Twin turboprop (Dornier?) over Slough

[Postman Plod]

A sufficiently unusual occurrence , despite being next to one of the busiest airports in the world, for me to post!

However a G-registered twin turboprop (White Dornier(??) with blue stripes Looked like it had a black radar housing under the belly) just flew north to south over Slough and the M4, over Eton, probably over east Windsor, circling east towards Heathrow, then north back over Slough / Langley, and then circling over Slough again before disappearing south.

Departures are currently off 27R so this flight may have conflicted (however living next to Heathrow means you tend to block out aircraft noise, so it may have been alternating beforehand, and I didn't notice)

Hmm, now just had a helicopter seem to transit south to north at medium level, rather than the usual low level route they'd take when transiting the departure corridor

I cant say I've seen this happen very often??

[HZ123]

Can only be one of the MAF ones (Ag and Fish) checking out illegal fishing at the reservoirs.

[Postman Plod]

It certainly looked just like a MAF Dornier, and it would have been flying in the resovoir area, but surely they wouldn't send an aircraft with all the likely disruption and expense it would cause, when a couple of blokes in vans could probably have done the job just as well??

[Bondyboy63]

Busiest airport in the world ???

[MacBoero]

Could be an aerial survey plane, getting those pretty ground images used in things like Google Earth and maps. Often referred to as satellite images, when in reality very few of them are.

[Seloco]

The fact is that there is still a week to go before the start of the coarse fishing season, but there will always be some over-keen enthusiasts who insist on starting a few days early in order to get an advantage over the fat ones with a misguided sense of their own safety.

Both the Queen Mother and Wraysbury Reservoirs are well known for harbouring immense and valuable perch and bream that have spent the winter swimming quite near the surface, gathering all sorts of information on local aircraft movements. As such they represent a very desirable catch, and "foreign" elements will go to great lengths to bring these in before the general public can get near them.

The MAF flights therefore focus on these particular reservoirs at this time of year, and are demonstrably successful in keeping enemies away. Whilst there have obviously been interceptions in the past that have been kept secret on the grounds of national security, it is common knowledge that no Russian Trawlers have been spotted on either stretch of water now for several years, showing the huge deterrent effect of these surveillance flights.

[xtypeman]

Could have been out of Fairoaks. Mann use to have the 228 on there 145.

Amusing story when Air Wales first got a Dornier 228 the aircraft went to Fairoaks for maintenance every 100 hours. On one departure once handed over to Farnborough asked to expedite departure due to a Spitfire just taking off(scrambling)........:eek:

[Dannyboyblue]

Not seen that one at Fairoaks before, but the Welsh ones went about 4 years ago when Air Wales sold them.

I think since then i've only seen 1 other German reg dornier in.

DBB

[Scuzi]

It was one of those flights that gets airborne and does it's own thing. Even the controllers don't know what it's going to do apart from the level it's maintaining.

Heathrow departures were suspended for about 5 minutes until it finished doing what it had to do and went elsewhere.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Seloco - shhhhhhh... don't tell 'em too much!

[603DX]

Posts #2, #3 and #6 refer to MAF(F), the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Since 2001 this has become the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). All part of the mania for re-naming as many of the familiar public bodies as possible, which seems to have afflicted our present government, in my opinion.

[BYALPHAINDIA]

Ill go & get me 'ROD' then.:zzz::oh:

[Seloco]

On a more serious note than my previous post.....

A news item on the radio this morning reminded me that the extent of cannabis growing in domestic premises has been increasing hugely. Some of these operations involve the conversion of large areas within ordinary houses for cultivation, and require a major electricity supply for continuous light and heat. Growers have usually bypassed the electricity meter, so the only way to detect these properties is through remote sensing of their very high heat signature. This can be carried out through aircraft-borne infra-red technologies, so maybe the MAF/DEFRA Dornier was trying to locate the Slough Pot factory?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Unless this has started in the last few years, I never heard of MAF aircraft flying around the reservoirs and I cannot imagine they would be approved. It would cause untold problems for Heathrow traffic and I never saw anything resembling such flights during my years there.

Unless someone who really knows can confirm all this I'd take it with a pinch of salt. However, the are similar aircraft engaged in other high-priority operations around London.

[Postman Plod]

Having looked up a pic of the MAF / DEFRA Dornier, i'm fairly certain thats exactly what it was. Having lived overlooking the northern rumway arrival / departure for 8 years, and having worked from home for 3 of them, you do learn to tune out the normal departures / arrivals / motorway / road traffic, and get attuned to something unusual (Go Arounds, helicopters, etc). This was definitely unusual!

I'm crap at giving aircraft heights, but I would have said it was flying in the 2500 -4000ft bracket, circling once towards Heathrow, before heading off south. I'm sure I'd tuned out any departures before this time, there were no departures during this time (probably 5 mins max), but certainly departures afterwards were on 27R, so it would have disrupted anything leaving Heathrow for that period - probably even on 27L.

I would have thought any areal survey work would have been carried out at a higher level - certainly higher than any departing or arriving traffic - and would have required more than 1 pass. I can't honestly believe that it was doing a patrol of the reservoirs - I can't believe that anyone would have thought it would be worth the amount of disruption it would cause, and couldn't be achived more effectively and for less money on foot / van.

So any other guesses? :}

[Seloco]

So any other guesses?

PP: if you can tell me what lies behind the low profile fairing underneath the Dornier's fuselage then I will happily guess at what it was looking for!

However, without knowing what sensors it has, it is diffficult to know what it might be equipped to detect.

On the other hand there already seems to be a black car parked outside my door so maybe I got it right the first time!:=

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

One of the Heathrow radar controllers was with us for the last few hours and confirmed not being aware of any such flights over the reservoirs.

[Scuzi]

I doubt very much it was MAF given that it was a category B flight and stopped all departures from Heathrow for over 5 minutes as well as getting in the way of everything else in the TMA throughout the day! Or maybe fish are more important that I thought...:suspect:

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

10pm news on the Beeb had a feature on an aircraft being used to survey areas subject to flooding. See here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7447221.stm

Obviously not a Dornier 328, but it does have blue lines on it. Could it have been that?

[airmail]

HD - You mean this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7447221.stm

[Postman Plod]

I'm fairly sure (2 days later! :)) that the lines were horizontal light blue, as per the MAF Dornier.

It could have been some kind of survey flight, but I guess I would expect such flights to have been at a higher altitude, and carried out in some kind of consistent survey / search pattern, rather than a single orbit? Had it done another orbit I would have gotten a picture!

It was low enough to read the registration under the wings quite clearly, although my eyesight is rubbish and I didn't get the binoculars out in time.