The Race To Ash Covered Europe Begins

[autogyro]

I have heard that Tambora was one or two magnitudes bigger than the Iceland disaster.

Lets hope so, the last big one was triggered by the small one though.
Modern systems of communication and transport are relied upon by our modern human areas of civilisation far far more than ever they were in the past.
If we still only had stage coaches and sailing ships, this eruption would not even be noticed in Europe. Instead it has stopped dead a large part of our whole living system.
We should take this as a warning and change our ways. It is not about being greener, just finding some long lost common sense for living in balance with our world.

[Richard]

UK teams will struggle to cross the channel. All ferries and Eurostar are booked up until middle of the week

So that's most of the grid then.

There's nothing to stop the private charter of a suitable boat of course...

I think the trucks need something bigger than the sort of pleasure craft that might be available for hire

I'm sure the personnel will get across OK on a private boat.

[Richard]

It is not about being greener, just finding some long lost common sense for living in balance with our world.

Agreed. Alas man made climate change has become a politicised ideology. That means any talk of common sense about a sustainable way of life is hijacked by political argument.

[manchild]

I bet some late 40's piston engine cargo plane would come in handy. This ashes is dangerous even for turboprops, not to mention jets.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Convair_XC-99.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney_R-4360

[WhiteBlue]

Personally, i can see them fly to Barcelona and have everything in a holding pen there, and posibly popspone updates till either Monaco or Turkey.

I wonder if the Turkish GP can be brought forward, swap with the Spanish GP and you have a solution.

I think that FiA/FOM/FOTA will not even remotely think about changing the race schedule. The next race is all about ground transport and the teams definitely need the cars back in the factories for some deep drill checks and updates.

[ESPImperium]

Personally, i can see them fly to Barcelona and have everything in a holding pen there, and posibly popspone updates till either Monaco or Turkey.

I wonder if the Turkish GP can be brought forward, swap with the Spanish GP and you have a solution.

I think that FiA/FOM/FOTA will not even remotely think about changing the race schedule. The next race is all about ground transport and the teams definitely need the cars back in the factories for some deep drill checks and updates.

I think it could be a posibility, im sure they have at least one contingency for this already factored in.

I just wonder if the UK and France can now get together and pool money to have a English Channel/Anglo-French Channel bridge now. Would really make sence now.

Its something that were gonna have to keep an eye on for the next four or five days. Lets see how they get the stuff and personell home. Twitter will come into its own here i think.

[autogyro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Beverley

At least suggest an aircraft that was in service with engines that had more power from less than half the cubic capacity ic radial engines than the Convair engines Manchild.
American radials of that era were reliable but very under powered for their size.
Sorry but an experemental Convair would hardly do the job.

[Richard]

As I see it, manchild's suggestion seems bigger than autogyro's. So whilst it may have a less effective engine configuration, it looks like it could carry enough payload to do the job in a reasonable number of trips.

However, manchild's plane has the engines on the wrong way around so would end up flying the wrong way around the globe.

Its a tough call.

How about using this....

[autogyro]

Thats a long ship. This year they have a bigger fuel tank and a longer tub.
I like the lack of DF though and the energy recovery system.
I bet the ash would have no effect on that.
Give Bernie an oar and tell him to get on with it.

[Richard]

I like ... the energy recovery system.

You do? Even though it wouldn't fit in a 120mm box?

[manchild]

I guess it is a god's revenge to Icelanders for all that walking on water stuff

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjySBPF ... re=related[/youtube]

[WhiteBlue]

There are very serious indications that the closure of the European airspace is based on bogus data. All countries have listened to one institute in the UK that did a simulation without sufficient feed back from the field. The airlines have done test flights and have had no damages from volcanic dust. They are now demanding that immediate exploratory flights are conducted to determine where dust clouds actually are.

It is quite funny that the airport here is closed but there is not a single dust corn anywhere on the ground. If there were enough stuff in the air to cause damage to aircraft I'm sure we would get at least a minimum of fall out on the ground.

I expect the airlines to pressurize the authorities to conduct permanent exploratory flights with empty aircraft over Europe to determine the critical areas instead of just believing in some obscure computer simulations. The simulations need to be beefed up with local verifications.

[Henne]

That wouldn't be possible for flights carrying passengers, though.

May I ask why? I also have an unrelated question, if you don't mind: Do passenger flights go often above FL350? I'm always pissed for not being able to see the aircraft's data ever since I entered the cockpit of an A320 back in 1999 (airspeed was 300 knots CAS, IIRC).

Sure they do... last week I came back from Abu Dhabi at FL380

[autogyro]

Cranfield has had a specialy prepared aircraft up over United Kingdom airspace for the last few days. They have found dangerous levels of volcanic glass dust at various altitudes through out the area.
I spoke to the head of UK police aviation Friday and they are grounded pending further test flight results.
ASR flights are only available for emergencies only.
I have seen the results of test flights on both military and civilian test aircraft and there is a real danger of engine damage.
My classic car that sits in my drive is receiving a build up of volcanic glass dust sufficient to make the windscreen opaque every 12 hours.

[Richard]

There are very serious indications that the closure of the European airspace is based on bogus data.

Limited data, not bogus.