2020 aircraft spotting (or NOT)

[acarslogger]

Who remembers the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull ?

10 years ago in April 2010 this is what UK airspace looked like.

Stuart

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[Anmer]

Thanks Stuart.  It only seems like yesterday 

[Anmer]

Made an aviation themed Quiz for my 7 year-old grandchild.

Please feel to make use of it if you can.  It might keep some younger ones "busy" for 30 minutes.

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[IanH]

One month later (really - not so bad if you are a hermit).

We were supposed to depart Honolulu yesterday on a cruise around Hawaiian islands and then on to the US/Canadian mainland: Astoria, Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver. Seattle had a visit to Boeing plant scheduled.

We would have celebrated a wedding anniversary on board tonight and also my retirement. However over a month ago I was hoping (praying?) for cancellations since we did not want to go and risk quarantine on a cruise ship  . Eventually BA cancelled flights and the cruise line cancelled the cruise. Basically all down to who was going to cancel first and lose out. So now we wait for the refunds - at least our travel agent seems to be organising  refunds rather than credit notes.

Meanwhile what does the future hold? Having discovered cruises, now we are not sure when we want to go on another one. Even ignoring likely price increases, the risk factor of future quarantine makes us wary - no let's just say scared.

For those reading this, who is booking a holiday in 2020 even with all the "you can modify your holiday at no charge" offers? Are we over cautious? Will this simply pass by as an over-inflated scare? Just looking for other opinions. My wife and I are both scientists (chemistry and biology) so see this from those perspectives. But when I go to the local supermarket, I wonder how others see this - shoppers wandering around as if this is not happening. Comments please.

[Roadrunner]

I am a retiree of 13 years so feel glad I would not have to commute to London and use the tube. I got my SBS1 in 2006 just before I retired and have not looked back since (mainly skywards these days). Since then I have had a Radarbox, Aurora SSRx (both still in the cupboard) I got an SBS-1e and my current base station is an SBS-3. I also had a puck (SBS 1090) which I sold on and in the last year managed to configure a Raspberry pie to run Flightradar 24. Not bad for someone that started retirement with very little computer knowledge.
As far as day to day sightings at this time, I don't do too bad as my house is 6nm off the end of 26 at LTN and I can see BKY to STN traffic when using 04 or even stuff climbing off 22, plus loads of airways traffic right over the top. As I type this I have just 6 aircraft on my SBS-3 whereas on a normal day it would have been about 150!. There are a few compensations in that some different type are in use and there are some great routings going on and aircraft I would hardly ever see are taking short-cuts and coming overhead. I also noted on the box that CSN are using their A380's on the London routes occasionally.
I am also slowly converting 3,200 colour slides of family, aviation, locomotives and buses into digital images and removing fluff from them. so I think I have enough to keep me busy for quite a while yet.
Stay safe everyone.
Regards Mike/Roadrunner

[Anmer]

Hi Ian

I'm sorry to hear your cruise has been cancelled though I'm sure you (and many others) would be wary of going on one now.  But at least it sounds like you're getting a refund.  Others with cancelled trips are not so lucky.

I worked in the travel industry nearly all my life.  Cruises have been the "star" growth sector for the last 20 years but I'm not sure what the future holds for that sector if we ever get over the current crisis?

At the end of January I thought 2020 would have to be "written off".  No holidays, family events or sporting fixtures.  Some friends called me a pessimist.  I think I was being realistic and I still think the same way.  My initial fear was getting food and being forced by the Welsh Government to stay indoors for 16 weeks.  Getting food is still a chellenge as we are three "vulnerable" individuals, all over 70, living in a rural hamlet, 16 miles from the nearest main town and its supermarkets.

We've managed three online grocery deliveries since the end of February.  Available slots are usually not available!  So we're forced to venture out to buy food, preferring not to take the risk.  But needs must.

