Bring back FIDO!
 

B*gger the tree-huggers I say, get this installed at LHR and other airfields right away..:ok:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDO_(device)

Mate - you weren't trying to fly into Thiefrow yesterday, were you?

I flew BRE-FRA, then FRA-BHX yesterday with Lufthansa. Snagless!

The Heathrow saga is down to over-reliance on running close to capacity all the time. So when LVPs are enforced, the whole thing goes pear-shaped. Which is bad news for ba as it's their main base. Of course they really want to bin shorthaul and go back to being Imperial Airways, it seems.....

40 years ago a BEA Trident made the first commercial automatic landing in 50 metres of fog when nothing else could get in. But BEA became ba (shorthaul) and has sucked the hind tit ever since - the longhaul Atlantic Barons perceiving them as being somewhat inferior.

No, still anticipating getting into LTN tonight, fog permitting. Have been watching some of the journos on the BBC trying to explain the situation - hilarious, especially the guy that couldn't see the difference between night flying and flying in fog..:ugh:

Latest Luton TAF:

EGGW 221210Z 221322 VRB03KT 0800 FG SCT000 TEMPO 1322 0200 FZFG OVC000

800m should be OK - depends how temporary the TEMPO actually turns out to be and how scattered the SCT!

Yep, seems OK, just have to hope that the ac arrives after its previous 3 destinations!

Some genius on another forum made a comment yesterday along the lines of "how come East Midlands can cope with the fog whereas Heathrow can't?", the slightly larger volume of movements at LHR obviously not being err, obvious.

Now I'm no expert (far from it, I stack blankets) but even I can see how fog can affect an airport with more movement to a larger degree. Perhaps SKY TV could contact me for a verdict as apparently all the people they speak to are more clueless than me.

Hmmm, perhaps thats a job for me when I leave the RAF, defence/aviation 'expert', can't be much worse than the present hired help.:rolleyes:

FIDO, wow, the Chancellor has just seen lots of ££££££'s in extra revenue, just think, he could mandate that airports bring in FIDO, and then sit back and count the Fuel Duty and VAT as it pours in.

Power it with Avtur rather than petrol and the chancellor won't see a penny on fuel duty/VAT.

Of cousre that may be stretching the defination of 'aviation use' rather than 'ground use'.;)

Actually I'm sure someone tried to re-invent it about 20 years ago using air heated by propane gas piped to the runway edge.
Weren't there some problems with turbulence as you went between the petrol burners?

According to my dad it was outrageously dangerous and a practical option only when compared with parachuting at night when lost.

Sven

Chevvron, correct. Unfortuately it was the Frogs, at Orly [I think] There was a big rotatable grating which directed the jet efflux to dissipate the Fog
watp,iktch

FIDO at RAF Manston
 

In 1944 the FIDO system at RAF Manston used to burn 250,000 gallons of fuel an hour. Even using contaminated fuel to reduce costs, at 3s 6¾d (17p) per gallon this amounted to £42,500 an hour. I don't know how many trees were planted to offset the carbon budget! :hmm:

IIRC the winters in '47 and '48 were bloody cold and the period '40-'45 saw a massive increase in burning of hydro-carbons as industry ramped up and air forces burnt the petrol. Indeed there are plenty of wartime photographs of snow bound airfields as well.

Environmentalists can offer no suggestions why there was no corresponding increase in global mean surface temperatures.