Posted on 04/18/2010 1:16:57 AM PDT by saganite
As long as every flight has a KLM executive on it, this should be fine.
Why can’t they fly a southerly route: US to Spain and vice versa?
From Spain, rail could be used to access more northern Euro sites.
I think they meant that a first look didn’t uncover any damage, hence no “apparent damage”. After they borescope the engines they’ll know more but the ash makes itself apparent in things like cockpit windows that get sandblasted and radomes that show the wear and tear. That kind of stuff is immediately apparent.
....After they borescope the engines....
But do you think they'll do that for every plane in the fleet they fly through this stuff?
FWIW, I don't.
They can and some flights are going that way. But only Italian, Greek and Spanish etc. flights can use those routes because the airspace in the rest of Europe is closed. In other words, you can’t fly there from France, Germany etc. As for trains, good luck getting a seat. They are booked solid because most folks who are trying to get somewhere are taking the train. Don’t know about rental cars but I suspect they are booked solid too.
And again, FWIW, which admittedly ain’t much since I’m not an engineer, but I’d be more worried about an increase in wear than in immediate damage, especially during a bad economy when surveillance of that sorta thing may not be as good as it once was.
I don’t either but they would have to borescope a cross section of them just to make sure they weren’t being damaged. FWIW I think that if the authorities did allow some flights they might just mandate the inspection after every flight as long as they were flying through the ash.
Any idea if flying through this stuff would increase the wear on the engines? Enough that it would necessitate shortening the time between regular maintenance? I’m more worried about stuff that won’t get caught right away, and we won’t find out about until some plane has a problem.
The only airline people pushing for resumption of service are lawyers and executives who only see a $200 million/day loss now. They don’t know a thing, or care, about jet engines or airplanes—or passengers at this point. Have an independent agency consisting of engineers and pilots, not dependent on the airlines for their living, conduct tests.
Why can’t they fly a southerly route: US to Spain and vice versa?
From Spain, rail could be used to access more northern Euro sites.
Would work, but for those of us in the UK, no help as the rails and ferries are over-booked.
I just checked your animation again and the update shows the ash almost to Canada. Interesting wind pattern.
Yes i´m glad that i found this side too.
It gives a good overview. (the only drawback is that the
information could be up to 3 hours old because it looks like
the refresh rate is 3 hours).
greetings
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