Grumman Hawks

[Iolar]

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1004x607/forte_7e5c5d057f4acec3a585e59268ee890ce7048d05.jpg

The Grumman Hawk flights from Sigonella, Sicily are crossing quite busy airways and very close to Russian airspace. Cruising levels are in the mid to high FL500. Are they in radio contact with ATC?

[treadigraph]

Is there much else likely to be up at that altitude these days apart from the occasional U-2? None of the nearby civvy traffic is above 41000, there's an Austrian Global Express at 43000 over Greece. I think Concorde was the only civil aircraft ever likely to have been seen above 50000' - and NASA's B-57s of course.

[Iolar]

I was thinking more in the event of engine failure.

[Ninthace]

I was thinking more in the event of engine failure.Less of a problem than other traffic as ac is expenable. Turn away from traffic and crash at your leisure

[DuncanDoenitz]

Disclaimer; not my specialist subject, but,

With those wings, at FL530 (typical) over the Black Sea, would you be able to choose a diversion continent? In any case, I would have presumed that it could manage an excursion into controlled airspace as well as any other IFR aircraft. Doesn't it give its pilot a vicarious presence in its ATC environment?

[Ninthace]

They have to be managed to get up and down through traffic on every sortie. Managing an engine failure should not be insuperable.