interesting viewing off a Dutch website - was posted on a weather forum

Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser, Aarhus Universitet - Sådan spreder vulkan-skyen fra Island sig

btw anyone looked at the Jetstream forecast up till Wednesday ? doesn't look that great to my non-meterological eyes.

If you look at the satellite sequence at Satellite: Europe ? yr.no and the dust spectral sequence at
EUMETSAT IPPS animation - Meteosat 0 degree Dust Western Europe (select the 24 frame option) you can see the bulk of the plume was created yesterday and seemed to stop around midnight, with a small 1-2 hour burst in the wee hours. Most of the "cloud" seems to have passed thru the North Sea, and is primarily resident (now) in the Netherlands/Benelux area. Must have significantly dispersed though, one would think.

Point of order...if a website is in Danmark or .dk that makes it Danish not Dutch

Bullet, I was being ironic.

Passengers aren't able to fly on my airline. Get your money back.

Airlines aren't able to use NATS. Get your money back.

What's good for the goose...

Even if NATS hadn't closed the airspace, in the interests of safety, I doubt my airline would be operating anyway - in the interests of safety of course.

paulrcgb - you are quite correct my mistake - sorry

VFR
 

R44 - I believe non whatsoever. Two Glasgow arrivals and departs did precisely that:ok:

Maxred, so some airlines are departing VFR and opening plan enroute?

Chesty,

You can be as ironic as you like, the simple point is NATS are providing the best service as possible when they decide to close an airspace due to safety reasons - just like grounding an A/C. If NATS had gone on strike for a few days I would be agreeing with you but they have not.
By making the difficult decision to close the airspace they have indeed provided you and I with a first class service of which they are now not being paid for.

VFR
 

Yep - my understanding

G-CHAI is half way over the channel at the moment UK bound by the look of it... are the biz jets allowed to blast around VFR at the moment?

They were to Canada right? Do you know what airline it was?

Im quite suprised there no mass exodus of exec jets, private and charter departing the UK FIR low level VFR. i imagine theres quite a high number at the likes of Luton, Farnborough, Biggin etc....

Just got back from work..... wierd, on the radar the whole of northern Europe was a black hole from south of Paris to well above Copenhagen and from Dublin to northern Germany and further. Not a blip to be seen, except a few, about 6 or so at around 2,000ft over Germany moving very slowly! No background "chatter", just laughter from dirty jokes in the air!!! And I thought I was flying to the UK tomorrow!

Airbus 330 arrived from Canada VFR yesterday. Joined downwind for a 23 arrival, with 5 mile final called. Took off this morning, bound for Canada VFR!!
The weather yesterday and today was gloriously perfect.

Some very happy passengers on board.

It was noted on GMTV this morning.:cool:

Agency reports suggest that Sweden and Norway plan to slowly re-open its airspace (whilst now some airports in the Baltics and Central Europe are closed). Relaxation of restrictions will affect the northern parts of Swedish airspace and the Norwegian CAA have stated flights from Trondheim may start in a few hours time.

Grounded airline fears ash damage from quick return to flight
At least one airline grounded in the European areas affected by the volcanic ash cloud is worried that it might be pressured to fly again before the risk is over.
EasyJet has told Flight International that it is taking advice from Boeing, Airbus and the engine manufacturers about the risks involved in flying when there is still "residual" volcanic ash in the air because of the potential for damage to the aircraft engines.

Grounded airline fears ash damage from quick return to flight

View from the North Downs
 

The Sandman,

Thanks for the link to EUMETSAT dust animation, which seems to show the remnants have now arrived over South East England, where I am.

The problem with many other satellite pics is that they show a large amount of cirrus cloud clearly crossing Iceland from west to east, then continuing to circulate clockwise around the anticyclone, and into the North Sea and surrounding lands. How much of this has been contaminated by the eruption is not immediately obvious: the dust animation seems to clarify this.

I notice that the UK Met Office VAAC charts are now annotated: "no significant ash risk above FL350".

I've been inclined to think that the CAS closure throughout the UK was an over-reaction, as I implied yesterday. Last night, here on the North Downs, the stars were slightly blurred; but this could easily have been by thin cirrus. It probably was. I left a highly-scientific detector in my garden, in the form of a clean sheet of A4 paper. This morning it was pristine-clean.

This morning, however, there is an odd look to the sky. When the sun finds a gap in the cloud, it seems to shine slightly attenuated. The patches of blue sky seem to lack brilliance, reminiscent of the sky during the beginnings of a solar eclipse. The above may be my imagination; but remember I am a sceptic.

