Gatwick closed

[lotus1]

Rumour going around gatwick closed hole appeared on main runway should be fun goings on if true

[slfie]

Could be; there was some interesting stacking going on here (few miles south of LGW) about an hour ago (never seen 4 passenger jets as close together before, albeit with vertical separation).

[foxmoth]

Doubt they will be closed as they have the second runway, this takes time to open though and slows down the flow rate so a bit of holding is not surprising!

[ShyTorque]

Flight radar24 shows aircraft landing. Looks like they have now opened the second "runway".

[slfie]

Arrivals board appears to indicate something happened around 20:00, but flights arriving more or less normally at 21:00.

[Herod]

Is it Deja Vu on my part, or did something like this happen a couple of months ago?

Edit. My mistake. It was a spillage of (hydraulic fluid?) earlier this year.

[Trash 'n' Navs]

I'm told 26L has a hole in it (again!) and they've started using 26R.

2 diverts to LHR.
30mins holding.

Looks like they'll run late tonight.

[PersonFromPorlock]

Flights delayed as Gatwick runway closed - BBC News (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-37272878)

[The Ancient Geek]

This reminds me of the early days of the Trident autoland which was too accurate and bashed holes on the runway by whacking it in exactly the same place every landing.The fix was to randomise the touchdown point in the autoland.

[Airbubba]

This reminds me of the early days of the Trident autoland which was too accurate and bashed holes on the runway by whacking it in exactly the same place every landing.The fix was to randomise the touchdown point in the autoland.

I've got to wipe off my shoes after hearing that one. ;)

[framer]

The new Airliners must have very sophisticated randomisation of the touchdown points :)

[JW411]

The Ancient Geek:

Actually, that story relates to Belfast XR364 which carried out over 800 auto lands at RAE Bedford using the same system as the Trident. (They tried and proved it first on a freighter before letting BEA loose with it on passengers).

[sudden twang]

Gentlemen
You do know the "T" word is akin to the Life of Brian's "Jehovah ". You will have dozens of Nigel's playing with the VS selector saying "we do this because that's how they did it on T******* ".
For the younger audience please replace Jehovah with Voldemort.

[Allan Lupton]

The Ancient Geek:

Actually, that story relates to Belfast XR364 which carried out over 800 auto lands at RAE Bedford using the same system as the Trident. (They tried and proved it first on a freighter before letting BEA loose with it on passengers).
Must be some false memory here as this implies that the BLEU work with the Belfast preceded certification of the Trident system!
The first Trident autoland with passengers on board was in June 1965
The first flight of any Belfast was in 1964 and I think XR364 was in August '64. The RAF Museum's description of their Belfast, XR371, has that one as the aeroplane used at BLEU.

[B Fraser]

This reminds me of the early days of the Trident autoland which was too accurate and bashed holes on the runway by whacking it in exactly the same place every landing.The fix was to randomise the touchdown point in the autoland.


Yep, and that's why the nosewheel on Tridents was offset. It reduced the damage being done to the centreline lighting.


;)

[JW411]

Allan Lupton:

I am happy to bow to your superior knowledge of the Trident. According to my book, XR364 made its first flight on 19.08.64 and made its first auto land on 07.06.66 "the largest aircraft so far to do an auto land".

I do apologise. My memory is not improving with age.

[andrasz]

... the nosewheel on Tridents was offset. It reduced the damage being done to the centreline lighting...


AFAIK that's an urban legend, the real design reason was to enable sidewards retraction, minimizing the space taken up by the gear bay to squeeze out more cargo bay volume.

[Allan Lupton]

AFAIK that's an urban legend, the real design reason was to enable sidewards retraction, minimizing the space taken up by the gear bay to squeeze out more cargo bay volume.
Yes, quite right, but urban myth is a hydra-headed beast and stamping on all heads at once is impossible. "It's on t'internet/it's in a book/a friend told me so it Must Be True".