Storm Ashley. Where is she?

[maldivemoment]

We’re west coast of Scotland so very exposed.
Husband planned to make a trip to B&Q to collect supplies for current building work. I talked him out of it as didn’t think it wise to drive with items on roof of car during a storm. Forecast predicted wind gusts of 40mph from 4am.

I’ve been awake on and off since then and so far, no gusts!

Husband now making frantic dash to B&Q!

Has the wind picked up for anyone else yet?

I spent way too much time yesterday watching Dublin airport, with a number of planes circling over the sea north and south of the approach. I watched several attempt landings, one or two got down, more didn't. One at least was diverted to Cardiff.

We’re well off the original topic and I must do other stuff today but with regard to some of the comments regarding some go-arounds last night:

At pretty much all airlines the info on the flight data recorder(s) for every single flight is downloaded, scanned and read by computer, usually to look for trends and also to flag up if something unusual has happened, e.g.landing/touching down with certain numbers outside certain parameters…(yep, you get all that and more going on behind the scenes for the price of your ticket).

If the pilots throw away an approach for whatever reason and go-around it might be flagged up by the computer with a view to somebody in the office having a look at the details but it would be rare/unheard of for the crew to be invited into the office for a discussion because they have taken a safe course of action.

If OTOH they continued an approach and landed when the numbers show they should not have done so or it would have been wise not to do so, they would almost certainly be having a discussion with a grown up.

Not landing is not a “fail” or a reflection on the pilot’s competence or confidence, a go-around is always on the cards and indeed the mindset these days is that every landing is a potential go-around, right up to the point when reverse thrust is selected.

Thank you for taking the time to explain, and for your other really helpful input. I guess if there are storm conditions at either (scheduled) end of the flight, for each separate flight a decision has to be made whether to delay departure an hour or so, or try anyway, but with SO many “go-arounds” at Dublin yesterday, I’m surprised they kept sending planes that way!

I hope all disrupted travellers and crew safely got to wherever they needed to be today.

I guess if there are storm conditions at either (scheduled) end of the flight, for each separate flight a decision has to be made whether to delay departure an hour or so, or try anyway,

Problem with delaying lots of departures is you can run into ATC and airport slot problems if everything backs up, though in US ATC sometimes do a thing called gate hold at the origin airport where they will shut down flow to certain destinations selectively if there’s a problem with e.g, widespread thunderstorms.

Generally the management policy (Europe/UK) in days like yesterday tends to be that unless the forecast means it’s an absolute no hoper you mostly try to go on schedule anyway in the hope your flights arrive in improving weather, or at least a gap in bad conditions.

The job for the crew, having been handed the task, is then to keep things safe by, for example, making sure they carry enough fuel (more than they would on a normal day) so as to keep lots of options open (e.g. lots of holding capability, fuel for distant alternates/fuel to get back to origin/ back to base).