North east london spy plane?

[silverthorn2151]

This has been driving my old Dad bonkers for the last 3 years or so and I'd like to try and find him some information.

We live in Chingford in north east London> we are on, it seems, numerous flight paths and are used to having planes and 'copters of all descriptions overhead. the 'spy plane' as it's known is a little different however.

It appears, at random times slightly to the north and west of us, best guess is around the King Georges reservoir . It looks to be some form of twin engined turbo prop thing with high level wings and a fixed tricycle undercarriage. It arrives, stays at the same altitude and flys in lazy circles or ovals, sometimes turning quite sharply but never straying very much. It does that for 2 to 3 hours. Difficult to tell the altitude, Dad thinks 10,000 ft, I think quite a bit lower. Round and round it goes. I was with him last night and there is was before heading off west at 21:10. It doesn't show on flightradar24. It looks to be painted black.

Dad wonders if it some sort of relay point, but what for?


Any ideas anyone?

[Eric Mc]

Sounds like a police Turbo-Islander. I know Hampshire police have one.

[WestYorkie]

Think there was a thread similar to this I think. The result was it was a plane calibrating the ATC radars or some such.

[BigS]

Does it look something like this?

In which case it's something to do with radar calibration.


Link to airliners.net page
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Flight-Precision/Be...

Edited by BigS on Wednesday 30th June 14:22

[silverthorn2151]

That looks like it. I couldn't fins another thread, apologies for that. How often would the radar need to be cailbrated?

[TheEnd]

I did read about that fella before, some sort of electronic listening post

[BigS]

silverthorn2151 said:

That looks like it. I couldn't fins another thread, apologies for that. How often would the radar need to be cailbrated?

Pass, I only know they exist thanks to it being mentioned on here before, I have no doubt that someone in the know will be along soon

[Odie]

Ive heard its something to do with MI5 but im not entirely sure tbh.

Their is supposedly a helicopter that performs the same role over manchester. What the role is i have no idea. Ive not seen it near me and I live near where the police heli is based.

[silverthorn2151]

Eric Mc said:

Sounds like a police Turbo-Islander. I know Hampshire police have one.

it looks much more like this one than the other pic. I so want it to be something to do with MI5 rather than radar. Perhaps I'll tell my Dad that anyway. It'll give him and his old neighbours something to talk about in the garden!

If it is a radar plane, why wouldn't it show up on flightradar, or is that only commercial flights?

[Eric Mc]

Radar and other radio aids need to calibrated at each airport at least every couple of years. When I was a keen spotter we used to get the American FAA calibrating Dublin's ILS and radars almost every year. They used piston engin3ed convair T-29s for this.



In the UK, this type of work used to be caried out by CAA De Havilland Doves or RAF Argosies

[pic]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/4464127437_f5bff9ba45.jpg[pic]

[Eric Mc]

silverthorn2151 said:

Eric Mc said:

Sounds like a police Turbo-Islander. I know Hampshire police have one.

it looks much more like this one than the other pic. I so want it to be something to do with MI5 rather than radar. Perhaps I'll tell my Dad that anyway. It'll give him and his old neighbours something to talk about in the garden!

If it is a radar plane, why wouldn't it show up on flightradar, or is that only commercial flights?

FlightRadar only shows planes that are fitted with a certain types of radar transponder. Many smaller aircarft have no transponders at all and quite a few aircraft have transponder that FlightRadar doesn't respond to.

[Odie]

This might be of interest to you, check the photo

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-435355/...

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1041011...

Edited by Odie on Wednesday 30th June 14:40

[Eric Mc]

Odie said:

This might be of interest to you, check the photo

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-435355/...

He's standing in front of an Islander too

[Odie]

Eric Mc said:

Odie said:

This might be of interest to you, check the photo

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-435355/...

He's standing in front of an Islander too

http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1059174M.jpg

this fella same hanger doors too i think

[Eric Mc]

Odie said:

Eric Mc said:

Odie said:

This might be of interest to you, check the photo

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-435355/...

He's standing in front of an Islander too

this fella same hanger doors too i think

I've turned the web address into a link so the photo appears.

Looks like one of teh Army Islanders.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Eric Mc said:

Looks like one of the Army Islanders.

Could be. The Army received 10 IIRC, of which one was written off in 1999.

The RAF have 2, at Northolt. My guess, given the geographic location, is that it's an RAF one.

[TheEnd]

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=...

[mattviatura]

What I think is an Islander sometimes flies a pattern similar to the OP's description at night near here - all sorts of theories about sniffing for drug plants etc. but I bet it's monitoring heat waste and will be used to tax us at some point...

The smaller one (King Air?) flies very, very low and fast when it's calibrating and there's no way you'd mistake the two.