There were rumours of interesting things going on at Heathrow at
Saturday.

? One plane having just landed slipped as it was turning off the
runway and the pilot of the following plane coming into land saw this
and decided to "go around".

? An Airbus coming in to land in the snowstorm suffered ?blocked pitot
tubes and caused "unstable airspeed indication" alarms which triggered
the decision to go up again.

Probably all routine stuff - but it might make people running things
twitchy.......

On Dec 20, 11:31*am, Jolly Roger wrote:


* * ** An extra 500,000 has been invested this year in snow-fighting
technology"

A friend sent me this link showing that new snow-fighting technology
in action: http://yfrog.com/h7wbtj

)

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:19:21 -0000, jbm wrote:

I don't think the amount of snow is relevant. What is mucking things up
completely at that airport is that since all the new development,
there's no where left to put the bloody stuff once it's been removed.

Eh? There are acres of flat ground around the taxi/run ways. You
don't have to place it in a nice neat heap on a concrete hard
standing.

A BAA spokesman hinted at that earlier this evening when he said it was
taking longer than anticipated to dispose of it.

Read: They haven't thought about how to shift it from the
taxiway/runway edges where the clearing kit shoves/blows as there
hasn't been enough to worry about in recent years. The solution is a
some big front loader diggers, big tipper wagons and some temporary
road laid out into the large areas between the parts that are needed.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.

The Heathrow Snow Plan made for some interesting reading :

http://www.baa.com/assets/Internet/H..._2010_2011.pdf

One wonders how much notice the Met Office "Openrunway" gave them -
and did they take any action. ?

The organograms are more impressive than the amount of snow machines
they have got.



On Dec 21, 9:38*am, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:19:21 -0000, jbm wrote:
I don't think the amount of snow is relevant. What is mucking things up
completely at that airport is that since all the new development,
there's no where left to put the bloody stuff once it's been removed.

Eh? There are acres of flat ground around the taxi/run ways. You
don't have to place it in a nice neat heap on a concrete hard
standing.

A BAA spokesman hinted at that earlier this evening when he said it was
taking longer than anticipated to dispose of it.

Read: They haven't thought about how to shift it from the
taxiway/runway edges where the clearing kit shoves/blows as there
hasn't been enough to worry about in recent years. The solution is a
some big front loader diggers, big tipper wagons and some temporary
road laid out into the large areas between the parts that are needed.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.

!!!

While London may have run out of grit last winter, Heathrow is
determined that it doesn’t run out of the highly concentrated de-icing
fluid it uses on the runways (grit is not used as this could get into
engines). That’s why the airport now has an innovative computer system
that remotely measures how much de-icer is left – to ensure restocking
can take place when required. To minimise the impact on the
surrounding greenery, the chemical bi-product – glycol – is also
recovered by a host of new recovery vehicles, ensuring more waste de-
icing liquid can be removed effectively from the airport.
To ensure it has the most up-to-date weather predictions, Heathrow
uses the Met Office’s OpenRunway system which offers 24 hour access to
measurements including air and runway temperatures, wind and
visibility, all vital in determining the right time to apply anti or
de-icer.

Key Heathrow snow facts:
# Heathrow was the only major airport in the UK to not close last
winter
# There are over 60 vehicles and 50 staff keeping the runways clear
# An extra £500,000 has been invested this year in snow-fighting
technology
# Heathrow has storage for 500,000 litres of de-icing fluid
Each de-icing vehicle can hold a massive 60,000 litres and it takes
around 25 mins to de-ice each runway

http://allpointsnorth.co.uk/2010/12/...-assnow-bites/

On 2010-12-24, tim quoted:
# There are over 60 vehicles
# Heathrow has storage for 500,000 litres of de-icing fluid
Each de-icing vehicle can hold a massive 60,000 litres

Hmm... the sums don't really make sense.

Adrian
--
Adrian Shaw ais@
Pontrhydygroes, Ceredigion, Cymru aber.
12mi/20km ESE Aberystwyth, 860ft/260m asl ac.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais/weather/ uk

On Dec 24, 4:10*pm, Adrian wrote:
On 2010-12-24, tim quoted:

# There are over 60 vehicles
# Heathrow has storage for 500,000 litres of de-icing fluid
Each de-icing vehicle can hold a massive 60,000 litres

Hmm... the sums don't really make sense.

Adrian
--
Adrian Shaw * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ais@
Pontrhydygroes, Ceredigion, Cymru * * * * * * * * * * * aber.
12mi/20km ESE Aberystwyth, 860ft/260m asl * * * * * * * * * *ac.http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais/weather/* * * * * * * * * * * * * *uk

According to the snow plan there are only 11 things with de-icer in
the title and from the numbers there only the biggest two can take
20,000 ltr and most of the rest are much smaller.

RX09BCE Scania De-icer 20000L spray bar20 MetresDe-icer 5 ATS
RX09BCF Scania De-icer 20000L spray bar20 MetresDe-icer 4 ATS
RK 03 PVA Scania De-icer 5000L Spray Bars 15MetresDe-icer 2 ATS
Trailer Rolba De-icer 12000L Spray Bars21 MetresN/A ATS
RX09BCK Scania De-icer 8000L Combi Twin DiscDe-icer 3 ATS
RX06BZV Scania De-icer 8000L Combi TwinDiscClearway 3/6De-Icer 1 ATS
M 454 UTM DAF De-icer 8000L Combi TwinDiscClearway 3/6Gritter 1 ATS
1233 Trailer De-icer 600 N/A ASD
1236 Trailer De-icer 600 N/A ASD
1237 Trailer De-icer 600 N/A ASD
1238 Trailer De-icer 600 N/A ASD