Cool things seen on FlightRadar

[ukaskew]

I find it fascinating that there is any commercial traffic at all apart from a few remaining repatriation flights. i.e. there is a BA 747 coming into Heathrow from Lagos now. After the best part of 4 weeks are there still that many people that need to be brought home?

[b0rk]

ukaskew said:

I find it fascinating that there is any commercial traffic at all apart from a few remaining repatriation flights. i.e. there is a BA 747 coming into Heathrow from Lagos now. After the best part of 4 weeks are there still that many people that need to be brought home?

Cargo, Heathrow moves 1.5 million tonnes of the stuff each year that's 4,000 tonnes per day normally.

BA have three vast warehouses with in the airport perimeter just for moving airfreight. Dnata (Emirates) have an equally large campus opposite BA.

[SeeFive]

Border force drone up, not a little one either.

[NM62]

Castrol for a knave said:

NM62 said:

Castrol for a knave said:

NM62 said:

Marcellus said:

TriumphStag3.0V8 said:

RAF Heli and glider pairs flying around Shrewsbury (on planefinder - not showing on flightradar). I assume that the gliders are just following the helis - they have the same track history.

Been watching that one, two pairs of helicopter & glider, in one pair the heli is police in the other RAF, anyone know what they're doing?

Lots of Helicopters out of Shawbury from the Defence Helicopter Flying School - no gliders

Plenty of Eurocopter DHFS from Shawbury out today. Not much heavy, though we had a few in and out earlier in the week. I live on the side of the Wrekin and we get all sorts using it as a nav mark. Been quieter last couple of years but used to get flights of Lynx, Chinooks and Merlins (I think),

Gliders may be out of Cosford, or Long Mynd GC. Again, they tend to use Lawley/ Caradoc, the Wrekin and Clee hills as marks and for uplift.

Can't beat a Vulcan using your house as a nav marker

Edited by Castrol for a knave on Friday 17th April 14:54

I'm over at Stafford (South) so get buzzed by the DHFS boys quite a lot, not seen a Merlin in a while just the Chinooks and Lynx with a couple of Apaches, the C-17 came over yesterday at 5000 feet, over towards you on his way to Manchester then came down to the East of us on his way to Birmingham but I missed him both ways.

We had the Vulcan over us a couple of Years back when he was holding for a Cosford display along with a 727, took me back to the old days spotting around Scampton and Waddington when the Vulcans were still in service

Cool spot to live isn't it.

Yep, that Vulcan was doing the same for the Cosford airshow - he was circling over Wenlock Edge, then over the Wrekin then headed north so I guess up to you.

I assume you get the Red Arrows doing the same then in for the Shawbury air show after their display at Cosford?

Sorry been away for a bit - It is good spot with a mix of civil and military.

We get a lot of the Cosford traffic,although we missed the B1, B52 and B17 2 years ago as it’s around 12 miles away.

We are elevated and can see across to the Wrekin from the main Stafford to Cannock Road.

We live on the edge of Cannock Chase and the Military infrequently use it for fixed wing at low level too - C-130 and Typhoons as it seems to be close to or part of the “Lichfield Corridor”

[NM62]

Mapping done lately - ETA courtesy of @planefinder on Twitter

Edited by NM62 on Sunday 19th April 05:49

[anonymous-user]

An225 Mriya currently over Hungary from Baku to Paris.

[aeropilot]

NM62 said:

Mapping done lately - ETA courtesy of @planefinder on Twitter

Edited by NM62 on Sunday 19th April 05:49

Curious as to what they could be mapping over the sea off the south coast of Sussex?

[vaud]

aeropilot said:

Curious as to what they could be mapping over the sea off the south coast of Sussex?

Hunting for illegal migrant boats as mentioned earlier in the thread?

[anonymous-user]

NM62 said:

Mapping done lately - ETA courtesy of @planefinder on Twitter

Edited by NM62 on Sunday 19th April 05:49

I’ve gone outside and successfully appeared in previous updates, this time I’ve tried lying in a star shape on the ground as the aircraft approaches to see if it comes out.

