Cool things seen on FlightRadar

[LHB]

Just had this go over making quite a nice sound, can’t say I’ve noticed one in the air before!

[AshVX220]

Not on FR24 but very interesting (well to me anyway).
So last night just before 8pm I heard a helicopter fly over, checked ADSB and it was a Puma apparently (I didn't see it in time to ID it). Anyway, "unusual" I thought, I wasn't aware we still had them. So I wondered if it had anything to do with SF maybe, checked ADSB and indeed it had spend time earlier around Hereford (quite a bit of time looking at the squiggly track over Hereford). That's cool I thought. Anyway, heard it again and looked out the window in time to see 2 Puma's flying very close heading back north (when I heard them before they were heading south according to ADSB).
So, I checked ADSB again, they'd gone toward Gosport and seemed to have stopped here;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monckton

Which is allegedly a training establishment for our spooks.

Well, I thought that was quite cool. When they'd left Gosport I think they went straight back to Odiham as they'd disappeared off ADSB after 15-20 minutes.

The Puma I found was ZJ956

Edit: Thinking about it further, I've lived here a long time and never noticed Puma's in the area for a very long time, so if it was training then it wasn't part of the usual training regime for them I don't think.

Seems that spooks or SF were either being moved round urgently in two Puma's or were conducting some helo based training.

Edited by AshVX220 on Tuesday 14th July 09:27

[aeropilot]

RAF Typhoon (JEDI0023) has flown down the middle of the UK west of Heathrow and crossed the Channel and heading over France, looks like it maybe heading for the FAF base near Evreux?

[aeropilot]

There seems to be an extraordinary amount of low level French mil aircraft buzzing around the western suburbs of Paris........plus the one RAF Typhoon that's now dropped off the map in that area, plus a German Airforce A400.

Very odd.

[LotusOmega375D]

There was a similar ex-Lossiemouth flight on 30 June I posted. Voyager in the Channel then also. Plenty of French stuff circulating West of Paris, so presumably Bastille Day fly-past perhaps with RAF Typhoon in tow?

[aeropilot]

LotusOmega375D said:

There was a similar ex-Lossiemouth flight on 30 June I posted. Voyager in the Channel then also. Plenty of French stuff circulating West of Paris, so presumably Bastille Day fly-past perhaps with RAF Typhoon in tow?

Aah..........of course, Bastille Day.......yes that would explain it.

[AshVX220]

aeropilot said:

LotusOmega375D said:

There was a similar ex-Lossiemouth flight on 30 June I posted. Voyager in the Channel then also. Plenty of French stuff circulating West of Paris, so presumably Bastille Day fly-past perhaps with RAF Typhoon in tow?

Aah..........of course, Bastille Day.......yes that would explain it.

One of the Alpha Jets from the French air display team is on ADSB too, I guess only the lead jet is squawking?

[Dashnine]

I guess that's why the PMs new paint job Voyager is circulating in the middle of the channel! Top up before entering French airspace and on the way home.

[aeropilot]

Dashnine said:

I guess that's why the PMs new paint job Voyager is circulating in the middle of the channel! Top up before entering French airspace and on the way home.

We'll see in a few minutes as the Typhoon has just crossed the French coast and pretty much the same altitude as the Chavvy tanker and heading in its direction.

[yellowjack]

AshVX220 said:

Not on FR24 but very interesting (well to me anyway).
So last night just before 8pm I heard a helicopter fly over, checked ADSB and it was a Puma apparently (I didn't see it in time to ID it). Anyway, "unusual" I thought, I wasn't aware we still had them. So I wondered if it had anything to do with SF maybe, checked ADSB and indeed it had spend time earlier around Hereford (quite a bit of time looking at the squiggly track over Hereford). That's cool I thought. Anyway, heard it again and looked out the window in time to see 2 Puma's flying very close heading back north (when I heard them before they were heading south according to ADSB).
So, I checked ADSB again, they'd gone toward Gosport and seemed to have stopped here;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monckton

Which is allegedly a training establishment for our spooks.

Well, I thought that was quite cool. When they'd left Gosport I think they went straight back to Odiham as they'd disappeared off ADSB after 15-20 minutes.

The Puma I found was ZJ956

Edit: Thinking about it further, I've lived here a long time and never noticed Puma's in the area for a very long time, so if it was training then it wasn't part of the usual training regime for them I don't think.

Seems that spooks or SF were either being moved round urgently in two Puma's or were conducting some helo based training.

Edited by AshVX220 on Tuesday 14th July 09:27

Pumas live at Benson, not Odiham. They're an old design too. The first Westland built Puma HC.Mk 1 flew a week after I was born, and I'm 50 this year. I know they've been upgraded over the years, but still. Even the Puma HC Mk2 has been going for three decades, albeit with a big Life Extension Programme and a subsequent capability improvement around 2012. http://www.helicopters.airbus.com/website/en/press...

ZJ956 is one of a batch of ex South African Air Force Pumas (Ex SAAF 172, ex ZU-CBJ on the South African civil register). Of that batch four were upgraded to HC Mk2 standard, and two (ZJ958 and ZJ959) show as scrapped (at Hitchen) in 2015 after periods of storage at Llangennech and Boscombe Down. https://www.helis.com/database/cn/4077/

As an example of airframe age, XW216 first flew (as an HC Mk1) in September 1971, and went to Eurocopter in France in August 2010 for conversion to HC Mk2. There are quite a few of the original 1970 to 1972 built airframes still knocking around RAF Benson.

