East Dulwich Flight Path No Planes today

[DulwichFox]

East Dulwich is on the Flight Path to Heathrow.

Usually a plane every 2 mins..]

Anyone else noticed there are no planes today..

[mockney piers]

New rules come into regulation today that flights can only be undertaken during the hours of darkness as the ultraviolet spectrum of sunlight effect on the C02 emissions of aeroplanes has a much greater impact on the environment. Without drastic action like this we will fall well short of emission targets set by the Kyoto protocols.

Good luck getting a good nights' sleep tonight is all I can say!!!

[Sue]

Mockney, really, is that true? Not an early April Fools joke?

I thought night flights were only allowed during certain hours? How can they possibly fit them all in?

But if true, hooray, pleasant days sitting in the garden with no plane noise, and earplugs at night :)

[elloriac]

Sad to say that I've been mostly inside today and missing the glorious sunshine, but I popped out after reading your message, and totally agree. How weird! Can't find anything online about it.

[Only me!]

probaly means that the wind is unusually from the East, so the planes take off & land the other way round.

[mockney piers]

yeah, it's probably the wind blowing right to left ;)

[nashoi]

Joking aside, didn't the absence of contrails after 9/11 cause a temperature rise, or am I remembering that the wrong way round?

[The Minkey]

Just heard a plane overhead.

[DulwichFox]

Only me! Wrote:

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> probaly means that the wind is unusually from the

> East, so the planes take off & land the other way

> round.

There is virtually no wind today...

I have seen planes over ED. with all kinds of wind, rain, thunderstorms...

They usually fly directly over me but can deviate slightly.

There seems to be something in the air today.. Or should I say, not in the air.

[DulwichFox]

The Minkey Wrote:

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> Just heard a plane overhead.

The planes into City airport seem to be flying.

I think they fly at lower altitude..

[mockney piers]

yeah, if city is landing west -> east then planes approaching form the east, say the rotterdam or amsterdam klm flights, do a big loop through south east london then fly along the thames and do a sort of stukka dive after flying over canary wharf.

It's great fun, and I've actually seen people scream before!!

[treehugger]

Very strange, I've seen some lower altitude planes this pm but no big ones. Sky now is clear. Is there something we haven't been told?

[stephent]

Very simple - planes take off with the wind, so if wind at Heathrow is west->east, planes taking off at Heathrow fly towards London (and veer off well before Dulwich), whilst planes landing approach from Windsor direction.

The smaller lower planes are those for City Airport (again, west->east wind means they sometimes fly over Dulwich to land)

[DulwichFox]

All this talk about wind direction....

As I said earlier.. no wind today...

I have lived in my home in ED for 16 years.

The only other time there were no planes was during the Icelandic volcanic eruption.

[Dorothy]

I have lived in ED for coming up to 16 years too, but WHAT is the point of this thread Dulwich Fox?

I have seen plenty of planes today.

[Only me!]

The wind direction over the UK is predominately from the West towards the East.

Planes will always want to take off facing into whatever wind there is & then also land facing into the wind. It makes things easier, is safer & uses less fuel to do so.

So usually the Planes landing at Heatrow will circle round East & Sout East London before lining up roughly in line with the river & fly due West (into the wind) to land.

This is why we routinely have lots of planes over ED, they are dropping out of their holding patterns over Kent & Essex & swinging in to line up with the runway. Flying from East to West.

The planes taking off, do the opposite they lift off the runway heading West (into the wind & away from us) climb quickly & then turn off towards wherever they are going, this turn off takes place quite near the airport.

So we almost never see them over ED at all.

This is all for the when the wind is from the West.

IF the wind is reversed, or even a bit vague, it all happens the other way round. The stacks are out over Reading & Oxford (so we are spared) & the planes taking off, that are now coming our way, turn off before they get to us .... with the net result of a much quieter sky over ED.

This is only applicable to the traffic from Heatrow. The lower planes are (as stated elsewhere) from London City & we get then whatever the wind direction! As we are under both take off & landing flightpaths. But they are usually smaller & have to be of a quieter design. Also with constraints on how long they can have their engines on full throttle after take off etc. As they are operating out of an urban/residential city location.

[DulwichFox]

Dorothy Wrote:

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> I have lived in ED for coming up to 16 years too,

> but WHAT is the point of this thread Dulwich Fox?

>

>

> I have seen plenty of planes today.

I saw plenty of planes yesterday but they were all City Airport Planes which circle from south east

then head north from an ED view point.

The POINT of this thread is the same as any other thread.

For people tp discuss...

With 667 reads there is obiously some interest in the Title subject.

With Heathrow expansion and the introduction of Night Flights I am sure many people will want

to know if flight paths over South London are to remain or be changed..

The Planes over ED Head Due West towards Heathrow. after completing any stacking.

By the time they are over ED they will be lined up with the runway for their approach.

There is always slight adjustments in their position (Due to Prevailing Wind) but these do not make

a vast difference viewed from the ground. I.E. you can still see and hear the aircraft.

Anyway... Today the planes are over ED with a slight Southernly aspect.

[new mother]

Would the proposed new Boris island airport be bad or good for us, aircraft noise wise? (Obviously a reasonably close hub would be great convenience wise.)

[Only me!]

Boris' Island would be good for us IF it took business away from Heathrow.

With our proximity to Heathrow we would not be anywhere near the new airport's stacks or approaches. So it shouldn't impact us at all.

But

If it is just to provide incremental volume & the traffic to Heathrow is undiminished .... then we will be no better off from a number of planes over ED perspective.

Apart from, as you say, being handy & easy to get too, when we wish to use it.

[ianr]

The BAA tracker site http://webtrak.bksv.com/lhr, which is timelagged for security reasons, is now showing the LHR arrivals and departures at 07:00 yesterday, with everything reassuringly landing from the west.

[Alex K]

@DulwichFox -- Volcanoes, yes, but also -- inside the last 16 years -- the stillness after 11 September...

[Angusvanfrehley]

If your concerned about the aircraft noise now wait till the Olympics next year. Have a mate who works for Heathrow and the number of extra flights before, during and after the Olympics is going through the roof.

[SCSB79]

DulwichFox Wrote:

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> All this talk about wind direction....

>

> As I said earlier.. no wind today...

>

No wind here... but conditions at Heathrow will more than likley be different and probably have more of a bearing on the direction the planes land from...

[Huguenot]

I think someone said earlier that planes take off with the wind.

Although it seems logical, it's actually the other way round - planes always take off and land into the wind.

This is because it gives a higher 'airspeed' compared with 'ground speed' for any given velocity.

For example a plane going down a runway at 150mph into a 20mph headwind, will have wind going over its wings at 170mph.

Higher airspeeds give higher lift - so it means that the plane is airborne at lower ground speeds and needs a shorter stretch of runway.

This all means that taking off and landing into the wind is safer!

As SCSB79 said - the only thing that counts is the wind at Heathrow, nowhere else.

Be interesting to see how the traffic changes during the Olympics. It currently delivers almost 9,200 flights a week. To be honest, with the figures that high nobody's really going to be able to notice an extra 1,000, but 5,000 might be noticeable!

[Freddy1929]

A friend of mine visited yesterday and was shocked at the lower height since his last visit. During a peak period he timed the interval between aircraft from 1minute to 1.20 for two hours. He had heard that Southwark are spending

?6 million on developments at Burgess Park. With Boris'Island still way back of the boiler and the third runway at LHR a no no, the thought struck him that the approach height is destined to become lower and Burgess Park will become the new runway. Was he serious? I am beginning to think he may have a point.