Saturday, July 9, 2011

GUIDE TO DEBUNKING MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING

EVERYMAN’S GUIDE TO DEBUNKING MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING

Man made global warming is a myth. I know this because I used to believe it was true.

As an airline pilot I felt a special guilt at the huge quantity of burned jet fuel I was personally depositing in the upper atmosphere. So watching the world’s carbon dioxide and temperature increase to unprecedented levels made me want to learn more about the damage I was causing.

I examined all the raw data and graphs I could get my hands on such as Ice core and sediment analysis which gives millions of years of comparative climate data. Also historical temperature and other significant weather records. I also studied many different theories of the cause of ice ages.

It didn’t take long to realize the whole global warming movement is a scam based on very selective data by a few committed scientists and spread by a willing political movement to an alarmed public. This is how the climate scientists do it.

Use very short sections of graphs to give the impression of disastrous temperature trends and then extend them into the future.

Massage existing data by adjusting the past down and the present up to create false warming.

Systematically eliminate rural temperature measuring stations in favor of urban centers or airports which are hotter.

Blur the difference between climate (very long term trends), weather (changing seasons, daily or short term variations) and the environment. (Clean air, water, condition of the land and all who live on it)

This is what they are not telling you.

Climate change is not a new phenomenon. The climate is always changing but it’s difficult to notice as a human lifetime is barely a point on a climate trend graph. Climate change is not a very hot day or a flood or a tornado. That’s weather.

The earth cycles through 2 main periods. Glacial (ice age) or interglacial (between ice ages). We are now at the end of an interglacial period and about to plunge into another ice age. That is, within the next two thousand years. A very short time in climate terms.

Even events like volcanic eruptions or major asteroid strikes do not change the main glacial, interglacial pattern. They merely put a blip on the graph. Mans actual influence on climate is nil. We cannot even alter the weather. The main driver of climate change is the sun and the earths position relative to it. Also earth precession, tilt and wobble.

There have been more than 8 major ice ages in the last million years. The pattern is always the same. The earth descends rapidly into an glacial age and emerges very slowly from it. Carbon Dioxide (co2) follows the temperature trend by a few thousand years. It never leads it.

We are at a very low value for co2 in historic climate terms. In fact it was almost ten times higher when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Therefore the tipping point scenario and runaway heating is another myth. In fact the rate of heating in the “hottest decade ever” 90’s was exactly the same as the other hot periods in the 20th century. No increasing trend at all.

Everyone should strive for clean unpolluted air and water. We need to husband our finite resources and protect the land and oceans. But that is an environmental issue and nothing to do with global warming. Expensive government plans for cutting co2 emissions will achieve nothing to control climate, weather or even help the environment. It is simply another way to achieve a more common type of control – Political power and money.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

