The Anonymous Widower

The Volcanic Dust Farce

Farce is not too strong a word.

I was listening to Simon Calder last night on BBC Radio 5.  He was very critical of government and government agencies locking down UK airspace, when if we’d used the US rules, flying would just have been a little more difficult.

Now under EU rules, airlines and tour companies are liable for a lot of the costs of the delays suffered by passengers. But if these delays were caused by bad government science then who pays?

I would not be happy with a bill for several thousand pounds, so I would want someone to pay me.  If the airlines felt the government were at fault, then it would end up being a bean feast for lawyers.

This one will run and run!

I think though that this farce, shows Nulabor in all their stupidity.  They did nothing but hide behind the rules, then they sent a couple of gunboats and then they had to cave in when they were the only European government that was banning flying.

What would I have done in Prudence’s place?

I would have made sure that as soon as possible we tested all of the science and engineering.  If this was being done, we didn’t know about it, which shows how this government feels that nanny-knows-best secrecy is the best policy.

I would have brought in expert advice from countries like the United States, where they have a lot of experience and different rules about flying in volcanic ash. 

In the end they imposed American rules and the airports opened. 

If they had worked quickly, instead of hoping the problem just went away, the airports would have been opened a lot early.

Let’s hope the people of the UK realise who’s to blame for much of this farce.

April 21, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , , , | 2 Comments

Thoughts on Airliners in the Volcanic Dust

As I’ve said before I’m an experienced, although no longer current pilot. I’m also an engineer, who has always been interested in the way planes work and also what causes accidents.

I respect airlines like Lufthansa, British Airways and KLM.  They have excellent safety records and would in my view do nothing rash.  After all, if you took a chance and you had a serious crash, even one without any injuries, your airline would go down the toilet.  So when Lufthansa says that they found no damage after flying through the volcanic dust, I trust their engineers to have checked and checked that there is no damage and their spokesman to be truthful and not put any spin on it.

But these airlines are not the problem, as I believe that all A-list airlines would never do anything that would knowingly compromise safety.  Suppose though that airliners were allowed to be flown in the current state of volcanic dust, but with certain conditions on flight and maintenance rules.  It wouldn’t just apply to the good ones, but to the bad and the ugly too! 

Can governments afford for Air Neck-End to have an accident? 

Of course they can’t!  So they have to legislate not for the best with special rules, but for those airlines that I would never use on grounds of safety.  You’ll probably find that it’s all to do with competition rules and you can’t use safety fears to keep new entrants out of the market.

Let’s also at this point put in a good word for Ryanair.  They have been more than honest with cancelling their schedules for longer than their competitors.  It may be prudent too, so that you don’t have masses of people swilling round the check-in desks. O’Leary is no fool.

But I’m also reminded about a story from Liverpool University.  One of my fellow students came from Derby.  He told how Rolls-Royce bought time-expired chickens to use for testing jet engines.

I hope that large quantities of the volcanic dust are being fired through something like a Trent.

Note that the engine being tested at Derby in the mid-1960s was the RB211, the engine that bankrupted Rolls-Royce.  The Trent is a derivative from that engine and to say it has been successful would be an understatement. The basic design is older than my children.

So we should let the pilots, engineers and air traffic controllers sort this problem out and keep the politicians well out of the way.  And if it means we have different rules for different airlines to satisfy the safety needs, so be it!

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | 1 Comment

The Navy’s Going

So Prudence has called in the Royal Navy.

Knowing his luck, this will mean the wind changes and everything will be alright.

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Can We Fly Round the Volcanic Cloud?

I’ve never flown an airliner, but I have flown over a 1,000 hours in small aircraft.

So let’s put in a few stories.

  • I have flown to Cardiff airport many times and several times when I have been there, British Airways have been doing circuits and practice landings and take-offs in a 747.
  • I once flew into Dulles airport on a very quiet Sunday and the pilot did a short approach turning on to finals at just a few hundred feet.
  • I read a safety report about a pilot who ditched and had his MayDay call answered by a TWA 747.  It then did steep turns at a few hundred feet to mark his life-raft.

So contrary to what you may think, big aircraft like 747s and Airbus 330/340/380 are not lumbering giants, but very manoeuvrable aircraft that can fly happily at lower levels.  It doesn’t do too much for their fuel consumption though. 

Now the volcanic cloud is generally above 3,000 feet, so could we not fly to Spain, which is open?  It would need to be  in Visual Flight Rules, but it would surely be possible to create an airbridge to say Madrid.  Most of the flight would be over water and it should not be difficult to create a low-level airway.

Why has there been so little talk of doing this?

There was one article in the Daily Mail. Read it!

April 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

The Airlines are Revolting

Some airlines like KLM and Lufthansa have been flight testing in the volcanic ash.  According to the BBC, results seem promising.

Let’s hope so.

