when the conditions are good enough, but it doesn't need to be perfect.
Heli-Ice:
I know you are happy that you get a lot of tourists coming to see the volcano, but you don't need to smoke out the rest of Northern Europe! Look what you have done, now we can't even fly to Iceland to see it!
Can you please turn down the eruption a bit, so we can get things moving here again...?