Looking ahead, things don't look too promising.  As a country we've taken the right steps but too slowly and are faltering at every one.  We need a vaccine but have to wait.  In the meantime we need to limit the spread of Covid-19.  Staying "locked down" can help but at what cost?  Too high.  And there lies the problem.  Can people sustain a long-term lockdown, both socially and economically?  I don't think so.

Consequently, with unwelcome input from Trump, we, globally, run the risk of second and third waves of infection.  The cost will be enormous - more lives lost, the world economy in ruin, food running out......one must imagine the rest.  Sounds gloomy, which it is.

I'm naturally an optimist and don't scare easily.  Brandao failed 

But, seriously, I'm not making any holiday plans now or anytime soon.

And as a footnote.

I value the advice of experts.  But even scientific ones come up with differing opinions.  We need a Government which can lead, taking advice from more than a handful of, now tainted, experts and make balanced decisions.  This mob has a lot to answer for and hiding behind "the advice of experts" is not good enough.  To me it sounds like the oft used excuse of  "we were under orders".

The wearing of face masks is a good example.  Sure it won't protect one from infection.  But it can reduce the risk of infecting others, especially as Covid-19 "carriers" don't always know they're spreading it around.  No symptoms.  But I bet SAGE (the panel of experts) will not recommend wearing them.  And this when our only option is to reduce the spread.

"Wear a Mask -> Protect the NHS -> Save Lives.

You did ask. 

[Anmer]

Just saw this.  Painful reading:

https://www.minghella.com/eleven-days-in-march/

[Anmer]

Here's a useful blog from Bill Gates.  It's long but an easy and helpful read.

Just hope The White House reads it too!

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Pandemic-Innovation?WT.mc_id=20200423060000_Pandemic-Innovation_BG-EM_&WT.tsrc=BGEM

[IanH]

Mike

One month later.

Nothing in your responses that I disagree with - particularly face masks - why are the experts so against this? Perhaps assuming everyone would suddenly be emboldened to ignore the lockdown since they were "safe" behind their masks. But at the same time we are supposed to be acting responsibly! Must go to Durham sometime to see what the attraction is 

We are not in the vulnerable category and are lucky to have an Aldi just half a mile away. After the first week or so, there were no queues early morning and they had most of what we wanted (ok perhaps we have adjusted our menus a bit). So we are managing with a once-a-week shop there. Also feeling less stressed when we return from shopping as the weeks go by - we have always worn face masks and use two trolleys with a list each to reduce the time in the shop. Knowing the low reported incidence of infections around here has helped.

So what of radar spotting? Interesting times. Much reduced quantity but better quality  . Working my way through the Aer Lingus A330 fleet as they do 3 x daily journeys to China. Hardly knew they existed previously since they usually go west. Lots of interesting freighters (Cargojet, Amerijet, Omni Air) since EMA is a cargo hub. And If the weather is good, the departures from Doncaster are visible in the climb - even seen an Ilyushin Il-62 out of there. The lack of traffic has meant Manchester arrivals flying overhead (usually much further west) and the USAF routing into Mildenhall overhead as well (usually further east). So my expectation of no spotting as air traffic dropped to a few percent of normal was unfounded, particularly over the last month. My Flightaware rating has dropped by about 4000 but so what? The US traffic supposedly is a small proportion of what ti was but compare Europe, Asia and the US on FR24. Europe traffic is way down.

Anyway enough of this except to say the travel agent Trailfinders came through with the holiday refund even though they are still waiting for some of the refund from Celebrity. Less than a month after we should have returned, we have 100% refund: BA flights, Celebrity cruise and hotels. The flights and cruise were premium because of the reason for the trip so a lot of money we did not want to lose. Hawaiian Airlines had already initiated and refunded our flight costs - kudos to them. The only thing left is the cost of the BA seats - process started- sadly no prompting from BA about how to do this.

Now we wait and wonder if we will go on another cruise. Is this Covid-19 fading away? Let's see how many of the first cruises complete without event. Many people are wanting to be on those first ships to venture out - NOT US.

Regards

Ian