Aeroplanes

[rr_123]

I don't usually notice them, but I am loving the silence this morning!!

Let's build that airport off the East Coat and keep UK as a no fly zone, safe, quiet, and pollution-free (c;

I suggest anyone with boating ambitions this weekend takes advantage of Runnymede which is beatiful but usually almost unusable with the noise, and prays that the vocanic ash continues to "blight" our land!

R

 

[Csail]

I said exactly the same to swmbo earlier....it is so quiet.

 

[Richard Shead]

Tell me about it!

I don't usually notice them, but I am loving the silence this morning!!

Let's build that airport off the East Coat and keep UK as a no fly zone, safe, quiet, and pollution-free (c;

I suggest anyone with boating ambitions this weekend takes advantage of Runnymede which is beatiful but usually almost unusable with the noise, and prays that the vocanic ash continues to "blight" our land!

R

Went for a run along the Richmond towpath last night, nothing at all, slept like a baby last night and even my normal 4:45 Hong Kong wake up call never came!

The bad news is I need to fly Wednesday, it only goes three times a week and I am just starting to get a little nervous. There are an awful lot of planes, crew and passengers in the wrong place.....

 

[Gavi]

I couldn't sleep because of the quiet

 

[neale]

Let's build that airport off the East Coat and keep UK as a no fly zone, safe, quiet, and pollution-free (c;

What about those of us that live and boat where this new airport would be located

 

[Captain Coochie]

What about those of us that live and boat where this new airport would be located

They will have to get jobs like the rest of us

 

[rr_123]

What about those of us that live and boat where this new airport would be located

It's your turn

I thought the plan was not to have flights going overland, I can see that it might affect a few booze cruises to Calais and a few seagulls might need to be shot. Maybe the wonderful Canvey Island would be furhter blighted...

Messing about on the Thames aside, it surely can't be sensible having one of the world's busiest flightpaths over one of the worlds biggest Capital Cities?

R

 

[neale]

Trouble is, everyone moans about venturing a few miles east for a boat show, what chance have you got of getting them to travel 40 miles to an airport?

 

[neale]

It's your turn
R

We've already got one. It's called London Southend Airport and you can fly anywhere in the world as long as it's Jersey, and only once a week, and only between May and September

 

[rr_123]

Trouble is, everyone moans about venturing a few miles east for a boat show, what chance have you got of getting them to travel 40 miles to an airport?

I'll wager that a lot of people would today given half a chance!

 

[Harleyford_S37]

Planes still flying

I am on the boat at Harleyford and lots of light aircraft seem to be making the most of the fine weather and still flying.

Lots of talk on the "flyer" forums of pilots trying to get clearance to overfly the bigger airports that would not normally be permitted.

 

[Harleyford_S37]

Even Noisier

A short while ago a plane was practicing aerobatics overhead and now the chap who uses a Robinson 44 to visit Harleyford has just started up and lifted off from near the boat ... who said it was quiet today!

 

[rr_123]

A short while ago a plane was practicing aerobatics overhead and now the chap who uses a Robinson 44 to visit Harleyford has just started up and lifted off from near the boat ... who said it was quiet today!

Forgot about the little f...f...f...flyers (c: Don't get them around Heathrow, obviously, but I used to live in Henley and they are irritating little f...f...f...fellers!

R

 

[oldgit]

" one of the world's busiest flightpaths over one of the worlds biggest Capital Cities?"
You have got that the wrong way round Guv !

The airport has bin there since 1930.... why would anyone buy a house near to an exisiting airport and then proceed to moan about it.
As for that airport in the Thames Estuary bring it on .....loads of jobs........and one of the flight paths is bound to be over my mates nice house in the country ......hours of fun to be had baiting him about it down the pub.
Go for it Boris

 

[Landale]

" one of the world's busiest flightpaths over one of the worlds biggest Capital Cities?"
You have got that the wrong way round Guv !

The airport has bin there since 1930.... why would anyone buy a house near to an exisiting airport and then proceed to moan about it.
As for that airport in the Thames Estuary bring it on .....loads of jobs........and one of the flight paths is bound to be over my mates nice house in the country ......hours of fun to be had baiting him about it down the pub.
Go for it Boris

Yes, never understood why Liz and Phil built that Castle under the flightpath

 

[nimbusgb]

" one of the world's busiest flightpaths over one of the worlds biggest Capital Cities?"
You have got that the wrong way round Guv !

