On 10 April The Times reported that the 270 workers at Gloucestershire Airport, Dowty Propellers were working at full tilt as demand for planes with turboprop engines has been rising.
I wonder if they can expand to produce even more even faster? Since they fly lower than jet planes they might be an answer to volcano dust.
Not sure I should want to go through that again though. They were still pretty common in the 1960s & 70s & I have done my share of time in a DC3, Twin Otter or Cessna.
The main reason for flying higher, or so I was always told, is that fuel consumption is less, at least if the flight is long enough to offset the extra fuel needed for a jet to take off. And of course the other big disadvantage of flying as low as a turbo prop is that it can get VERY bumpy. It is now long enough ago for me to look back with fondness to a complex journey we ended up doing from New York, New York via Syracuse, Buffalo & Albany to Montreal during some heavy wintry weather. On one of the legs the young GI sitting behind us took delight in saying at intervals: I’ve never known a plane shake this much.
Another question about the effects of the flying ban: How is David Cameron getting around the campaign trail?
I have not heard anything about helicopters being used to get people around during the crisis – are they grounded too? We don’t see many round here – and if we do it is usually the air ambulance or police. I believe private pilots prefer to stay away from the hills.
Which reminds me of another story: a local woman answered a knock at her door one evening to find a very apologetic Noel Edmonds; he had landed his helicopter in the field at the back of her house as the lesser of two evils because the clouds had unexpectedly closed in.
