El Al LY1747 drawing a B747

[Beamr]

Left wing being formed currently. Someone obviously has plenty of time to spare
The concept of holding pattern has been revised.

[scr1]

Its to mark the last flight of a El Al 747 after 48 years of flying them

[Googlebug]

Environmentally what a waste.

[Airbubba]

Very nice!

[PENKO]

Bizarre. With passengers?? What a waste of time, fuel, sick bags...although one must appreciate the planning process, considering wind effects...

But, 200 kts ground speed at FL100 with a 747?

[Tech Guy]

Excellent way to pay respects to a superb aircraft

[dixi188]

I imagine you just enter all the waypoints and let the aircraft fly it.
200 kts makes the turns not too big.

[Less Hair]

No waste. They retire it.

[MaydayMaydayMayday]

Originally Posted by dixi188

I imagine you just enter all the waypoints and let the aircraft fly it.
200 kts makes the turns not too big.

That said, I'd be surprised if they were able to use GPS at 10,000ft in the Eastern Med at the moment! Every flight I've done into that region in the last six months has meant having the GPS systems completely jammed.

[gearlever]

Originally Posted by MaydayMaydayMayday

That said, I'd be surprised if they were able to use GPS at 10,000ft in the Eastern Med at the moment! Every flight I've done into that region in the last six months has meant having the GPS systems completely jammed.

So what.
ADIRS or how it's called on B747 should be good enough.

[BlueVolta]

Beautiful tribute for an airplane that made history.

The pax must have enjoyed being part of this little sketch in the sky.

It was probably not the most carbon neutral drawing but ELAL had a nice idea.

And I would have loved to be part of such a project, from the ops team who created the points, the crew who inserted them in the FMS and monitored the flight.

[N707ZS]

How long did it take? I tried replaying the flight and it came up with a sill time of just under 2 hours.

[macdo]

Great tribute!
Some on here have no soul!

[Beamr]

Originally Posted by N707ZS

How long did it take? I tried replaying the flight and it came up with a sill time of just under 2 hours.

I came up withe the same figure, started from the pointy end at 12:22 UTC and left the pointy end at 14:09 UTC.

[Espada III]

Think the total flight time was four hours FCO - TLV.

[Norway West]

Good show!

Personally I think ELAL and its pilots did a good job/show here, and a also fine gesture to the 747. Thumbs up!

[DaveReidUK]

Wing sweep is all wrong.

[physicus]

This is neat, if it was really done... What's ADS-B coverage at 10'000ft out in the middle of the mediterranean like? It isn't, that's what it is like... They must have supplied the track data to FR24 after the fact. Or just plain made it up in that case... who knows.

[sandos]

Originally Posted by physicus

This is neat, if it was really done... What's ADS-B coverage at 10'000ft out in the middle of the mediterranean like? It isn't, that's what it is like... They must have supplied the track data to FR24 after the fact. Or just plain made it up in that case... who knows.

Distance to horizon if you are at 10000 ft is about 122 miles. Seems to be less than that to cyprus in this case, so with a nicely placed receiver there (think mountain+tower) it should be no problem. Also I think theyve started with limited satellite based ADS-B sometimes.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by physicus

They must have supplied the track data to FR24 after the fact. Or just plain made it up in that case... who knows.

It was live on FR24, you could watch it in real-time.