December 2011 Archives

During the European volcanic ash grounding in April 2010, EasyJet's head of engineering Ian Davies began to wonder if there was a better way, so he googled volcanic ash and emerged with a name: Dr Fred Prata of NILU, the Norwegian Institute of Air Research.

Dr Fred had been working for years on systems for tracking volcanic ash by satellite and was probably the world's foremost expert on it, so Davies hit the jackpot first time. But Dr Fred was also working on developing an aircraft-mounted infra-red ash sensor, called AVOID, that could provide pilots with a display a bit like a weather radar showing them where the worst ash was so they could avoid it. At FL200 it can see ash about 100km (54nm) ahead. Airbus will soon be joining the trials to provide the high-altitude test capability.

Ian decided EasyJet should get involved, because someone had to. He found out that Dr Fred knew a whole load of stuff that could have made April 2010 a relatively benign event, but nobody was listening to scientists then, least of all to Fred. It took Eyjafjallajokull to wake the authorities up. They are listening now.


Despite the sophisticated nature of the trials, the airstrip at the base of Etna that we were operating from on 6 December - Calatabiano (near Fiumefreddo north of Catania) - was charmingly basic.

 EZY provided us with a chopper to chase the ultralight on its mission.
...so we did, and this is what we saw...

That's Etna in the background, covered in cloud. Not the best day for seeing everything.


...But (above) the eyebrow window's tinted glass cuts out the glare so you can see where the ash is.

And here's a helicopter view of our return to the aerodrome...
But what's it all for?
That's the AVOID pod. It's very expensive, making it rather unlikely that airlines will choose to fit it. But EZY is going to fit it to 20 of its A320 series fleet, and it hopes other European carriers will fit about 80 more to aircraft based around the continent. If they do, this exercise  will achieve much more than just providing tactical avoidance capability to the airframes actually fitted with AVOID.

When the next ash event happens, the crews of these aeroplanes can send back pireps telling ATC where stuff actually is. This enables comparisons to be made with the predicted location of the various densities of ash, so the predictive algorithms can be refined, and the accuracy of the surveillance picture provided by satellite sensors and ground-based lidar stations can be checked in reality.

The whole exercise is about building confidence in the total system, and continually adding to the knowledge base. So when Katla blows its top, we know how to react.

Well done EZY, Dr Fred Prata, NILU, and Prof Konradin Weber of Dusseldorf University.

In fact the whole team...

On 15 November the Independent Pilots Association launched a campaign to attract British Airline Pilots Association members. The IPA was capitalising on discontent among BALPA members about the latter's handling of two disputes over the last three years.

The first was BALPA's dispute with British Airways over terms and conditions at its Open Skies subsidiary, which resulted in an expensive and comprehensive defeat for the union. BALPA's excuse is that it received poor legal advice. But Flightglobal has copies of the legal advice, and it reads like a firm statement from the union's lawyers that there were no grounds in law for the demands BALPA was making of BA, so the decision to proceed looks reckless.

More recently a dispute over conditions at Virgin Atlantic, about which members felt so strongly that they were prepared to strike, fizzled out when BALPA surprised the members by advising them to accept a company offer with which they were unhappy. Secretary general Jim McAuslan said the deal was "in the long term interests of the members," but Virgin pilots have told Flightglobal that they think the union secretariat are "so busy looking after themselves" that they don't listen to the membership. McAuslan admits there is a review ongoing about how the Virgin dispute was handled.

Meanwhile the final settlement with BA is imminent. It is likely to cost the union about £1 million.

McAuslan told Flightglobal that BALPA's job was not only to listen, but to lead, remarking that trying to win consensus was "like herding cats". He says that, following a recent survey of members' views about the union, which was broadly - but not by big margins - favourable, BALPA will be acting more as a unified organisation rather than as a federation of pilot councils at individual airlines.

BALPA has a long history and a strong brand name, but its leadership hasn't been effective for some time. Maybe the current IPA bid to take over the representation of Britain's pilots is a timely warning to McAuslan and his team.