Silent Skies....

[Naughty Cal]

I understand that it is only flying that is problematic.

 

As such, with the exception of Phylis, we are all OK to use our boats.

 

That buggers the weekend up.

 

What if i stick to displacement speeds?

[mayalld]

That buggers the weekend up.

 

What if i stick to displacement speeds?

 

and what if I grew an extra couple of arms over the weekend?

 

Just as probable!!

[Naughty Cal]

and what if I grew an extra couple of arms over the weekend?

 

Just as probable!!

 

For what it is worth we have yet to break a single speed limit this year

[Timleech]

That solves the mystery of the plane I saw yesterday evening cycling home.

 

Does that mean that someone has finally made a pedal powered plane which works??

 

Tim

[RLWP]

 

Daedalus (above) flew 74 miles across the Aegean Sea in 1988

 

Gossamer Condor won the Kramer prize for a figure of eight course in 1977

 

Richard

 

How far do you want to go?

Edited April 16, 2010 by RLWP

[casper ghost]

 

Maybe I should scrap the pedal car i'm building and build one of them instead...

[Grace and Favour]

Maybe I should scrap the pedal car i'm building and build one of them instead...

 

A pedalnbo?

[matty40s]

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/

 

volcano webcam

 

 

another peaceful night with no planes.....

[Tiny]

Being stargazers I noticed a thin film of 'stuff' up there but it was'nt thick enough to give a good sunset although you could just see it high overhead as a slightly pinky effect - quickley gone. Same in the day when looking at the sun - not enough to stop the views of the prominances but the whole thing was slightly less bright than on a blue sky (normal) sunny day.

 

Heard one jet (military?) go over high up and one little nerr plane went over. (Nerr planes normally come out at the weekend and fly round annoying us. One that did crash had actually travelled over a hundred miles just to fly round in circles here where we don't get low flying military stuff as there is the UK helicopter training area in force. (They arn't flying either and alway go off at lunchtime friday - back monday anyway. (It was from them that a certain chappie borrowed a copter to visit his gel down south. We understand he has now left his mansion digs and headed off to Wales for advanced training having got his pass the course here handshake from dad.)))

 

Edited April 17, 2010 by Tiny

[imnogeek]

Went out last night about 9.30 and there was a very low moon showing a small white crescent, at about 11.00 the crescent was now orange in colour and no where near as bright.

 

Don't know if it was the same effect you get at sunset caused by the moon being so low on the horizon or if the cloud of dust was making it look orange but it was a wonderful sight.

[Laurence Hogg]

Although we had a cloudless sky just at sunset the dust cloud became visible for a short while, this was the scene last night:

[ditchcrawler]

Silent Sky my backside.

They have been going round here all day doing parachute jumps over Ellough Airfield.

[harleyj]

On a serious note we are supposed to fly from Oz to Brum in 22 days and now they are saying on news reports here that this could go on for weeks.

All our plans out the window.

[NiceNarrowboat]

So, how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull then?

 

"I-hafa-hellava-joke-i'll

 

...let you amuse yourself spending your hard earned two weeks' leave at home and your husband stuck in Kazakhstan with a non-returnable deposit on a holiday in the Arctic Circle..."

 

LMAO!

 

Not!

[alan_fincher]

So, how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull then?

 

Richard

 

that's the volcano's name

 

Not sure, but it sounds like an elaborate sofa bed bought in Ikea.

[blackrose]

It's nice and quiet again today over West London..They're finally realising the flight disruption could last for "many more days" (BBC website). With this high pressure system over the UK the ash cloud is moving very slowly and will stay until a low pressure front comes in and blows it away.

[Natalie Graham]

So, how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull then?

 

Richard

 

that's the volcano's name

 

 

Richard seems an odd name for a volcano.

[RLWP]

Richard seems an odd name for a volcano.

 

I think Richard is an elegant name for a volcano.

 

Richard

[journeyperson]

On a serious note we are supposed to fly from Oz to Brum in 22 days and now they are saying on news reports here that this could go on for weeks.

All our plans out the window.

 

This is something that puzzles me. At the moment there are 18 active volcano spread around the planet and if you fly from Australia to northern europe you will probably fly through air affected by one of them. When Mount St Helens erupted and exploded in 1980 the ash cloud spread around the globe and nobody stopped flying. As Quebec said in an earlier post this is more about risk aversion than anything else. National Air Traffic Service and it's counterparts are afraid of being held responsible for any accident that might happen, however unlikely it is.

 

Edited to say that air travel was disrupted locally in USA, but mainly because of poor visibility and ash accumulation on the ground. So far as I know intercontinental air travel was unaffected.

Edited April 18, 2010 by journeyperson

[Tiny]

I see a report that the dust will not effect global warming. But then I read that when the planes didn't fly after 9/11 the lack of vapour tails was thought to be the reason the temperatures generally were up a couple of degrees.

 

Anyway I must admit I miss the odd plane. Round here, after 'loves young dream' has left his girl (plus her dad and mum) and gone home on his loud 50cc motorbike at 11pm we only get the odd jet noise to disturb our rest. I normally mutter happy holiday as they that I hear pass over at great height (But as there is no other sound it seems loud.) Then I go back to sleep happy to have had this tenuous but not too close link with humanity. But last night I woke as half three (when one normally passes) and - nothing. It was a moment of total blank - horrible - like being in a total whatsit tank. Hate em when they are there - miss the odd em when they are not.

 

[Guest wanted]

It's rather surreal and I wonder whether it will be seen as an over-reaction in retrospect. I would have thought that prop driven aircraft which cruise at lower altitudes could still fly. Will there be conspiracy theories about the real reason no aircraft flew today?

 

I'm not sure about this whole volcano thing, is it real ? is it a conspiricy? I guess we'll just have to wait until the dust settles!

 

 

coat!

[matty40s]

...or dust jacket.....

[fender]

its really lovely there's no planes in the sky

 

(its time these archaic flying machines were scrapped and their filthy land-grabbing airports given over to other uses.)

[Radiomariner]

Quiet!

 

Like birdsong, you hardly notice it until it stops.

[blackrose]

I heard Dr Guy Gratton, who I've met at Brunel University, talking about the ash cloud on the radio. He seems to be an acknowledged expert on aviation and air pollution and was speaking about a FAA study he's doing on the subject.

 

He reckons nobody actually knows safe limits of volcanic ash density in the air because it's never been properly studied before.

 

It seems to me that if this continues much longer, logistical and economic demands will eventually supersede stringent safety concerns and flights will be allowed to start again. We can see this beginning to happen already with the airlines conducting their own test flights, reporting no problems and calling the flight ban an over-reaction and for it to be relaxed. The airports are also calling for the flight-ban to be reviewed.

 

It's interesting how psychology is playing a part in this - the European aviation authorities are being asked to decide whether it's safe to fly, yet nobody can accurately quantify the problem or hazard. So they're having to make judgements and life & death decisions based on a lack of information.

Edited April 19, 2010 by blackrose