Icelandic eruption

Just been reading about the volcanic eruption causing "chaos" across the
UK airspace, and came across this bit:

"The European air safety body, Eurocontrol, said the cloud of ash had
reached 55,000ft"

**** me - I knew eruptions were powerful, but that's some height to spew
to. Explains why they can't just fly over it.

 

Sounds like a lot of hot air to me.

 

This one is quite famous among the goulish.
All the engines stopped - but they got them going
again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9
"Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide
ratio of approximately 15:1 meaning it can glide
forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. The
flight crew quickly determined that the aircraft was
capable of gliding for 23 minutes and covering 91
nautical miles (169 km) from its flight level of 11,000
metres (36,000 ft)."

--

Please sign the libel reform petition - no matter
where you are in the world. Get others to sign too.
Help to change these oppressive laws.
http://www.libelreform.org/sign

 

And our Sarah is now a little bit pissed off, she was due to fly from
Gatwick at 11:30am, but her connecting flight from Manchester at 07:00 was
cancelled.

Not a cat in hells chance of getting to Gatwick in time, and Air Transat
are not cancelling their fllight from Gatwick. So she is stuffed, time
wise and insurance wise (they will only pay for the connecting flight as
she did not ytake out "delay" cover.

Now trying to get her a flight for tomorrow, from Heathrow, if Air Canada
will answer the bloody phone (Air Transat don't fly again until Sunday).
Looks like I will be up for an early drive tomorrow :-(

 

I'm supposed to be flying to India on Sunday. We'll see.

 

You'll be fine:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/vaacuk.html

/

 

Got out of bed the right side this morning did we?

 

Excellent - maybe they'll show a re-run of Herbie instead.

 

Anybody care to decode that? Given that I'm supposed to fly to San
Francisco on Tuesday?

 

Whew that's a hell of a tale. What a line!
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small
problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get
them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress"

 

**** knows what it means!

However, I can see that it says the main height of the plume is 6km,
occasionally 11km, so where do the other reports get 55,000ft from?

 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/data/VAG_1271309704.png

 

I was about to rush out and stock up on munchies when I twigged that it
wasn't a big cloud of hash heading this way.

 

This is possibly more useful -
http://www.sat24.com/Region.aspx?country=gb&sat=ir&type=loop

 

I flew in from Zurich last night, leaving three of my colleagues behind
to fly back this morning. They're now stuck in Zurich for at least
another day while I sit at home on the sofa with my feet up. Haha.

 

Interesting imagery here:

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, CT

It's a bunch of coordinates, with flight levels for the ash. So:

SFC/FL200 N6405 W01810 - N6420 W00712 - N6757 W00210 -
N7045 E00707 - N7038 E02449 - N6607 E03138 - N6440 E03211 - N6420
E02341 - N6601 E01237 - N6425 E00835 - N5341 E00158 - N5444 W00250 -
N5956 W00812 - N6326 W02058 - N6405 W01810

says that within the longs/lats shown the ash is present from the ground
(SFC) to 20,000 feet (FL200).

Subsequent sections give forecasts for different times.

Rough translation: "It's fucked, mate".

They're taking it from aviation forecasts that only go up to FL55
(55,000 feet), because commercial aircraft don't operate above that (any
more).

 

So has it gone dark up there in the norvern wastelands?

 

I live near enough Tollerton airport to see and hear regular pleasure
flights, no change from the usual. Too low to be affected?

 

Nope, bright clear blue skies still