A question for you ATC guys

[adsvx220]

I was sitting in the garden earlier and noticed a reasonably low Boeing 747. Checked my flight tracker app and it turnt our to be an Atlas Air cargo 747. It was approx 6,000ft and I thought it may have just climbed out of LHR as I live underneath the main corridor in and out of LHR, so I'm used to low aircraft going over. But it turnt to have left Stansted.

My query is why would it have been so low 70miles from the airport. Would it have been to do with weight or just avoiding air traffic in and around the area.

As I've got a keen interest in ATC and general air traffic I would be interested why it was so low.

Regards.

[wildcat45]

I am not an ATC.

Possibly a ferry flight? Positioning the jet to another airport. With something like a 747 on a relatively short flight, would it be worth the fuel burn to get in high just to have it descend again after only a minute or two in cruise.

[djc206]

Did you see where it ended up? Might have been a positioning flight

[civicduty]

Could have been on the climb out of Brize Norton, think the RAF use it as a charter.

[MarkwG]

adsvx220 said:

I was sitting in the garden earlier and noticed a reasonably low Boeing 747. Checked my flight tracker app and it turnt our to be an Atlas Air cargo 747. It was approx 6,000ft and I thought it may have just climbed out of LHR as I live underneath the main corridor in and out of LHR, so I'm used to low aircraft going over. But it turnt to have left Stansted.

My query is why would it have been so low 70miles from the airport. Would it have been to do with weight or just avoiding air traffic in and around the area.

As I've got a keen interest in ATC and general air traffic I would be interested why it was so low.

Regards.

I don't work that airspace any more, but working on the basis it was a runway 22 departure, & generalising & simplifying a bit, I suspect it turned north to Barkway, then west, north of Luton, before turning south west at Westcott: that would put it below the stream into the Bovingdon hold for Heathrow at 7000': if it was heavy & didn't have the performance to get over that traffic it wouldn't get above 6000' until clear. Here's a chart showing the route:
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-...

[Slinky1989]

civicduty said:

Could have been on the climb out of Brize Norton, think the RAF use it as a charter.

Yup, saw it many times flying relatively low over Swindon last year at around 9pm almost every Tuesday.

[adsvx220]

MarkwG said:

I don't work that airspace any more, but working on the basis it was a runway 22 departure, & generalising & simplifying a bit, I suspect it turned north to Barkway, then west, north of Luton, before turning south west at Westcott: that would put it below the stream into the Bovingdon hold for Heathrow at 7000': if it was heavy & didn't have the performance to get over that traffic it wouldn't get above 6000' until clear. Here's a chart showing the route:
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-...

Looks like it did exactly that. I live about 7 miles from Westcott and it was flying over that area.

Many thanks!!

[MarkwG]

adsvx220 said:

Looks like it did exactly that. I live about 7 miles from Westcott and it was flying over that area.

Many thanks!!

Not worries, glad to be of help