Ash at 13:40 today from weather satellite.
 

http://www.lacasita.demon.co.uk/volc

Picture was from my own setup.

Just brought wife back from Girona. Sat in aircraft for half an hour, then told flight to Gatwick scrubbed due ash cloud. FR quite efficient, rebooked everyone for tomorrow.

But we shall see.......


r Duh !

How much did you have to pay FR to buy her back?

CJ

It must be costing the airlines a small fortune taking the additional routing to cross the Atlantic. I saw an A332 aircraft of TAP for the first time today over Scotland flying from Newark to Oporto, way north of its normal route.

Just seen Aeromexico from Madrid to Cancun fly over Cardiff northbound on RadarVirtuel. Funny old world!!!

How long before we see an "Ash Charge" applied to airfares?

How much did you have to pay FR to buy her back?

What is this, a Jet Blast spin-off thread, or are we going there next ;-) ?

Serious question: anyone got an updated meteo chart showing forecast ash cloud over S. Europe for tomorrow - 12.5.2010, before I trundle down to the airport one more time ?

Ash update, the big black area over the Atlantic seems to be thinning.

Met Office: Icelandic volcano - Ash concentration charts

Still rather large in size though, the volcano still active and with the low pressure on its way in to drag it all back over us (UK)

I complained earlier about the inadequate size of the charts we were peering at - so I'm very happy to applaud the Met Office for the Eastern Atlantic/European charts that have appeared. :ok::D

Met Office: Icelandic volcano - Zoom air ash concentration charts

Let's admit it...there were moments where the ash saga was farcical enough to merit being transferred to JB....
Serious answer. Sepp's link to bigger-scale maps is most welcome. Girona should be OK, unless the AENA adds on another buffer zone.

CJ

One might mention the obvious fact that just because the dreaded Ash Cloud is not over one's departure airport, it doesn't mean your aircraft will either arrive or depart.......as was the case with the i/c 738 to depart from GRO as FR9008 today. Came in an hour late, was advised to stay below FL19 on departure, but in the end FR9008 never departed at all.

Ryanair's own website showed the flight as cancelled, but a forlorn passenger in my car on the way home accessed 'arrivals' on Gatwick's computer which showed FR9008 landing on time in the UK. Most wry.

Tomorrow's midday chart shows 'almost nothing' emerging from the volcano. Has it quietened down?

I was intrigued today to discover that the task of producing the charts is assigned to the VACC in which the volcano is located. The London VACC is actually a very small one, consisting of Iceland and the British Isles, full stop.

The rest of Europe, all of Africa, the Middle East, half of Russia and even India, falls within the Toulouse VACC. But as it's not 'their' volcano, they can only play a secondary, advisory role to London. Even though it's 'their' airspace which is being closed. Remarkable too that the London VACC charts showed no-fly zones in France at the weekend which the French, acting on their own data which included test flights by Air France, chose not to implement.

"Tomorrow's midday chart shows 'almost nothing' emerging from the volcano. Has it quietened down?"

Definitely hasn't quitened down, in fact the eruption became more explosive again this afternoon. There's some very usefull updates about the eruption on the Iceland Met Office website.

I suspect that the low pressure over Iceland tomorrow and the associated calm winds will cause the plume to gather and spread over the eruption site rather than being blown out to sea as we've been seeing previously. It'll be interesting to see how the passing depression re distributes the ash cloud :8

It may not have quietened down but yesterdays report suggested
Very different from the early very fine ash!

France did implement a no fly zone, so I suspect they were simply asleep, rather than remarkable.

From sat24.com:
Wind changed from NorthEast to NorthWest since a few hours and new plume heading towards Faroer and Scotland. Over Scotland within 24 hours if speed remains. Interesting to know what's gonna happen then.

Ash Cloud
 

Can I just ask someone to recap a few points for me as the goal posts seem to change daily.

1/ The charts are a bit like the TV game Bullseye! Stay out of the black and stay in the red you get nothing in this game for two in a bed as in is the black a total total no go zone and the red is go at your own risk?.

2/Why was the altitude of SFC to 20000 chosen and not higher or lower ?

3/Is 20000 some magic height that the industry has chosen or is it based on average ash height etc?

4/Are airspace closures for all flights or just commerical flights?

5/ Has the same type of airspace closures happened anywhere else outside Europe/North Africa??

Just to add to question 1/ above, how long can you stay in the red for? briefly? can you hold in it? surely accumulative damage starts to play a part..