April 18, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

I Wish I Still Had Delta-Delta

Delta-Delta was my Cessna 340A.  This was a six seater twin piston engined aircraft.  So could I still fly the aircraft with all this volcanic dust about.  There is a good technical article called How Volcanic Ash Threatens Aircraft  in New Scientist, which explains all the problems very well.

Volcanic ash is composed of particles of glassy pulverised rock less than 2 millimetres in diameter. When an aircraft flies into it at its high cruising speed, the cockpit windows get a sandblasting, obscuring the pilots’ view. Crucially, though, the engines suck the dust in, where it melts in the hot combustion chamber and fuses to form globs on the turbine vanes that block the engine airflow. Only when it cools and solidifies – as the aircraft plummets engineless – can enough of the muck flake off to allow an engine restart.

So that convinces me as an ex-pilot with over a 1,000 hours on the clock, that the authorities are not being over cautious.

But it is this comment on the article that is interesting.

There isn’t a blanket ban on flying in the UK. AIUI, NATS has closed controlled airspace. You are allowed to fly outside controlled airspace, and planes can fly ‘VFR’ (Visual Flight Rules) which are more restrictive than ‘IFR’ (Instrument Flight Rules) (eg for VFR you have to fly slower, and within sight of the ground). For IFR you have to be in touch with air traffic control, for VFR you don’t (as long as you are outside controlled airspace), you just do your own thing.

So, a Cessna can probably fly fine under VFR at the moment, while a 747 can’t. Similarly, gliders, paragliders will all be fine, since they always fly VFR, and rarely go into controlled airspace.

Theoretically, I suppose, something like a 737 could fly VFR within the UK (they have been known to if controlled airspace is busy), but would have to land at airfields outside of controlled airspace, and there aren’t many of those big enough to take that size of plane.

Also, a jet engine is much more susceptible to problems from ash than a (non-turbo) prop plane is.

A light aircraft prop engine has pretty much just a (very powerful) engine with the same technology as a car, so it has air filters which will protect it from dust (as long as you don’t overuse the ‘carb heat’ function), and light aircraft don’t go fast enough for dust to have a significant abrasive effect.

So Delta-Delta could fly VFR at least in the UK.  The last point is the most important.  A piston-engined aircraft should be protected from dust ingestion.

Whether I could rescue all my mates stuck in foreign parts, I do not know.  It would just depend on the rules on the continent.

April 17, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , | 1 Comment

Manchester to Australia

Just watching the Manchester City/United Derby on Sky.

The pitchside advertising says fly from Manchester to Australia on Etihad Airways.

You could be so lucky at the moment.

April 17, 2010 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Advice to a Friend

Whilst at the races I phoned a friend to see if he was at Newmarket.  He wasn’t because he was in Tenerife on holiday.

When I got home, I felt I ought to send him a text to keep him up-to-date on the situation with the flights.  He knows that I used to fly a lot and I’d flown with him several times, so he would have thought I could have a bit more information.  So this is what I said.

I wasn’t on the ball this afternoon.  You’re in Tenerife and the planes aren’t flying. So I rang an old flying friend at Heathrow Air Traffic and asked him what he thought.  He reckons that the weather is stuck and the volcano will get worse and planes are unlikely to fly to the UK for at least 14 days. Phone for more details.

I think he swallowed it.  At least he phoned friends at home and told them he’d be back late.

I hope that I didn’t get the 14 days right.

April 16, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

I Can Drive, But I Can’t Fly

I cycled to the GPs this morning and she looked up the rules about driving after a stroke on the DLVA web site.  Click that link and then download the PDF to get the up-to-date status.

As of today, the 15th of April, the rules for driving and strokes are as follows.

Must not drive for 1 month. May resume driving after this period if the clinical recovery is satisfactory. There is no need to notify DVLA unless there is residual neurological deficit 1 month after the episode; in particular, visual field defects, cognitive defects and impaired limb function. Minor limb weakness alone will not require notification unless restriction to certain types of vehicle or vehicles with adapted controls is needed. Adaptations may be able to overcome severe physical impairment.

So I got my driving licence back.

But I can’t fly!

But neither can anybody else in the UK or Ireland.  First the Icelandics take our money and now their volcano takes our airspace.

Perhaps, we should lob a few missiles.

April 15, 2010 Posted by | Health | , , | 1 Comment

Suicide Bomber hits the IRS

A disgruntled software engineer has flown a plane into the IRS building in Austin.

Judging by the pictures of the damage, I thought it must have been something quite large.  But no, it was just a small Piper Cherokee, which weighs about a tonne.

I used to own and fly a Piper Arrow, which is just a Cherokee with a retractable undercarriage.  It was a fine aircraft that had a sorry end as a few years after I sold it, it crashed killing all on board at Oban. 

I also flew another Arrow all round Australia with my late wife.  We visited Sydney, Mildura, Adelaide, Cooper Pede, Yulara, Alice Springs, Mount Isa, Cairns, Dunk Island, Mackay, Brisbane and Goondiwindi before heading back to Sydney.

That was real fun!

February 19, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

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