The airport has bin there since 1930.... why would anyone buy a house near to an exisiting airport and then proceed to moan about it.
.........

The same type of idiot that moves from the city to the countryside and then complains that the buses aren't as frequent or the broadband isn't as quick or its too flippin quiet!

 

[Csail]

I love this volcano, peace and quiet and went to flying club for breakfast with no spotters there. Sunny so is that the result of no a/c?
Ban jets i think.

 

[Richard Shead]

It was

I love this volcano, peace and quiet and went to flying club for breakfast with no spotters there. Sunny so is that the result of no a/c?
Ban jets i think.

Amazing sitting in the garden till late PM looking at a crystal blue sky followed by a very clear eve star spotting with not a trace of an aeroplane anywhere.

But I really do need to catch one on Wed!

 

[oldgit]

Funny old day.

Weird out in the estuary today. Pale blue sky and silver haze from
**.... "horizon to horizon" and not a cloud to be seen.

** O all right then from ....."power station chimney to container port crane "

 

[rr_123]

Cleaner too...

Despite HMG's insistence that the third runway at Heathrow would have no impact on pollution, it would appear that the air around Heathrow and Gatwick was much cleaner when the airports were closed, according to the Air Quality Network at King's College, London.

Their research shows marked decrease in localised concentrations of the various Nitrogen Oxides; graphed:-

We have received many enquiries asking what the effects of the closure of UK airspace has had on air quality surrounding major airports. In response we have made an initial analysis of NOX and NO2 concentrations surrounding Gatwick and Heathrow airports during the first three days of closure – Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th April 2010. This period was chosen due to the stable weather conditions with light north easterly winds, allowing a cross-sectional analysis upwind and downwind of the airports.
This period of unprecedented closure during unexceptional weather conditions has allowed us to demonstrate that the airports have a clear measurable effect on NO2 concentrations and that this effect disappeared entirely during the period of closure, leading to a temporary but significant fall in pollutant concentrations adjacent to the airport perimeters.
Concentrations recorded by a monitoring site arise from a mix of pollution sources both local and distant affecting that specific location. In order to separate and quantify the affects of a particular local source, such as emissions from an airport, a control dataset is required. In this case pairs of monitoring sites were used located either side of each airport. The upwind monitors provided the control data. By subtracting hourly mean concentrations recorded by the upwind site from those recorded by the downwind site, an estimation of emissions from the airport could be made – termed ‘airport’ concentrations. The figure above shows daily diurnal mean ‘airport’ NOX concentrations for the ‘open’ and ‘closed’ periods at a monitoring site close to the perimeter of Gatwick airport. The yellow shaded areas indicate hours where winds were from the north or north east during the closure period, i.e., the site was downwind of the airport runway. The chart shows that during normal operating conditions ‘airport’ NOX concentrations increase during the day peaking at around 22 to 25 µg m-3 on average. During the period of closure (15th to 17th April 2010) mean ‘airport’ NOX concentrations were zero most of the time. All concentrations were well below the lower 95% confidence interval indicating that the difference from ‘normal’ operation was statistically significant.
The analysis was repeated for NO2, with similar results. The annual mean NO2 concentration measured at this location (‘RG3’), to the south west of the airport, during 2009 would decrease from 18 µg m-3 to approximately 16 µg m-3 in the absence of airport emissions. The impact of the airport is likely to be greater in the populated areas to the north east of the airport (Horley) due to prevailing winds from the south west.
A similar analysis was carried out using a pair of monitoring sites surrounding Heathrow airport. ‘Airport’ NO2 concentrations were higher those at Gatwick and dropped from 27 µg m-3 to 8 µg m-3 during the closure period.
This exceptional closure has allowed us to demonstrate the impacts of airport emissions on their immediate neighbourhood. This preliminary study did not consider the impact of decreased traffic flows on airport feeder roads. Decreased flows are likely to have a significant effect on concentrations of vehicle-related pollutants close to such roads. Unfortunately, we do not have sufficient traffic data to carry out this analysis at this time

linky


out of interest, the "New Economic Forum" also believe that the suggested benefit to the economy is rubbish; admittedly they seem to have some rather odd views, but they were using the same economic model that HMG used, but with updated metadata!