SALT MEADOW- Sands Point, New York

A SHORT HISTORY OF SALT MEADOW
SALT MEADOW is one of the very few remaining homes from the Quaker farming era in Sands Point. It has been completely renovated with emphasis on retaining the historic ambiance of the structure. The estate has been returned to its farming roots with the establishment of a productive Concord vineyard.
In 1846, Edward W Mott, a 21 year old Quaker farmer married his 18 year old bride, Deborah Burtis. Edward’s father, Leonard Mott built them a home on a low hill near his own farmhouse. Both homes were on the edge of a “salt meadow”, a free flowing tidal estuary and close to a sandy beach on Long Island Sound.
It was built by Quaker craftsmen using an archaic “scribe method” to mark their hand cut pegged joints. The farmhouse copied the popular Greek Revival Style. It had no lighting or electricity but boasted a large cooking hearth in the kitchen. It was valued at 9000 USD, a fair sum in 1846.
In the 1850 national census, Edward and Deborah are recorded as living in the home with an infant daughter, Elizabeth and 4 workers, 2 of whom are noted as black. One of these black workers, 12 year old Jacob Eto, will later become a sergeant in the Union Army during the civil war. This is not surprising as the Quakers were very involved in the Underground Railroad. He probably saw escaped southern slaves being hidden on the farms and later smuggled out by boat. In fact, Salt Meadow has a hidden stone cellar.( It has not yet been found by the current owners). Jacob Eto is buried in a military cemetery in Brooklyn.
Elizabeth Mott never married and sold the farm in 1900. It was one of many small parcels of land being bought up to make a large country estate for William Guggenheim. He was the first of the Guggenheim sons to buy land in Sands Point. Salt Meadow was already 60 years old so he built himself an Italian style mansion in 1910. His brothers would later buy larger estates in the area and build palatial homes. In the First World War, William donated all the Black Walnut trees on his 155 acre estate for military aircraft propellers.
In 1929, his widow Aimee Guggenheim sold Salt Meadow to William Averill Harriman, a statesman who would negotiate American war aid personally with Stalin in the 2nd World War. He would also later serve as New York governor.
He immediately began a large renovation which incorporated the original structure into a larger Colonial Style dwelling. It was used for guests and became the residence of his (second) Mother in Law. She entertained many of the personalities and artists of the day in her bedroom as she was in poor health. Two of the reputed guests are ERTE and Al Capone who spent the night.
Averill Harriman sold off small pieces of his 155 acre estate to friends. Salt Meadow was sold off in the 1940’s with 3 acres of ground. It passed through many private hands and eventually became neglected. The origins of the home were long forgotten.
In 2004, it was bought in derelict condition by Robert Schapiro, an airline pilot and his wife Arlene Getz, a journalist. They moved in with 1 toilet and 1 cold water tap operating. They restored the home and grounds for 5 years, taking care to preserve any items of historical interest. The home now operates like any modern structure but is dotted with reminders of its rich past.
The original post and beam structure has been exposed in places to reveal the 1846 builders markings and joints. The Dining room has exposed wooden beams and a unique art neauveau fireplace from 1930 made of nickel. It was reputedly designed by ERTE.
The original cooking hearth in the kitchen was excavated from behind a wall and is again being used for heating. The formal lounge has the original exquisite 1840 era marble fireplace surround.
Rob Schapiro also did extensive research to try uncover the full history of Salt Meadow. Historic documents are on display in the entry hall. Also on display are artifacts from the various periods. Most were recovered from a huge glacial erratic rock close to the home. The rock was deposited by the receding glaciers of the last ice age. The 1850 Quaker farmers used a crevice in the rock as a dump for unwanted items such as old oil lamps, bottles, cutlery, canning jars and flatware. The crevice silted up in time and the rock became covered with heavy vegetation. The items were discovered and recovered in 2005 and a selection is also on display in the entry hall. They provide a time capsule to daily life on a pre civil war farm. The rock continues to spit out small items such as a belt buckle and blue glass beads in 2010.
A vineyard was planted in 2005 in an old horse paddock. It has 170 Concord vines in 13 rows and a drip irrigation system. It is now producing a huge quantity of very tasty fruit, most of which is pressed by foot into juice and wine by enthusiastic helpers. It’s hard to believe Manhattan is just 30 minutes away.

STUCK MIKE

STUCK MIKE AND OTHER STORIES
A popular story on TV and radio channels today is the accidental transmission of a vicious monolog by a Southwest pilot about his cabin crew.
This is not as unusual as one might think. In my 34 year flying career, I have often heard snippets of private conversation over the airwaves. All it takes is some inadvertent pressure by the pilot on the control column transmit trigger or leaning on one of the many radio selector boxes.
What is not asked in the media is why the controller was unable to successfully warn the gabby pilot he was on the air. The answer to that question has much more serious consequences than an anti gay rant.
In the main frequency range used for air traffic control (VHF), only one radio set can transmit at a time. All the other transmissions are blocked out until the first radio ceases to transmit. This is amazing when you realize dozens of aircraft may be controlled and need to respond on one frequency. If you listen to tapes of air traffic control at any busy airport, you can periodically hear a loud humming noise instead of speech. This is someone trying to talk while another radio is still transmitting. It is called a double transmission or someone is “stepped on” or “blocked” and the whole previous instruction will have to be repeated. Only a high level of radio discipline by ATC and pilots keeps the unwieldy system functioning.
Why does this matter to anyone? Because sometimes a vital instruction or clearance may be lost without anyone realizing a transmission was stepped on. This was the case in the Tenerife disaster where two Boeing 747’s collided on the runway in foggy conditions. There is evidence that vital information about one aircrafts position was lost in a dual transmission and was never repeated. This led the other pilots to believe the runway was clear and they began their take off roll while the first jet was still taxiing on the runway.
I have listened to the ATC tapes of the recent Egyptair / Lufthansa incident at JFK airport. Egyptair made an unauthorized runway incursion forcing the Lufthansa to reject their take off. The ultimate responsibility always rests with the pilots but the ATC instructions to the Egyptair were frequently blocked by other transmissions. This can cause pilots whose first language might not be English to misunderstand or try to interpret their clearance and may have contributed to the near disaster.
There is technical equipment available which can solve the signal blocking problem but it is deemed an unnecessary expense as the system generally works well without it. I wonder if the passengers on the doomed Tenerife jumbos or the offended Southwest cabin staff would agree?

