Cool things seen on FlightRadar

[Scaleybrat]

First time I’ve seen a KC-46A in UK airspace

[RobbyJ]

Thought I’d seen it all till I spotted this a couple of days ago, a very interesting old bird!

[Mogsin]

I couldn’t see it on flight radar but I’m sure a U2 just flew over Cheltenham.

[naturals]

LP12 said:

Mildenhall is Military - it has TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) and ILS. There is no VOR/DME.

Every day's a school day. The only military fields I've been into are the Greek/Eastern European joint civvy/military bases - most of those don't have any navaids aside from a dude in a shed with some binoculars.

[Horsham558]

tonyvid said:

Interesting aircraft just went overhead here - i wonder what he is up to?

Hi Tony. Due to magnetic shift or something, Mildenhalls runway 29/11 has been re-designated rwy28/10. Judging by the comms on the scanner, this FAA Challenger was here today for the final certification. 1st flight in after the Challenger landed and confirmed all was good was a based Hercules that was given clearance to land on Rwy28 - he replied with a bit of a yelp!🙃

[LP12]

naturals said:

Every day's a school day. The only military fields I've been into are the Greek/Eastern European joint civvy/military bases - most of those don't have any navaids aside from a dude in a shed with some binoculars.

TACAN works similarly to VOR/DME but is a single beacon (if you have a DME receiver you can receive TACAN ranges). However while the TACAN radial system works similar to VOR it is not the same (and is far more accurate).

Edited by LP12 on Tuesday 25th May 15:01

[Master Bean]

Typhoon doing some sightseeing over Jordan.

[Andy_C77]

Master Bean said:

Typhoon doing some sightseeing over Jordan.

Yeah that’s been happening for about a week I think. I’ve seen it with another cargo type plane in the same area too.

[tonyvid]

Scaleybrat said:

First time I’ve seen a KC-46A in UK airspace

There has been one buzzing about for about a week or so, always into Mildenhall but it seems to go straight in so I've never seen it for real on the circuit south east of the airfield.

[tonyvid]

Horsham558 said:

tonyvid said:

Interesting aircraft just went overhead here - i wonder what he is up to?

Hi Tony. Due to magnetic shift or something, Mildenhalls runway 29/11 has been re-designated rwy28/10. Judging by the comms on the scanner, this FAA Challenger was here today for the final certification. 1st flight in after the Challenger landed and confirmed all was good was a based Hercules that was given clearance to land on Rwy28 - he replied with a bit of a yelp!??

Thank you! That's really interesting and will be a surprise to a few used to the old designations...what freq are you listening on please?

[yellowjack]

Horsham558 said:

tonyvid said:

Interesting aircraft just went overhead here - i wonder what he is up to?

Hi Tony. Due to magnetic shift or something, Mildenhalls runway 29/11 has been re-designated rwy28/10. Judging by the comms on the scanner, this FAA Challenger was here today for the final certification. 1st flight in after the Challenger landed and confirmed all was good was a based Hercules that was given clearance to land on Rwy28 - he replied with a bit of a yelp!??

I forget the detail, but "something, something there are actually three Norths, something, something Grid Magnetic Angle". Or something...

https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/a-t...

Knowing how to calculate and apply GMA changes is far less important generally now with the advent of GPS, and also I no longer navigate over distances where it's important to me, so I'm massively out of practice.

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 25th May 10:07

[yellowjack]

gobuddygo said:

Aero L-39 Albatros leaving Blackpool, never heard of one but i'm no expert.

There are a few about. There was this one which crashed at Duxford in 2002...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/...
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/171847

[MarkwG]

yellowjack said:

Horsham558 said:

tonyvid said:

Interesting aircraft just went overhead here - i wonder what he is up to?

Hi Tony. Due to magnetic shift or something, Mildenhalls runway 29/11 has been re-designated rwy28/10. Judging by the comms on the scanner, this FAA Challenger was here today for the final certification. 1st flight in after the Challenger landed and confirmed all was good was a based Hercules that was given clearance to land on Rwy28 - he replied with a bit of a yelp!??

I forget the detail, but "something, something there are actually three Norths, something, something Grid Magnetic Angle". Or something...

https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/a-t...