Would anyone else in this neck of the woods like to comment?

Chris

Transatlantics just given the OK to depart from EGCC until 1300Z.

Weird !!

Are we moving into new areas of responsibility here?
As a pilot, my understanding has always been that the function of ATC is to provide separation between IFR aircraft inside CAS and provide information and advice in other situations. Responsibility for the safety of a flight, however, has previously rested with commanders and operators of aircraft.
NATS has effectively `closed` UK airspace for other than ATC reasons.
Can we now expect NATS to intervene in other difficult and potentially life threatning situations?
For example, I can think of a few to start off the list :-
low vis, freezing fog, severe icing, strong x winds, severe turbulence, CAT, thunderstorm / line squall activity, micro bursts etc etc.
I am sure you can all add to the list.
But what is going on here? Have NATS decided to intervene in areas where they haven`t in the past and do we wish them to do so?

Darn. I'm stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
Company has cancelled the whole lot.
These icelandic exports are ruining the market!

Coded message translated to "we are going to be ramping up P2F due to loss of revenue!!!!"

Sunny dorset
 

I am currently sat at my desk at home in a very sunny west dorset and i would say that everything is normal and that we might even have CAVOK on our hands because there is not a cloud insight and blue brilliant sky as far as i can see. We have had a few light aircraft overhead but nothing majour i guess that they are VFR?

thanks

mat4134

There`s now a NOTAM out closing Amsterdam FIR untill midnight tonight.

@ManOfMan

Where have you got that information from?

Ash on London
 

The danger is definitely real, invisible to human eye but very tangible for radars and engines.
This is not over reaction, there was no alternative.
Friends from London have just confirmed to me that all cars this morning ,which were left parked outdoors overnight, are now covered by a thin layer of golden sand, obviously this is the ash from the volcano.
If you have a black car the ash is clearly visible on your car, go and check it out.

The main danger now is Katla, fingers crossed , it might get really serious if that one wakes up.:mad:

The problem with that graphic is twofold, it assumes a steady stream of high level ash from the volcano, which apparently is not the case.
Secondly it shows high density of ash over Europe (similar colour as straight from the volcano) spread over areas hundreds of times larger. Certainly it will spread out, and become much less dense.

I hope people dont try to wipe the stuff off, it is extremely abrasive and will leave instant marks in the paintwork, much like sandpaper... has to be washed off with plenty of water.

splitduty,

As a retired airline pilot, I share your concern about this unprecedented action by NATS; taking the decision out of our hands. But I think this was probably government intervention, as said yesterday? No doubt, the readiness of the authorities to intervene has magnified since "9/11".

The spectre of numbers of 200-tonne gliders over built-up areas was probably too much. Once they have raised the alarm, which operator can tell if his insurer would pay up?

Chris

The devil has a face..
 

Well, here is the culprit, the devil has shown its face:}
This is a radar image taken from a coast guard DHC 8 yesterday over the volcano....



http://img.visir.is/apps/pbcsi.dll/b...ef=AR&NoBorder

It is only Controlled Airspace which has been closed. Not much of that in Sunny Dorset.

Nice sat images at EUMETSAT IPPS animation - Meteosat 0 degree Dust Central Europe

(colors described at Met Office: Iceland Volcano satellite imagery)

@manofman I Don't know where you got your info from, but this is what is written on EGCC/MAN website - Severe Restrictions to UK Airspace Affecting Manchester Airport

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) have now confirmed that no flights will be permitted in UK controlled airspace until 1am on Saturday 17th April, at the earliest, due to the volcanic ash drifting across the country from Iceland.

As a result, all arriving and departing flights at Manchester remain suspended until further notice. :ugh:

Tom 663 finals MAN with a medical emergency onboard

Ah the medical emergency explains that one. There's another flight though TOM093 - FlightAware > Thomsonfly #93

Tom....
 

HS125 Heading towards detling about 3000 at 1930ish?

TCX7L heading SE over Northern Ireland

Think this is also for EGCC

Apparently MAN are accepting three flights between now and 13:00, so TOM663 (apparently supposed to be bound for Glasgow) would be one, and possibly the TCX flight could be two.... So one more floating around??

BA 9

I believe that the words Eric used in his early interviews were - drawing on his Hampshire background - " it was as black as a badgers arse "

TCX7L is for Glasgow, isn't she?

Some departures as well I have heard

Ian