VILLAGES GONE WILD

Rob Schapiro
numbatdog@aol.com

VILLAGES GONE WILD
It might amuse some of your readers who live in saner communities to hear the tax burden imposed on a property owner in Long Island, New York.
In addition to the federal and State taxes, the County imposes a general tax and outrageously high school taxes. The village then tacks on a village tax and you’re all set to enjoy your property. Provided, of course, you pay your mortgage and sky high utilities and sales tax on every purchase.
All through the property boom years, the various property taxes predictably cranked up in synch with the inflated values. One was grateful that the increase was generally capped at “only” 6% per year (this with no inflation to speak of) but when the property bubble burst something strange happened.
The home values plunged but the taxes kept going up.
Consider the following. The amount of property tax is not really determined by the property’s value. The various town and County financial budgets are divided by all the assessed values to find a tax rate that will cover all their costs. So as the value of property drops, the taxing rate will need to go up to make up the shortfall.
This makes sense to the various authorities who have become used to increased income year after year and have lost the skill to balance or reduce their budgets. But look at it from the property owners point of view.
The value of one’s Long Island home is now roughly the same as it was 8 – 10 years ago. And still going down. But property tax is up 30% from that time. And still going up.
The tony North Shore village of Sands Point, rather than control its budget, put up its village tax an unbelievable 9% this year! This in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930’s.
So what is the result of this greed and inability to face fiscal reality?
Plunging property values and the highest number of properties in recent history on the market as fewer and fewer people are prepared or able to carry the tax burden. In the high value end of the market where property taxes can be $100,000 or more (yes, that’s per year!) homes are unsellable at almost any price.
What seems to be overlooked by the village and County officials is their tax burden in these difficult times is a major cause of people needing to sell urgently and therefore a contributor to ever lower prices. Which will in turn require the remaining owners to pay an even higher rate.
The wild ride is over but someone forgot to tell New York.

Friday, June 24, 2011

AMERICAN THINKER- pilot training

May 28, 2011

A Dangerous Problem With Airline Pilot Training

Rob Schapiro

I believe the current airline training policy of over reliance on autopilot operation has seriously degraded pilot skills.

I recently retired as a Boeing 747 Captain after a 34 year military and civil aviation career. My career straddled an era of rapidly improving avionics and auto pilots.

In this period, auto flight has changed from an useful aid to the pilot to the preferred and now the required way to fly the jet.

In fact most airlines now insist the auto pilot is engaged immediately after takeoff and removed shortly before touchdown. This is currently regarded as the safest way to operate a jet, as it allows the pilots to concentrate on the flight path and leaves the basic flying skills to the auto pilot.

But hand flying a jet or any aircraft is a skill that needs to be practiced regularly to maintain a high level of competency. Overreliance on the autopilot has now degraded many pilots' skills to the point they are reluctant to remove the autopilot even when it is doing something they do not understand or are not comfortable with. They prefer to "see what it doing" before taking action. As with crashed Air France flight 442, waiting too long before taking control can sometimes be fatal.

Secondly by not being totally familiar with hand flying the jet in normal operation, they are unlikely to perform well when forced to fly manually in an emergency situation. This has caused a number of unnecessary crashes in the last few years. Current airline training does not require regularly practicing hand flying.

It was not always like this. Airline training used to have a strong emphasis on handling skill. A veteran Captain would encourage a new pilot to hand fly the jet at every opportunity and would coach him in the finer points not found in any training manual. Day, night, wind or rain, it was always good to experience the aircraft in every environment. Because when the day came that you had no choice but to hand fly in trying conditions, you were ready. Sully Sullenberger did not hone his famous flying skill by twirling autopilot knobs.