Knowing how to calculate and apply GMA changes is far less important generally now with the advent of GPS, and also I no longer navigate over distances where it's important to me, so I'm massively out of practice.

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 25th May 10:07

Sort of: that's why runways use magnetic north, compasses being based on magnetic. The reason they change is due to magnetic north being mobile, it moves by approximately 60km a year. Runway naming convention uses the magnetic bearing, rounded to the nearest deca-degree. As magnetic north moves, the runway number changes when the next number is closer. From memory IIRC, Heathrow, for example, has changed a couple of times over the last 50 years or so. Costs a lot in paint, & quite a bit in printing ink

[yellowjack]

MarkwG said:

Sort of: that's why runways use magnetic north, compasses being based on magnetic. The reason they change is due to magnetic north being mobile, it moves by approximately 60km a year. Runway naming convention uses the magnetic bearing, rounded to the nearest deca-degree. As magnetic north moves, the runway number changes when the next number is closer. From memory IIRC, Heathrow, for example, has changed a couple of times over the last 50 years or so. Costs a lot in paint, & quite a bit in printing ink

Thanks for the extra detail. I once knew the theory, and could apply it practically. But now I mainly restrict my map reading to navigating by roads and other PROW. So reference to the "movement" of Magnetic North away from Grid North by a few mils/minutes annually makes next to no practical difference to me when I'm out and about. Whereas, for a pilot trying to get an aeroplane onto a runway, I imagine such minor adjustments are absolutely vital. The GMA and it's annual rate of change are printed on UK OS maps...



...so you can multiply the GMA by the number of years since the map was published to come up with the GMA "today". I can't actually remember the last time I made that adjustment, though...

[naturals]

MarkwG said:

Sort of: that's why runways use magnetic north, compasses being based on magnetic. The reason they change is due to magnetic north being mobile, it moves by approximately 60km a year. Runway naming convention uses the magnetic bearing, rounded to the nearest deca-degree. As magnetic north moves, the runway number changes when the next number is closer. From memory IIRC, Heathrow, for example, has changed a couple of times over the last 50 years or so. Costs a lot in paint, & quite a bit in printing ink

Geneva changed their main runway a couple of years ago. I go in there a lot but it's surprising how quickly you forget the old number. I think the biggest cost is likely to be the signage. There are a lot of signs, particularly at the bigger airports like LHR.

[glennjamin]

United States is America plane now over Wales . Hope I've got screen shot ok ? First attempt of doing this .......AVLON01 https://fr24.com/AVLON01/27d2802d

[Horsham558]

tonyvid said:

Thank you! That's really interesting and will be a surprise to a few used to the old designations...what freq are you listening on please?

Hi Tony. Mildenhall Tower is on 370.25 and I'm sure that they check in on 369.80 as Lakenheath Approach. I'll have another listen to the scanner tomorrow and make notes.👍 ( scanner has far too many freqs saved so I'm not 100% sure yet re the approach.) Hope that helps.

[Horsham558]

RobbyJ said:

Thought I’d seen it all till I spotted this a couple of days ago, a very interesting old bird!

It's a lovely thing, 1975 vintage with quite a few mods and now operated by the fabulously named Missile Defence Agency! It's here for an exercise to monitor ballistic missile launches through its various lumps and bumps. I was lucky to be at Mildenhall when went out for its 1st mission since arriving some 10 days earlier. Spey powered so lots of noise and smoke., IMG_8590 by Andrew St Edmunds, on Flickr

[The Brummie]

Busy off the Norfolk coast tonight.

A KC-135, a trio of MC-130’s (two Commando II’s & a Combat Shadow II) & a Voyager not long departed back too Brize.

[anonymous-user]

Horsham558 said:

It's a lovely thing, 1975 vintage with quite a few mods and now operated by the fabulously named Missile Defence Agency! It's here for an exercise to monitor ballistic missile launches through its various lumps and bumps. I was lucky to be at Mildenhall when went out for its 1st mission since arriving some 10 days earlier. Spey powered so lots of noise and smoke., IMG_8590 by Andrew St Edmunds, on Flickr

Everything about this post is awesome.

Thanks for the info.