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Volcanic ash grounding planes in Europe! (RV's too...)

A

ao.frog

Well Known Member
Hi folks.

I had planned a great RV-flying day today in beautiful Spring weather, but the airspace in most of northern Europe is CLOSED.... yuk!
A vulcano on the SE of Iceland has an outbreak a couple of days ago, and now the vulcanic ash is spreading all over the Northern Euorope!

The last time this thing had an outbreak, (back in the 1800's I think) it lasted OVER ONE YEAR....
Now, thousands of airliners and small planes are grounded until further... and the ash is spreading...

Here in Norway, the airspace is closed until 2 PM today for a starter, but they say the closure will be extended, maybe for several days... or weeks...! YUK!

If the wind-direction changes, there might be improvements, but for now, that thing sure affects both RV's and the rest of the flying world up here...
Yesterday for example, 50% of ALL the flights beetween Europe and the US was cancelled!

On the link below, the text is in Norwegain I'm afraid, but you can see on the animation how the ash is spreading from Iceland and into Euorope... (click on the "play" arrow)

http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.7081946
 
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Me too

Hello,
I was to fly (RV is not finished yet, with a DR400) this morning out of LFPL (east of Paris), a NOTAM said the field was closed till 10h00 local time. At 10h00 the tower controller told me that she didn't have the authority to open the field even if there was no new NOTAM and the old one had expired. Only top brass at the DGAC (french FAA) could make that decision. At 10h30 the field was announced closed till 14h00 (2pm for you guys over the Atlantic).
Now, at 14h00 all the airfield of northern France will be closed till 20h00 local time at least.
My airline (the French one with the stripes on the empennage) cancelled all flights to and from the Paris airports yesterday evening and all day today.
We have planes and crews scattered all over the planet and don't know yet how this will turn out.
:(:(:(:(
Have a look at this web site, http://www.radarvirtuel.com/ , the skies are empty over nothern Europe. The ash cloud is depicted in light grey. (The server might be sometimes overloaded, be patient).

Seems, the only thing left is to work on my RV this afternoon..

:D:D:D
 
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Update

At 5pm local time,
all airports in northern France are closed till 8am tomorrow morning 04/17.
 
Could this mean the end of "Global Warming"? ;)

I hope it clears soon and you can get back in the air.
 
I hope this wind changes soon. I'm stuck here in London and my project is a long way from here. :(

Starting to suffer withdrawl.
 
Way ahead of you. Went to Stonehenge yesterday, the RAF museum today. Trying to figure out what to do tomorrow.

Still, I need my RV fix. Compression therapy is good for the soul.:D
 
Check out http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/ and go hang at a local GA field -- the UK has an awesome GA scene.

My favorite field is White Waltham (has a pub with benches to watch from). Last time I was there I saw at least one RV with US registration.

Rochester can be fun too; however the restaurant does not have a view of the field.
 
Is the ash that thick that it would clog a small plane's air filter?
I understand that Jets would be grounded, but a small plane?

Cars can continue to drive...
 
IFR only affected in UK

Nice sunny day here today in Southern England. I saw an email from a UK flying magazine saying that only IFR flights were affected.
Have seen a few GA aircraft flying overhead today.

Here's a couple of current enroute info NOTAMs for EGTT FIR

Q) EGXX/QAFXX/I/NBO/E/000/999/5441N00219W999
B) FROM: 10/04/16 13:47C) TO: 10/04/17 06:00
E) A VOLCANIC ASH VA CLOUD, ORIGINATING IN ICELAND IS HAVING AMAJOR IMPACT AFFECTING UK AIRSPACE. SCOTTISH AND LONDON FIR/UIRAREAS AFFECTED, BASED ON A PROJECTION FROM THE VOLCANIC ASHADVISORY MESSAGE IS AS FOLLOWS:161800 5059N 00800W, 5128N 00707W, 5116N 00442W, 5956N 00006E,AROUND THE PERIMETER OF THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN FIR BOUNDARY,4952N 00243W, 4950NN 00406W, 5128N 00707W, 5059N 00800W170000 EAST AND SOUTH OF THE FOLLOWING LINES 5850N 00302E 5223N00521W 5224N 00530W170600 EAST AND SOUTH OF THE FOLLOWING LINES 5724N 00422E 5201N00540W 5204N 00600WOPR SHOULD REFER TO LATEST VA ADVISORY FOR FURTHER INFO SEE METOFFICE VAAC LONDON WEBSITE. IN ACCORDANCE WITH ICAO VOLCANIC ASHCONTINGENCY PLAN, NO IFR CLEARANCE WILL BE ISSUED FOR PENETRATIONOF THE FORCAST CONTAMINATED AREA WI UK AIRSPACE. LONDON FIR/UIRREMAINS ZERO RATE UNTIL 0600 17 APR. FROM 1800 RESTRICTIONS WILLBE LIFTED IN SCOTTISH AIRSPACE, INCLUDING NORTHERN IRELAND EXCEPTWITHIN THE CONTAMINATED AREA AS DEFINED BY NOTAM. THIS WILL INCLUDEALL SCOTTISH AIRPORTS AND AIRSPACE TO THE WEST OF THE CONTAMINATEDAREA INCLUDING PART OF THE NORTH SEA AND, SHETLAND AND ORKNEY.FLIGHTS VIA SCOTTISH FIR/UIR TO/FROM NEWCASTLE MAY BE POSSIBLE FROM0001Z 17 APR SUBJECT TO COORDINATION WITH UK FMP. SIGNED OPERATIONSMANAGER NATS SWANWICK +44 1489 612416LOWER: SFC
UPPER: UNL




