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!