Short sighted airline operating policies have left airline pilots not ready to take control in an emergency.

The solution is surprisingly simple. Pilots must overcome their hand flying reluctance, remove the auto pilot below 10,000 feet and actually fly a few times a month. They will quickly regain confidence and flying skill. Also, they will redevelop a "feel" for flight which will alert them immediately if something feels wrong with the autopilot operation.

I hope this will focus light on a trend I have been worried about for many years.

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Posted by: Cheeta05

May 28, 06:11 AM

I concur. However, this being said, any time I hand flew the jet, I always had the caveat from our Flight Ops Manual in the back of my mind. While it gave us the option to hand-fly the aircraft, this 'caveat' encouraged the use of the autopilot to the maximum extent possible. What this told us (aviators) was that if anything went wrong, they would hang us out to dry. Pilots understand what Mr. Schapiro is talking about here, lawyers and accountants (shoeclerks) have no idea...

Posted by: inthethickofit

May 28, 12:45 PM

I like to hand-fly below 10000 feet just because I enjoy it. All pilots should disengage the AP every once in a while and hand-fly an arrival that transitions to an instrument procedure. Of course the airlines are all about providing the customers with a smooth ride, but when the AP fails we need to be ready to take it to minimums by hand no matter the aircraft type.

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Posted by: stormywthr

May 28, 07:53 AM

Going on Autopilot usually has brought an air of confidence welcomed by most who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder. In reality it is a false sense of security which fosters inexperience and unwanted outcomes. In other words autopilot should be the next title for a Stephen King novel. Going autopilot has not only metastasized throughout the airline pilot world but has taken hold within the robotic surgery industry and as most Americans have fallen victim to; the American Presidency. “The President has now turned off the fasten seatbelt light!”

Posted by: rexprimoris

May 28, 09:18 AM

Speaking strictly as an amateur aviation enthusiast, it seems that there have been numerous incidents, some fatal, involving pilot reaction to Airbus's autopilot systems in the context of a flight emergency. In one situation, I think, a plane's wheels briefly touched a runway and then resumed flight, but the mere touch of the tires on the ground changed the autopilot settings without the crew knowing about it, and something bad happened afterward, I forget what, exactly. There was another incident where the crew was totally unaware of what mode the autopilot was set in, and, since it was in the incorrect setting, another accident occurred as a result. Few fatal accidents are ever the result of one sole cause and usually they result from an initial incident that cascades into something worse. The problem is, Airbus's level of flight automation appears to give pilots dealing with an emergency more headaches than help.

There has been a long-standing debate in aviation circles about the differing pilot control philosophies of Airbus and Boeing. The former prefers to limit pilot control so that certain flight parameters can never be exceeded; the latter chooses to give the pilot the option of exceeding normal flight parameters, but with physical feedback to let them know that they're doing so. I side with Boeing on this. If the pilots on the Air France flight were dealing with faulty airspeed indicators in the middle of a storm, at night, and couldn't get the nose of the plane down (from what I read, there are situations in a stall where the elevators can't adjust the pitch of the aircraft downwards) stall recovery might have been more challenging than we might expect. It's hard to believe that airline pilots would find themselves in a stall and keep the nose pitched up, which makes me think they were either lacked situational awareness because of the faulty instruments, or something else was going on.

Posted by: TW in SC

May 28, 09:59 AM

excellent analogy, stormy. The risk, of course is that the nation heads toward a mountain in IMC while telling all of us, "What? Me? Worry?" until the last thing we hear is a loud crash and then nothing.

Posted by: jmc

May 28, 10:16 AM

I ride a motorcycle. From time to time, I make it a point to do a few emergency stops on a piece of clear pavement -- just to hone my riding skills. I will also run through a few tight turns in an open parking lot, again just to practice doing it. For safety's sake I will pick spots where there is no traffic or obstacles when I do my little practice sessions but skill and confidence in handling the machine can make the difference between life and death in a pinch. Similarly, when the first snow falls I will make it a point to throw my pickup into a couple of minor skids -- in areas where there is no other traffic -- just to remind myself how to respond when it happens unexpectedly. And it will happen unexpectedly. Motorcycles and pickups don't have autopilots. The author has a point.