The trouble is knowing which companies are doing each flyby and what kind it is.

[Castrol for a knave]

Watching a Beech Superking.

i suspect it is being used for flight training and clearly made the run down the M6, used Farelton Fell, the hill at the M6/A65 junction as a turn and headed back north.

A very popular hill with military and civil that one......

[NM62]

aeropilot said:

NM62 said:

Mapping done lately - ETA courtesy of @planefinder on Twitter

Edited by NM62 on Sunday 19th April 05:49

Curious as to what they could be mapping over the sea off the south coast of Sussex?

The twitter account have done a series of Covid-19 related charts / reports etc - they tracked the companies / aircraft doing these flights over the UK and Europe.

As for the ‘over the water’ bit i wouldn’t like to guess.

[Steve_D]

Pilots must be finding this all rather bizarre.
Watched a BA 747 come in over Portsmouth (and my house) last night at about 10,000 feet (which is why I opened FR24). It continued to let down whilst doing a nice sweeping turn and plopped down into LHR. It had pretty much the whole of southern England to itself. Not pattern, no stack just straight in. He could probably have flown direct to LHR and side lipped it in for effect.

Steve

[NM62]

El stovey said:

NM62 said:

Mapping done lately - ETA courtesy of @planefinder on Twitter

Edited by NM62 on Sunday 19th April 05:49

I’ve gone outside and successfully appeared in previous updates, this time I’ve tried lying in a star shape on the ground as the aircraft approaches to see if it comes out.

The trouble is knowing which companies are doing each flyby and what kind it is.

Can't see you - where are you?

[zombeh]

aeropilot said:

Curious as to what they could be mapping over the sea off the south coast of Sussex?

There's a big wind farm there, might be related to that.

[ecsrobin]

zombeh said:

aeropilot said:

Curious as to what they could be mapping over the sea off the south coast of Sussex?

There's a big wind farm there, might be related to that.

So a lot of offshore wind farms get surveyed 2 years before being built, the aircraft taking photos and then a computer back in the office processing to detect the marine wildlife in the area. They build the wind farm then survey it for 2 years after to see the environmental impact of the farm.

[The Brummie]

And she’s back again.



Clear skies so view should be good.

[Dyl]

Airbus A400. Took off from Brize Norton, appears to have done a touch and go at Aberdeen then after flying over me did the same at Prestwick.

(Apologies for the potato-quality images)

[ukaskew]

b0rk said:

Cargo, Heathrow moves 1.5 million tonnes of the stuff each year that's 4,000 tonnes per day normally.

BA have three vast warehouses with in the airport perimeter just for moving airfreight. Dnata (Emirates) have an equally large campus opposite BA.

Do BA not come up seperately for cargo? Most airlines seem to.

[AndrewGP]

Steve_D said:

Pilots must be finding this all rather bizarre.
Watched a BA 747 come in over Portsmouth (and my house) last night at about 10,000 feet (which is why I opened FR24). It continued to let down whilst doing a nice sweeping turn and plopped down into LHR. It had pretty much the whole of southern England to itself. Not pattern, no stack just straight in. He could probably have flown direct to LHR and side lipped it in for effect.

Steve

I came back from Dubai a few days ago and got cleared straight in to the ILS for 27R off the BIG beacon. We were the only thing going in to LHR and the only aircraft on the Heathrow frequency. We even got told to roll to the end of the runway which never happens. All very, very bizarre.

[djc206]

AndrewGP said:

I came back from Dubai a few days ago and got cleared straight in to the ILS for 27R off the BIG beacon. We were the only thing going in to LHR and the only aircraft on the Heathrow frequency. We even got told to roll to the end of the runway which never happens. All very, very bizarre.

In a weird way I think we all long for the days of uttering or hearing “250kts 10-15 mins delay”