How to stay safe or how to see and avoid ash clouds?!. (spotter post)
 

Fellow pilots

any ideas, tips or good recomendation how to stay safe in this situation?
I have no idea how to see ash clouds in IMC, at night etc. How to know if the clouds ahead are "normal" or "contaminated"?!
I don't think the wx will help here.
All the fc charts are just models and not the real data.

Any ideas?!

Happy landings!

AFAIK, wx can't detect volcano ash clouds as it only detects moisture in clouds. Guess they will rely on ATC updates from the weather men who will have up to date satellite pics.

Some years ago KAL came up with an answer to light volcanic dust detection.
They trained some dogs by letting them smell small concentrations of volcanic dust and simultaneously giving them a biscuit.
After a short training period, every time the dog smelt the least trace of volcanic dust, it would salivate and its tail would wag.
Trained dogs were then placed on all flights planned to fly anywhere downwind of volcanoes. Initially the Pavlovian reaction was a great success.

There was however, an unfortunate misunderstanding: No one told the SCCMs of the plan and they, quite reasonably, assumed that the dogs were part of the FD in-flight catering so cooked them and fed them to the pilots, after keeping some of the better bits for themselves.

A nationwide search located no more dogs for training and the plan was abandoned.

:confused::ooh:

Are you sure the name is Basil, not Cannabis? Were they some pink elephants as well on these flights?
:}

You will know when the engines stops !!!!!!!

:ok: LOL Basil. I guess it was a little too dry for FLEXPWR. But not everyone understands dry British humour.

I flew in & out of the Rabaul area in Papua new Guinea in the 90's when it was erupting. We only flew during the day and avoided all clouds. The Citation got a compressor wash every day as well. We didn't have any troubles doing it that way.

- St Elmo's Fire Observed On Windshield Yes/no - Glow In The Engine Inlets Yes/no - Acrid Smell (similar To Electric Smell/smoke) In Cockpit Or Cabin Yes/no - Variations In Engine Performance Yes/no This Will Enable Maintenance To Perform The Correct Inspection.

Flying through an ash cloud? Here's what Boeing says you should do. - FlightBlogger - Aviation News, Commentary and Analysis

This may help.

Flying through an ash cloud? Here's what Boeing says you should do.
By Jon Ostrower on April 16, 2010 3:44 PM

by flightblogger

Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which just officially joined twitter this week, sent out a link today to a 1999 article in Aero magazine, the company's technical journal, about encountering volcanic ash clouds. If you should find yourself inside a volcanic ash cloud, Boeing recommends taking nine steps to getting yourself, your crew and your passengers out of harms way. While you can read the complete article here, I'll went ahead and illustrated the recommendations with photos from a Delta 777-200LR, to give you a sense of the interaction pilots would have in this situation.
Procedures. The following nine procedures are general recommendations. Each operator's flight operations manuals will include more specific directions.

Reduce thrust to idle immediately. By reducing thrust, engines may suffer less buildup of molten debris on turbine blades and hot-section components. Idle thrust allows engines to continue producing electrical power, bleed air for pressurization, and hydraulic power for airplane control.
Turn the autothrottles off. This prevents the engines from increasing thrust above idle. Ash debris in the engine can result in reduced surge margins, and limiting the number of thrust adjustments improves the chances of engine recovery.
Exit the ash cloud as quickly as possible. A 180-deg turn out of the ash cloud using a descending turn is the quickest exit strategy. Many ash clouds extend for hundreds of miles, so assuming that the encounter will end shortly can be false. Climbing out of the ash could result in increased engine debris buildup as the result of increased temperatures. The increased engine buildup can cause total thrust loss.
Turn on engine and wing anti-ice devices and all air-conditioning packs. These actions improve the engine stall margins by increasing the flow of bleed air.
If possible, start the auxiliary power unit (APU). The APU can power systems in the event of a multiple-engine power loss. It can also be used to restart engines through the use of APU bleed air.
If volcanic dust fills the flight deck, the crew may need to use oxygen. Use flight deck oxygen at the 100 percent setting. Manual deployment of the passenger oxygen system is not required because it will deploy automatically if the cabin altitude exceeds 14,000 ft.
Turn on the continuous ignition. Confirm that autostart is on, if available. In the event that the engines flame out or stall, use appropriate procedures to restart the engines. During restart, the engines may take longer than normal to reach idle thrust due to the combined effects of high altitude and volcanic ash ingestion. If an engine fails to start, try restarting it again immediately. Flight crews should remember that the airplane may be out of the airstart envelope if the encounter occurs during cruise.
Monitor engine exhaust gas temperature (EGT). Because of potential engine debris buildup, the EGT can climb excessively. The flight crew should prevent EGT exceedances. Shut down the engine and restart it if the EGT is approaching limits similar to a hung start.
Fly the airplane by monitoring airspeed and pitch attitude. If necessary, follow the procedure for flight with unreliable airspeed.

Aero 09 - Volcanic Ash Avoidance

Excellent. Have they any suggestions on how to subdue the passengers who've just seen their aircraft enter an ash cloud, the engines lose power and the aircraft "spin out of control...aaarghhh!"

?
:ugh:

Answer from the Canadian ATPL exams (many years ago)

If Volcanic ash is encountered carry out the following:

A "make an immediate 360 degree turn and exit the ash"

Ok, maybe it wasnt the correct answer, but I think it got most of us :)
Tricky buggers those DOT guys.

Aye get the cabin crew to put a video of BGT on.

A couple of minutes of this and the alternate may not look so bad.:oh:

Iceland
 

I don't think Iceland should be allowed to keep their volcanoes, they clearly don't know how to look after them !:*

Iceland -we said we want your CASH - not ASH !:rolleyes:

Seriously chaps- could engine manufacturers not provide some sort of "filter" for this ash ? .(beyond what modern jet-engines already use )....cross-desert vehicles have them fitted...I know a jet-engine is far, far more complex-.. Don't flame me ,I am not an engineer.;)

Filters:

The fineness of the ash which would need to be filtered and the volume of the air entering the average turbine intake make this an impossibility.