Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Waddington Air Show

I managed to attend the Waddington air show this year on the Saturday (looked like the best day of the two weatherwise too!) and had a great day.
I didn't bother last year as the display lineup looked very 'thin' with a distinct lack of foreign jet participants, but it was certainly better this year with the inclusion of a Czech Saab Gripen and a Belgian F16 along with the usual RAF participants. The role demo (and pyrotechnics) involving 2 x Tornado GR4's certainly added some interest this year.
Interestingly, they were using 121.3 as a tower frequency which has been noted previous years and they appeared to be using 132.9 (a standard air show frequency allocation) as a radar frequency for departing/arriving and holding air show related traffic.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Aircraft and The Iceland Volcanic Ash

Well, today flights seem to returning to some kind of normality but I can't help thinking that a complete 'blanket shutdown' of UK airspace was probably not necessary in the first place. I know safety has to be the primary concern but I don't think the methods employed to measure just how much ash existed and at what levels AND if it was actually dangerous to aircraft engines at the concentration levels seen over the UK was nearly accurate enough.

I do think there were quite possibly 'safe windows' of airspace to operate in during the crisis period but I'm sure that's one issue that all those involved in the industry will be debating for many months to come!

I'm also certain the airlines will be fighting for compensation for the considerable loss of revenue but it's also all the allied industries that have been seriously affected that will suffer the hardest because there's no chance of recompense for them. Businesses such as those based at the airports: car hire firms, retailers, caterers etc. - they will have lost out considerably.

To be fair, this is a new and fairly unique situation to have found ourselves having to deal with as a country and I'm sure lessons will be learned for the future...