Heard on the 'geek radio' last night

[Apache]

Airband dead for obvious reasons, but about 9pm last night I heard London FIS (Flight Information Service) talking to an aircraft which must have been at low level cos I couldn't hear replies.

FIS were congratulating him on being the only thing up in UK airspace, and suggesting that UK air will be closed 'until the airflow changes'. The pilot obviously asked him if it would open again at 01:00 (which was the time on the news last night) and he replied 'not gonna happen'.

Sounds like he was right because now on the news they're saying not until 01:00 saturday morning at the earliest. Think they're just putting times on it to prevent a huge instant flow of refund requests to the airlines.

[TonyN]

Hah, he wasn't the only thing, the Chinooks flying between Odiham and Farnbough have still been flying over us.

[Nick V]

Yep, it's all up in the air (excuse the pun )at the moment! Took my daughter to Gatwick yesterday to fly to Turkey and she is now not flying until Monday morning - and she works for one of the airlines!!! At least they are keeping her fed and watered and not left her stuck in the airport!

Cheers, Nick

[slobodan]

Does it affect 'Prop' driven planes as well?

[Apache]

Can affect anything with an engine, particularly turbines.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9 to see why.

[John h]

RAF C17 just gone East over Doncaster, they flew into Brize yesterday ? plenty of helicopter movements up here though

I stand corrected by one of my rubber neck colleagues... USAFE C17 ,Andy do you reckon you picked up a 'Prestwick spooky' in transit ? I know they don't call for flight info unless Ramstein inbound bit weird though last night ? USAF got a C130 weather special coming over I guess Mildenhall ?

[Apache]

Guess he must have meant the only civil movement eh?

[TonyN]

I just had an uncivil movement.

:gag:

[Apache]

Nice of you to share that with us mate. Cheers.

[Vultch]

Apache.. is it still possible to listen to Fire / ambulance on a scanner or have they gone digital

[Apache]

Haven't heard fire on 70-odd MHz for a while though there was some foreign Ham operators coming through in the band last night - probably due to weird atmospherics caused by ash!

Still hear Midlands ambulance services though, mid 400's MHz, near PMR. You can also receive and decode the text messages to ambulances if you know where to look as they - and the railways - seem to be using some of the old pager bands.

[Vultch]

Thanks Apache, there is low level stuff flying around here heard Belfast approach chatting to stuff and heard a single prop aircraft in the sky.. maybe PPL are allowed up at low level

[Shalershasker]

Can affect anything with an engine, particularly turbines.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9 to see why.

Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement":[3][4]
“ Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress. "