Don in Hollister Sun 18 Apr 2010, 1:27 pm
Hi All. You can fly near an erupting volcano as long as you stay upwind from it. When Mt. Saint Helens erupted I took some people up there so they could take some pictures. I stayed up wind and my spotter kept an eye on how the cloud was spreading and I was watching the instruments for any change in the performance of the engines.
One person asked me if I would fly into the cloud so he could take some pictures of the ash while we were flying in it. I told him to to to hell, politely of course. I explained to him what the ash would do to the engines and how I didn't want to become a part of the eruption. As I was turning to make one more pass I saw a DC-8 going through the cloud of ash. I just shook my head. I learned later they had to change all four engines. That pass through the ash cost them about 10 million dollars. I heard that when they torn down the engines they estimated they had about two minutes left on the engines. That DC-8 now belongs to NASA and they don't fly through erupting volcanoes. At least they haven't so far. Scientist don't get paid to go out and get themselves killed, but there are many who will put their lives on the line to get the information they need. What makes them do it? It's really quite simply. They want to learn and some are killed in the process of learning.
You can't use filters because they will become clogged up and this in turn will starve the engine for oxygen and then the engines will quit. You don't fly through the ash clouds. Not even on the fringes. If you want to live to fly another day you stay upwind and hope your spotter can detect any wind change fast enough so you can get the hell out of there.
If the second volcano erupts there could be enough ash ejected between the two volcanoes that it will affect flying here in the US. The other possibility is that the wind direction changes and the ash cloud now passes over the US. If that happens it could shut down all air flights around the world. It's getting a pretty good start at doing that in western Europe. This is just a moderate eruption. Wait until a big one occurs. It could bring traffic to a halt around the world. There is a volcano in Iceland that has a good chance of doing that. The name is Laki and it caused a mini ice age in 1783. It had help of course but you might say it was the straw that broke the camels back.
Don't be surprised if they fly one of those drone aircraft in the ash cloud. They know they will loose it and the instruments on board, but the information it transmits out to those on the ground could hold many clues. They will loose an aircraft and some valuable instruments, but they won't loose of life. The drone and instruments can be replaced, but a life can't. Take Care...Don
http://fromtheold.com/news/iceland-volcano-ash-gets-worse-2010041717842.html
