I have flown twice on SAROPs today and there is a light dusting of particulate on the nose of the aircraft after each one - our engines do have sand filters but there is some discussion about whether the particulate size is too small to be filtered by them so we are comp washing the engines after each flight.
The long and short of it is that there is ash in the air but of very low concentration - is this a big short term risk to engines? I don't believe so or we wouldn't be flying at all.
crab@,
Two points: if the volcanic ash
is too small to be trapped by the filters, then a comp wash may be irrelevant. I understand that the issue with the ash is that it will be 'melted' by the internal temperatures of the engine and thus clog nozzles, cooling vents, etc, or abrade the IGV's on the way through. Surely a wash would be akin to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?
I understand that Science 1 (the test Dornier) encountered high concentration readings @ 2000ft over Bedfordshire a couple of days ago. Maybe more testing needs to be done to establish what the threat level
really is?
Of course there's volcanic ash and there is Volcanic Ash