Posted by: Moggy

May 28, 12:52 PM

I remember when I first came to the US being very surprised at the difference in the flying culture and methods of operation. I went solo at 7 hours, on every lesson up till then stalls, spins, and emergency situation recovery made up about half of the lesson. On going to the field the following Saturday I was told by my (military) instructor to go off solo and practice stalls and spins, including spins off various rates of turn up to a rate three. On coming to California I went for a check ride with a local club, as I was flying an unfamiliar plane I asked to do some low speed turns and some spin recovery so I would be comfortable with the plane in the landing circuit, I thought the instructor was going to have a stroke! He explained that they never spun their aircraft as it put too much strain on them, shortly after this a newly licenced young pilot went off to fly over his house with a friend, he stalled and spun from about 2000 ft, never having practiced spins, only having had the recovery "described" to him he did not recover and crashed in the street in front of his family. Had he practiced and been familiar with the look and feel of a spin he could have recovered the situation. This sort of attitude seems to be more and more prevalent, at all costs stay away from "dangerous" situations, if you don't go there you cant be bitten! unfortunately you are sometimes taken there by circumstances beyond your control and if your basic plane handling skills are rusty or lacking entirely due to training philosophy you can end up very dead. Just adding another computer program wont always save you, give me a pilot over a "gamer" every time.

Posted by: Ranger Joe

May 28, 02:04 PM

It was originally speculated back when it happened that a flawed pitot tube froze up in the frigid stratosphere. There were problems with that particular model and new ones were being retrofitted. The hapless crew had no idea how fast they were going. The computer thought they were drastically losing airspeed and about to stall...so they followed accepted procedure and went into an emergency dive to regain flight stability and fell out of the sky. Horrible scenario. It should've never happened. Large airliners have to be handled delicately. They are not designed for sudden moves. Early steamships had a full set of masts and sails as back up. Maybe modern high-tech glass cockpits should have a small suite of good old fashioned analog instruments...just in case. They worked fine for Lindbergh and Chuck Yeager.

There is amateur video of an Airbus going catawampus over Paris on a landing approach. It was attributed to naughty flight computer gremlins. Apparently it happened quite often. Some Airbus computers seem to be as possessed as Kubrick's HAL 2000. An Airbus crashed and burned at the end of a runway at an airshow demonstration when it was taking off. When the pilot pulled back on the yoke to rotate the computer mistook it for an input error and continued flying straight and level into the trees...killing the crew. Crazed European sci-fi futurists dream of robot pilotless airliners flown by computers. There would be a 'Flight Manager' on board to monitor the screens. Call me an American chauvinist...but I prefer my airliners to be designed and built by Boeing thank you.

Posted by: Krankankor

May 28, 06:34 PM

In an adverse attitude condition, where the autopilot has been attempting to maintain level flight, it disconnects at exactly the wrong time leaving the plane in an attitude often beyond the ability of the pilot to correct the condition.

I think of the Buffalo NY crash where, with the autopilot on, the pilots were unaware of the ice building on the wings and horizontal stabilizer. And, when the autopilot disconnected due to design limits on the controls, the pilots had little altitude to correct the condition and no knowledge of whether they had a wing icing problem or a tailplane icing situation, 2 conditions which require entirely different responses.

We don't have to go back to stick & rudder flying or by the seat of our pants (skirts) but fuddamental airmanship in adverse attitudes should be part of every professional pilot's bag of skills.

Posted by: batcat

May 28, 07:09 PM

The first rule for in-flight flying emergencies is "First, Fly the Airplane", then take care of the emergency.

