New Flight Radar thread - it's windy tonight

[cakeorwine]

A new thread for FR

I’m going to wait until I see Fuerteventura go over the house, then I’m going to bed. Definitely!

Why is WUK828 doing some many circles? It has tried to land once so surely wouldn't need to dump fuel? It seems to be going so much farther than the others.

Wonder why the Alicante to Leeds has diverted to Glasgow? And the Tenerife to Edinburgh is heading south currently. There must be aircraft positioning at play in the decisions.
It’s blowing a hoolie currently at Glasgow, although that easyJet made it in first time possibly the runway being southwest so directly into the wind helps?

Bound to have happened.... though the Short haul folks tend to get around all the stations on their airlines network fairly early on in their careers I'll bet some have ended up "off line" somewhere new tonight.

It's part of the job and you have to be ready for it...there's a certain common logic to how most airports work and you do have documentation (charts etc) for all potential diversion airfields on-board.

flying to/from prestwick is the most informal set up, it’s like landing out your friend’s back door that has a big garden 🙈 The flight diverted there from Glasgow earlier on that landed hasn’t been able to get the people off the plane yet due to the lack of staff at the airport so they can’t get a bus to them. So I think that might be why some of the rest aren’t attempting prestwick now

Some of the diverts may be down to the wind direction and runway alignment in different airports. Heathrow's runways run west - east (270 degrees/90 degrees); earlier the wind direction there was 232 degrees so there were 38 degrees of crosswind to take account of. Manchester's runways are 230/50 degrees, so if the same wind conditions applied as in the Heathrow case, the wind would be pretty much straight down the runway, so a lot easier to handle.

You also need to factor runway lengths into the decision. A longer runway gives more options than a shorter one. You also need to consider the geographical features around the runways; 27R - the northern runway has buildings on approach which cause turbulence. In Storm Eunice, they used 27L for landings to mitigate this.

It seems perverse that aircraft which can get off the ground full of passengers and fuel cannot land with the same conditions. Fuel dumping happens more with long-haul flights as they obviously have more fuel onboard, so if they need to return or divert they need to get the weight down to the maximum safe landing weight. Knowing the conditions today, pilots will almost certainly have carried extra fuel in case they are forced to divert.

I think my 3 worst flights are a) emergency stop from almost take- off speed on the runway, b) bumping down on one wheel and straight back up (though pilot with a sense of humour said "sorry, I'm going to have another go" then c) thick fog into Heathrow - tannoy announcement that 7 out of the last 10 planes had landed safely 😱 Followed quickly by the rest had been diverted but still!

Me too but then I'm a bit nervous about going to bed given the sound of the wind and rain at the back of my property which is v. exposed! So, watching FR24 is a bit of a diversion....

I’m invested in the ALC- Leeds heading to Glasgow and then off to bed….

It’s usually closed by now isn’t it?

I landed there once and was panicking as we were slightly late and I was meant to be getting the last train. Was told not to worry as they just hold the train up. Which indeed they had!

Fuerteventura going for it in Manchester. Good luck everyone

I used to live next to Leeds Bradford so flew from there a lot. It is scary to land at at the best of times, google it and you'll see. The runway is full of bumps and it's very high up.

😂

Edinburgh airport’s arrivals page has both the Fuertuventura and Tenerife flights as “on approach” but doesn’t say “to Manchester”

Me too! Should have been asleep half an hour ago but I need to see them land!

And Birmingham to Edinburgh landed, according to Edinburgh arrivals. Well done to that pilot.

Completely agree my DSis was an air traffic controller and sadly lost a colleague to suicide. Many others also turned to drink to cope with the stress. She retired at 50.

Feeling for everyone on these flights today, from crew to pilots to passengers. To all ground staff and of course the air traffic control- what a day!

Just seen it!

For some reason I can't get to sleep until I see this flight land in Glasgow. I've been watching it since it headed to Hull and changed its mind!

Those are hilarious! Crews with a sense of humour 🤣

Yes, I'm wondering if that's the sound of a wandering shed I can hear out in our garden....

Wait what? Where is Alicante going now? Past Glasgow.

You can’t! It might bring all the planes down!

Ooh they’ve turned left to approach .
all this and I think it’s their first landing attempt