USAF on holiday in Cyprus

[55palfers]

Landed at Paphos airport yesterday to see 7 of these chaps parked around the site.

Akrotiri must be full.

[Earthdweller]

That's actually Ryanair's new plane for high intensity holiday routes, O'Leary can fit 2000 passengers in the hold sitting on their baggage which they also have to carry on/off the plane themselves

If they need a pee the rear ramp is opened for them

Suits Paphos airport perfectly

[Slow.Patrol]

I find it quite odd how people's attitude to military planes differs.

We live near Salisbury plain and often get the AS400s flying over our house at 1000 ft.

Me, I'm like a six year old, straight out in the garden, getting a good look. Sometimes if the back is open, I wave at the guys standing at the edge.

Mother in law comes over full Greenham Common. Miserable cow.

[AbbeyNormal]

Earthdweller said:

That's actually Ryanair's new plane for high intensity holiday routes, O'Leary can fit 2000 passengers in the hold sitting on their baggage which they also have to carry on/off the plane themselves

If they need a pee the rear ramp is opened for them

Suits Paphos airport perfectly

Surely they just need a crate and a parachute. Open the doors and gently float in your RyanairHolidayHome(tm).

[thetapeworm]

We flew back from Prague at the end of last week and there were an assortment of US Blackhawks and Apache AH-64s sat out on the runway. I don't know if this is normal there or due to the current dramas.

[dandarez]

Slow.Patrol said:

I find it quite odd how people's attitude to military planes differs.

We live near Salisbury plain and often get the AS400s flying over our house at 1000 ft.

Me, I'm like a six year old, straight out in the garden, getting a good look. Sometimes if the back is open, I wave at the guys standing at the edge.

Mother in law comes over full Greenham Common. Miserable cow.

Being not far from Brize we sometimes get them low enough that you can almost waive to the pilot!
In fact, before he moved we had a C17 Globemaster pilot living opposite. That's a C-17 in the Cyprus pic above, not a A400 Turboprop.

Talking of being like a 6-yr old, I still recall lying with school pals, a couple yrs or more older, in front of the Brize Norton perimeter fencing in front of the runway in the late 1950s, watching the likes of Stratofortress's land and take off.
This was when the USAF was in charge at Brize (it was returned to RAF control in 1965). The Yanks back then patrolling the perimeter with armed guards but who were extremely friendly and chatty, especially to us kids. I doubt the pro-Palestinian crowd would have got even near the fencing back then, let alone inside the base!

[55palfers]

I'm hoping I get to see a few take off.
They'll have to fly right past our hotel.

[gareth h]

Slow.Patrol said:

I find it quite odd how people's attitude to military planes differs.

We live near Salisbury plain and often get the AS400s flying over our house at 1000 ft.

Me, I'm like a six year old, straight out in the garden, getting a good look. Sometimes if the back is open, I wave at the guys standing at the edge.

Mother in law comes over full Greenham Common. Miserable cow.

We used to live close to Upavon camp, the Hercs would come v low over the house when they were practicing short take off / landing, all the kids would be in the gardens waving

[Slow.Patrol]

gareth h said:

We used to live close to Upavon camp, the Hercs would come v low over the house when they were practicing short take off / landing, all the kids would be in the gardens waving

As a child I lived adjacent to RAF Abingdon. I had my bed positioned so I faced the window. I used to count Hercules and Beverleys instead of sheep.

[the-photographer]

55palfers did you notice anything strange with phone or car navigation?

There has been lots of GPS jamming across island

[Silver3ides]

Slow.Patrol said:

gareth h said:

We used to live close to Upavon camp, the Hercs would come v low over the house when they were practicing short take off / landing, all the kids would be in the gardens waving

As a child I lived adjacent to RAF Abingdon. I had my bed positioned so I faced the window. I used to count Hercules and Beverleys instead of sheep.

My dad now in a care home had not long joined the RAF , Posted to Abingdon when the Sutton Wick air crash happend, he was sent out to crash site with others .Pretty Grim stuff .

[Slow.Patrol]

Silver3ides said:

My dad now in a care home had not long joined the RAF , Posted to Abingdon when the Sutton Wick air crash happend, he was sent out to crash site with others .Pretty Grim stuff .

I had never heard of that crash. It was before I was born. As you say, grim.

I remember the barrage balloon exploding. We were on holiday and read about it in the national paper. Our neighbour's windows shattered, but our were intact.

[uk66fastback]

I lived in Abingdon for nearly 10 years and went through Drayton hundreds of times, mainly to Didcot train station. I had no knowledge of this Sutton Wick incident at all - this was Da80s though, before we could find out everything about everything.

[55palfers]

Another Globemaster just arrived in Paphos.