Posted by: crabcakes

May 28, 08:54 PM

@ Ranger Joe - When this Airbus went down I was intrigued and did a little research. I was quite surprised that the more research I did, the more incidents of Airbus 'gremlins' kept popping up. I dug further and found that there was a lot of discussion among 'aerophiles' and electronic geeks about 'tinning' or 'whiskering' of the solder used in European built electronics. It seems that the European Union banned lead in solder back in 2006. Part of the "Green Revolution". Now most Japanese electronic companies have also. Normal solder is 60/40 Tin/Lead. Most lead-free solder is now an alloy of Tin, Silver & copper. Anyway, the result of the elimination of lead is that solder now develops microscopic 'whiskers'. They grow to eventually develop a short circuit and are prevalent in microchips. Many people on those sites I visited were convinced that this was the reason for the problems with Airbus.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I bought a Toshiba Laptop and one month after the warranty (naturally) it would overheat, or develop erratic behavior by blipping the program I was in, or the screen and shut down and restart. I did some more research and found that Toshiba had "gone green" and used lead-free solder. No more Toshiba for me, and no rides on an Airbus either.

Posted by: Rich B

May 29, 02:21 AM

I can remember an airliner (United Airlines Flight 232) going down in a cornfield in Iowa about fifteen or twenty years ago. There were many lives lost but there were also many saved. The plane actually cartwheeled if you can remember and caught on fire. The pilot had had some type of explosion in the tail section and had lost all hydralic controls to the plane. Because the pilot had been an old school type aviator and had extensive practice with emergency simulation techniques many lives were saved. Flying Jets by computerized programs and redundant controls and backup systems are great but ask any programer or code writer - if a human being wrote the code than the code can be flawed or buggy. I realize the days of flying by the seat are long gone but a little basic training in emergency techniques is and can be lifesaving. Click on the link below to read a wiki article about the incident. It was over twenty years ago but I remember it as if it were yesterday. [en.wikipedia.org]

NEWSWEEK ARTICLE- Hudson water landing

'He Did a Very Good Job'

An experienced pilot describes the difficulty of water landings, like the successful one for US Airways flight 1549.

Emergency water landings for aircraft are extremely rare—and it's even rarer that everything turns out all right for passengers. But this miraculous occurrence took place Thursday afternoon, when a US Airways Airbus A320 landed in the Hudson River soon after taking off from New York's LaGuardia airport. Initial reports indicate that all 155 people on board escaped safely. Situations like these barely come up in flight school; few pilots are ever in a situation where they'll need the skill. NEWSWEEK's Kurt Soller spoke to Captain Rob Schapiro, a pilot with 34 years of experience who regularly flies 747s between the United States and Japan. He explained what it takes to land a plane on water, how an engine failure might have occurred and what passengers can do if they're in a similarly scary situation. Excerpts: (Article continued below...)

NEWSWEEK: What sort of training does a pilot get for landing in the water?
Rob Schapiro: In flight school, nearly all of your simulated training is for abnormal situations of varying degrees. This would be a very extreme one—so extreme that no one really trains for it. There are so many things you can prepare for that is more likely to happen. Certainly, losing motor power happens all the time. But with water landings, whatever you would train for isn't likely to ever happen.

Early speculation is that this aircraft lost both engines. Is that unusual?
It's not that unusual for a plane to lose one of its motors. You can still fly a plane very well like that. The only other occurrence of losing all motors to bird strikes I can think of was in Elmendorf. [A U.S. Air Force] airplane took off [in Alaska in 1995] and flew into a flock of geese. The birds took out 3 or 4 motors.

That's similar to the preliminary theories that a flock of birds brought down this plane.
It's very plausible. This plane was an A320, so it only had two motors. So, it would be bad luck, but if you flew into a flock of geese, then they could stop the motors. It would have to be really big birds, though; small birds will often go into the motor, and all you'll get is a bad smell as it gets cooked.

Ignoring that, what happens to the plane once the motors are stopped?
Well, aircraft fly well all the time with the motors at a very low thrust. Whenever you descend, for example, the plane flies without the motors. You're gliding down. It was similar in this case: because you have pumps delivering hydraulic power and pressure, the controllability wouldn't have been an issue. It's a bit complicated, but this pilot had plenty of control.

'He Did a Very Good Job'

(Page 2 of 2)

So how do you control the plane down to the water?You're only going one way and that's down. You would just be picking a spot clear of watercraft or anything you can hit, like bridges. From the height that guy was, there's very limited choice. His main interest would have been maintaining a flying speed on the aircraft. He did a very good job; he obviously kept the aircraft under control. Looking at the photos, I'm noticing that the flaps are still down—meaning that, at a low speed, he had a nice, slow, stable approach.