ZE449 was interesting. Taken into RAF service in 2001 after being repaired and upgraded to RAF standards over an extended period, it had been captured during the Falklands War (ex-Argentine registration PA-12). https://www.helis.com/database/cn/200/

What the RAF themselves say about the Puma HC Mk2... https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/puma-hc2/

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 14th July 11:29

[2fast748]

yellowjack said:

AshVX220 said:

Not on FR24 but very interesting (well to me anyway).
So last night just before 8pm I heard a helicopter fly over, checked ADSB and it was a Puma apparently (I didn't see it in time to ID it). Anyway, "unusual" I thought, I wasn't aware we still had them. So I wondered if it had anything to do with SF maybe, checked ADSB and indeed it had spend time earlier around Hereford (quite a bit of time looking at the squiggly track over Hereford). That's cool I thought. Anyway, heard it again and looked out the window in time to see 2 Puma's flying very close heading back north (when I heard them before they were heading south according to ADSB).
So, I checked ADSB again, they'd gone toward Gosport and seemed to have stopped here;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monckton

Which is allegedly a training establishment for our spooks.

Well, I thought that was quite cool. When they'd left Gosport I think they went straight back to Odiham as they'd disappeared off ADSB after 15-20 minutes.

The Puma I found was ZJ956

Edit: Thinking about it further, I've lived here a long time and never noticed Puma's in the area for a very long time, so if it was training then it wasn't part of the usual training regime for them I don't think.

Seems that spooks or SF were either being moved round urgently in two Puma's or were conducting some helo based training.

Edited by AshVX220 on Tuesday 14th July 09:27

Pumas live at Benson, not Odiham. They're an old design too. The first Westland built Puma HC.Mk 1 flew a week after I was born, and I'm 50 this year. I know they've been upgraded over the years, but still. Even the Puma HC Mk2 has been going for three decades, albeit with a big Life Extension Programme and a subsequent capability improvement around 2012. http://www.helicopters.airbus.com/website/en/press...

ZJ956 is one of a batch of ex South African Air Force Pumas (Ex SAAF 172, ex ZU-CBJ on the South African civil register). Of that batch four were upgraded to HC Mk2 standard, and two (ZJ958 and ZJ959) show as scrapped (at Hitchen) in 2015 after periods of storage at Llangennech and Boscombe Down. https://www.helis.com/database/cn/4077/

As an example of airframe age, XW216 first flew (as an HC Mk1) in September 1971, and went to Eurocopter in France in August 2010 for conversion to HC Mk2. There are quite a few of the original 1970 to 1972 built airframes still knocking around RAF Benson.

ZE449 was interesting. Taken into RAF service in 2001 after being repaired and upgraded to RAF standards over an extended period, it had been captured during the Falklands War (ex-Argentine registration PA-12). https://www.helis.com/database/cn/200/

What the RAF themselves say about the Puma HC Mk2... https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/puma-hc2/

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 14th July 11:29

There have been pairs of Pumas knocking about all over the place for a few months now, I saw 2 driving home from work one after a couple of months ago then 1 went very low over our house last week. They're like A400s, look up enough and you'll see one!

[alangla]

yellowjack said:

Yup. I caught sight of a BA narrow-body climbing out of Hurn this afternoon, in the distance as I cycled through Poole. We had the BEA retro-livery A320 (?) on the ground here recently. Not sure if it's still here, but it definitely wasn't among the original batch that were laid up here. So the 'rotation' suggestion seems to make sense.

One went from Bournemouth to Glasgow yesterday afternoon, presumably to the maintenance base there.

[smack]

alangla said:

yellowjack said:

Yup. I caught sight of a BA narrow-body climbing out of Hurn this afternoon, in the distance as I cycled through Poole. We had the BEA retro-livery A320 (?) on the ground here recently. Not sure if it's still here, but it definitely wasn't among the original batch that were laid up here. So the 'rotation' suggestion seems to make sense.

One went from Bournemouth to Glasgow yesterday afternoon, presumably to the maintenance base there.

The BEA livery one is G-EUPJ, an A319. And yes, British Airways Maintenance Glasgow does short haul Airbus maintenance, and the reason it was sent up there, although a few A320 series were parked up there at the start of the CV19 mess.

[HJG]

Found G-SHWN 'sharkmouth' today. Is this in the skies often?

[surveyor]

Not on FlightRadar, but Doncaster currently has a 747 stuck in the grass...

EGCN C4742/20 RWY 02/20 CLOSED DUE AIRCRAFT OBSTRUCTION. 14 JUL
13:05 2020 UNTIL 14 JUL 17:00 2020 ESTIMATED. CREATED: 14
JUL 13:08 2020

[beanie1983]

What's going on here with this plane? is it a glitch in the software or is that their actual flight path? I've never seen a path like that before

[djc206]

Google “great circle route”

[towser44]

That's the path, I've seen a few like that where they go really far North.

[djc206]

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=EVRA-lax

[beanie1983]

djc206 said:

Google “great circle route”

That explains it, Cheers :-)