Crowded Skies? I dunno....

Steyr

So i took this today after coming home from work, it had me thinking about all the Docu's you see about The Skies becoming more and more crowded, well i dont know, not over Galway anyway as i only saw 3 West bound Aircraft at high Alt, they had a time gap of about 10-15Mins between sightings and im not saying they Originated at the same Airport, ah well thats my 2 cents!

RoundyMooney

If you're ever around Cork airport on a cloudless day, take a look up, (or better still, a photo-actually you've given me an idea now ).

I assume the southern coastline around here lies under a jetway or whatever the terminology is, because there are a helluva lot of aircraft whizzing over there every day.

pclancy

I live just beside blanchardstown so see a LOT of traffic coming up from Dub every day, but a lot of high altitude traffic as well. Galway mustnt be a busy place

jmayo

I think they just mean around airports e.g Newark, LAX, JFK, LHR etc ?
After all look at the size of the Earth's atmosphere and then work out what area would be covered if every aircraft in world was flying at same time.
Yet another piece of media hyperbola.

therecklessone

pclancy wrote:

Galway mustnt be a busy place

I'm guessing after work means 6pm or later, so the answer would be it ain't!

Truth is, you won't see much high level east or west bound traffic on the west coast at that time of the evening, 15W can be a lonely place that late...:D

The main east-bound flow off the ocean starts at 3am and last roughly 4 hours, then when they've all landed/picked up fuel+passengers+cargo the main west-bound flow starts. All mainly done and dusted by mid afternoon.

Galway's not that far from some of the busiest Upper ATS Routes in Ireland, UL975 and UL70. Have a look so depending on time of day or night you could see a lot more.

There's a couple of heavy drivers post here could give you a better idea of it all.

RadioRetro

A few days ago above Rosslare Harbour;

zuutroy

I'm just beside Brussels and I can see at least 10 contrails all day every day when its clear.

jd

Move to between Wexford Town and New Ross and you will see a lot of contrails on a clear day.
jd

Deacon Blues

There is major traffic congestion at certain points around the world, and particularly at certain times. To look up and see very little and then wonder what all the fuss is about is similar to looking at the road in a leafy suburban housing estate in the middle of the day when everybody is out at work, and wondering what all the fuss is about road traffic congestion. Try having a look at the M50 at 6pm !!!!

If you want to see air traffic congestion, look at http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/facet/1.FACET_24hr.gif . This is air traffic over a typical 24 hours in the US. Even here, you can see massive movements from the northeast from 8am to 10am, but the plain and Rockies states in the midwest are relatively free. The Pacific coast then shows huge movement. Other choke points are the English channel between 6am and 10am heading south, as most flights from the US to Europe get filtered through there, and then the same going northwards later in the day as they return.

Add to that the multiple airports in major conurbations, for example Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Luton and City in London, and JFK, Newark and La Guardia in the New York area, and you can have huge local congestion. However, you can live in a particular area, in the middle of these citys, and never see an airplane. This is like living in the middle of a park, and never seeing a car.

Aircraft are controlled and kept safe by having three-dimensional routes in the sky, similar to roads on the land which they must use. So the suggestion to looks at the size of the earths atmosphere and see how much world be used if every airplane was in the air is fundementally erronious, as the poster is implying that they are spread out throughout the globe. The basic problem is that cival air travel is used to move people and freight between places that people and freight want to move between, and these places are usually population centres, therefore, you get alot of airplanes going to and from the same places, and if you happen to be on a point on the earth under a path between these places, you'll see airplanes, if not, you won't.

Far from being media hyperbole, the problems of air traffic congestion are very real, but they apply to certain choke points. Have a look for airmiss or loss of seperation incident statistics on the 'net, and you'll see that these are increasing as a direct result of the increased amount of airplanes being crammed into terminal areas.

jrey1981

1,040 transatlantic flights pass through irish airspace every day...

zuutroy

Here's a snap I took about 8 in the evening looking towards Brussels VOR. There were plenty more in other directions too.