Q) EGTT/QARLT/I/NBO/E/055/460/5206N00157W999
B) FROM: 10/04/16 11:02C) TO: 10/04/17 00:00
E) FLW RESTRICTIONS APPLY TO IFR FLIGHTS ENTERING LONDON FIR/UIR DUE TO VOLCANIC ASH ACTIVITY. ZERO RATE FLOW RESTRICTIONS ARE IN PLACE FOR ALL EGTT SECTORS UNTIL 17 APR 0000. ANY TFC DEPARTING FM AD OUTSIDE THE IFPS ZONE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN LONDON AIRSPACE. OPS MANAGER NATS SWANWICK +44 1489 612416
 
an update

Hi again.

They just said on the news that another vulcano, close to the first one and MUCH bigger, is in danger of getting an outbreak, and if THAT happens, this can be really really bad....

Check this link for a video from the first outbreak: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.7079404

Click on the small "play-arrow" close to "nrk" in the lower left corner or the big arrow in the middle of the pic (it appears if you let the mouse hower in the pic a second or two)

(sorry for the Norwegian text but you'll get an idea...)
 
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I'm not sure what altitude the ash cloud is at, but the past three days have been mostly clear to partly cloudy here in London. Saw several GA airports on the way to Stonehenge and planes were flying-didn't see any RV's.

It would be easier to understand if the skies were grey and light ash was falling, but it isn't that way. Summertime in Atlanta looks worse than this.:confused:
 
mculver said:
Check out http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/ and go hang at a local GA field -- the UK has an awesome GA scene.

My favorite field is White Waltham (has a pub with benches to watch from). Last time I was there I saw at least one RV with US registration.

Rochester can be fun too; however the restaurant does not have a view of the field.
Click to expand...

The two BEST airfields in the London area are North Weald near Epping in Essex and Headcorn near Maidstone in Kent.

North Weald used to house Dave Gilmore's (Pink Floyd) stable of aircraft which consisted of a Spitfire a Mustang a Staggerwing a
Folland Gnat and a Piper Cub. Other lovely aircraft were stored there and the site was used for filming Saving Private Ryan and for Band of Brothers.

North Weald has a good restaurant known as The Squadron. There are still a number of lovely planes based here such as a Kittyhawk a Hurricane and another Spitfire and Mustang.

Headcorn is the home of the Tiger Club
 
20,000+ ft

Apparently the ash is 20,000ft and upwards. Nothing visible from the ground. Though just seen a clip on the news of a chap in Shetland showing a thin layer of talcum powder-like grey-black dust that settled on his car overnight.

_47657934_iceland_volc_comp_466in.gif
 
bruceh said:
Is the ash that thick that it would clog a small plane's air filter?
I understand that Jets would be grounded, but a small plane?

Cars can continue to drive...
Click to expand...

The ash can vary between talcum-powder consistency all the way up to beach sand or rock salt. So at the very least it would sandblast your wings clean of paint. In the worst case, it would clog your filter and fill your carb with grit almost instantly, stopping your engine -- but you wouldn't have to be concerned with looking at the rapidly-approaching ground below, because your windshield would have been blasted opaque...

So at least you'd hit the ground pretty relaxed, not all tensed-up... ;)
 
Update

All airports in the northern half of France remain closed today till 2pm at least.
My airline (Air France), cancelled almost all domestic and European flights.
Some return long-haul flight operated yesterday and landed at the open airports in southern France.
The planes may be stranded there as there is no possibility to transfer passengers from Paris to these airports due to very heavy road and rail traffic, this week-end being the first week-end of spring vacation.
There is also a railway strike, which has been going on for ten days.
I'm supposed to fly to Bogota on monday, wait and see.
 
Update at 2pm

All flights to and from Paris cancelled till at least Monday 8am.
This is not looking good.
This is having consequence far from Europe as passenger are stranded everywhere unable to come fly back here or there homes abroad.
If anybody you know might need some help around here, let me know.
I don't know if I can do something, but I can at least try.
 
Flandy10 said:
I'm not sure what altitude the ash cloud is at, but the past three days have been mostly clear to partly cloudy here in London. Saw several GA airports on the way to Stonehenge and planes were flying-didn't see any RV's.

It would be easier to understand if the skies were grey and light ash was falling, but it isn't that way. Summertime in Atlanta looks worse than this.:confused:
Click to expand...

I read on the news that this is part of the problem. The ash cannot be seen or be detected by radar, it can only be detected by satellites. By the time you understand what is happening, it is already too late. This happened with some Finish F-18 the other day. The ash entered the engines as a very fine powder, but inside the engine it melted to become like glass that coated the interior, and probably ruined the engine completely.

http://www.flightglobal.com/article...engine-check-reveals-effects-of-volcanic.html
 
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