A400M over the West Midlands?
 

Hello folks, One day earlier this week I thought I saw a A400M doing flybys over Herefordshire, in particular close to the Pontrilas camp. Did anyone else see this?

Some movements on the following.

https://twitter.com/70SqnA400M

A recent low level through the Usk Valley.

Trialing the Fulton recovery system so as to be able to recover the hooligans from locations not accessible by rotary CSAR I will wager :ok::ok:

Downwind in the Brize circuit?

Atlases have been very quiet of late - just one or two up and about.

For the last two days one has been pounding the circuit at EXT.

I didn't know that they could stay for so long:E

I had the pleasure here at Richard Burtonville a couple of days or so back.

Oh, and I saw a big arsed 'plane go over too!

RAF A400M through the Mach Loop - 5th January 2017.

They certainly have a distinctive aural footprint. Watched one flying N over W/Bassett mid-afternoon today, presumably heading back to BZN for tea ;) No mistaking that sound.

Another one over the land behind the Malvern Hills (4th Jan). Lovely clear blue day witnessed a good GH workout, almost to the point of being 'sporty', but the steep level turns did not progress to wingovers! Shame.

BDN62 (Gauntlet 62) has been floating around for the past couple of days including, Warton circuits.

One over Newquay area this morning about 10.15.
Glimpse through the low cloud as went from Newquay airport towards St. Austell and all went quiet. Few minutes later overhead again same route but cloud to low to see.
Some months ago spied one doing several touch and goes at Newquay.
Is that something regular?

Footage from the western side of the Talyllyn Pass 5 January 2017.

Thanks for the footage. Quite a large shadow at the 1.50 to 2.00 minute mark as it banks round. Those a lot cleverer than me could probably give a reasonable guesstimate of its altitude.

The original Spec called for this sort of thing to be flown by the autopilot.

It definitely sounds 'odd'. When under a bit of 'load' there's a hint of RR Dart to it I think.

Does it have an informal service nickname yet?


WWW

Grizzly? Fatlass?

It sounds like you might have known the 'Money Monster' at Marham...:hmm:

About 1.8x the apparent (foreshortened) wingspan, counting the pixels. Wingspan is given as 139ft 1in in open sources. 1.8*139 = 250.2ft.

Analyst comment: note that the a/c might be further away from the camera in the z-axis than is apparent, over the lower ground rather than the ridge. The apparent wingspan is foreshortened by the bank. Both of these might lead to an underestimate of its height over the ground.

Open sources show that the LFA 7(T) was active on 5th January, permitting low flying down to 100ft for operational training. When the LFA is not active, the lower limit is reported to be 250ft. We assess that the British are progressively building up the A400M tactical role capability; on this occasion they respected the higher 250ft limit although LFA regulations permitted them to go lower. Operating below 250ft in the active LFA would be an indicator of greater confidence in the aircraft and its systems, although the fact that the limit was observed with a high degree of precision (less than 1 per cent) implies they are making progress.