Prop planes

Rasmus

Purely out of interest, does anyone know why propeller planes were in the sky yesterday, (from Newcastle I assume). Are propellers allowed, or maybe only in an emergency situation, if flying low or because propellers are not as badly affected by ash?
Cheers!

matt-dublin

The ash is only dense above 30k ft. Prop planes can't go anywhere nar that high so their engines would be unaffected

loyatemu

report in the Metro this morning suggesting that planes flying out of certain private airfields are exempt from the ban as they are outside of centrally controlled airspace

http://e-edition.metroherald.ie/2010/04/19/
(its on page 5)

Jemmy

Propeller planes are not affected by the ash, the problem is when the ash is sucked into the engines on the wings of planes afaik.

Rasmus

Thanks all. I was wondering why companies who operate propeller planes weren't making some money taxi-ing people to the U.K. Maybe they are, I just haven't seen any mention of it.

cavemeister

Yeah, Turbo Prop planes are completley unnafected by the ash!! Aer Arann could make a killing if they could get access to local airstrips (like the Newcastle Aerodrome) as they fly at 12K feet!!

But I'm sure they have already thought of that