I imagine it's still no easy task to land on the Hudson River.
Water landing is hard and unpredictable. When you hit water at a very high speed, you can break the aircraft up as if you were hitting land. But if you hit it right, the water slows you down quickly. The danger of fire is hugely reduced. If you get it right—like this guy did—the plane floats. A few years ago, there was a Boeing 767 that had been hijacked and was out of fuel. That plane hit the water, lost its tail and just ripped apart. Unfortunately, that's the more likely scenario for a water landing.

Does this give reason for people to be concerned about flying in the future?
Flying is not like taking a bus. It takes things like this to bring that idea home. You're in a very unforgiving environment. That's the risk people take when they fly.

Is there anything passengers can do to stay safe?
If there was chaos, people would been hurt. It looks like they did well, as it could hardly have ended better.

NEWSWEEK ARTICLE- Volcanic ash

Scrapes on a Plane

A veteran pilot talks about what it's like to fly through volcanic ash, and how dangerous the plumes can be for airplanes.

Flight disruptions across much of Europe will continue well into Saturday, with a giant plume of ash sent into the sky by a volcano eruption in Iceland still drifting across the continent. Some 60 percent of flights in Europe have been grounded, and more than half of transatlantic flights have been canceled, according to the BBC.
It may sound like a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon but, in fact, pilots come up against ash clouds all the time. After 34 years of flying experience and 18,000 flying hours, Robert Schapiro, an international airline captain, has had to deal with dozens of volcano eruptions while at the controls. In many cases, he says, it's possible just to fly over or around them. "It's not an unusual phenomenon at all for long-range pilots. If you fly in Alaska, it's pretty much a monthly routine," he says. In such hot spots, pilots are so comfortable navigating around the plumes that airports are often kept open during eruptions. Other routine trouble zones include the Philippines and Java—essentially anywhere that follows the Ring of Fire around the Pacific—as well as parts of central Africa. What's unusual, Schapiro says, is that the volcano in Iceland is occurring in an area that isn't generally prone to volcanic plumes but that is used to high levels of air traffic.
So what does a pilot do when up against a volcanic cloud? The first trick is to know it's there, which is tougher than it might seem. Volcanic plumes generally are not picked up on weather radar, so pilots have to rely on other tools to spot them, like a color-coded tracking system that assigns every known volcano a color based on its level of activity. Green is normal, yellow raises the threat, and red signifies an imminent eruption. From there, pilots check the wind direction to gauge where the plume will blow and make a call—either over or around—based on their altitude. "You definitely want a good 10,000 feet between you and the cloud, and even then you'd want to be cautious," says Schapiro. Planes generally fly at about 35,000 feet, so small eruptions don't pose a significant problem. Major eruptions, which can reach up to 60,000 feet, are more troublesome. The ash cloud from the Iceland eruption is hovering between 20,000 and 30,000 feet.

The worst-case scenario, of course, would be to fly right into a volcanic cloud. That generally happens at night, when it's tougher for pilots to tell the plume apart from other clouds. But eerie signs resulting from high levels of static electricity in volcanic material immediately indicate that something is amiss. First, an electrical phenomenon called St. Elmo's fire can cause green flashes to appear on the windows. The mouth of the plane's motor may start to glow, and pilots may notice the smell of sulfur. Radio transmissions become less clear, and the plane's windshield can become more opaque because the pulverized lava particles are made of silicates, like glass, that basically sand the front of the plane, including the windows. Those glasslike particles affect the motor, too. If they enter a jet engine, they melt just like glass melts, then solidify, coating the engine and raising its temperature—and potentially destroying it.
But even cruising through the middle of a cloud of electrified, glass-spewing volcanic ash doesn't automatically spell catastrophe. The good news, says Schapiro, is that all pilots are trained how to navigate their way out. "The technique for exiting is literally to get out the way you came in, because you don't know how big the thing is," says Schapiro. As pilots turn around, they try to cool the motors by bringing them back to idle, which means the plane descends at the same time. That actually kills two birds with one stone, since pilots have to descend to restart any motors that have blown out, anyway. Any jet engine exposed to volcanic damage is totaled beyond salvation. Still, in most cases, even if the engines are cooked, they are still capable of doing the one thing that matters at that point: getting you far enough to reach an airport.