Interesting aircraft - what have you seen on your computer today?

[The AvgasDinosaur]

Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack

Got to love those AN12's, they keep on ticking along. A private 727-100 flew over Guildford this morning, not that you'd have seen it with the grey clouds, although the acoustics were good.

Any chance of the B.727 I/D please. For an FR24 novice, Please ?

[treadigraph]

B727 was VP-BAP, out of Europe for the US. Ex Pan Am -21.

[The AvgasDinosaur]

Thank you very much

[treadigraph]

Good day for slope soaring with the northerly breeze, couple of Lasham and Parham sailplanes enjoying the scarp slope of the South Downs at present.

Heard an AN-26 outta Brum at sparrow fart this morning, and two French Xingus just went over me out of Waddington. Very audible first one, second was further west and apparently in stealth mode.

[SimonPaddo]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Good day for slope soaring with the northerly breeze, couple of Lasham and Parham sailplanes enjoying the scarp slope of the South Downs at present.

Heard an AN-26 outta Brum at sparrow fart this morning, and two French Xingus just went over me out of Waddington. Very audible first one, second was further west and apparently in stealth mode.

Keep an eye out for my garden chairs please, they seem to be on the move ......

[treadigraph]

Blast! B-52 sailed over London about half an hour ago, I even possibly heard it but had just got in and was doing a coupla things. I console myself that there was a large wintery shower looking cloud lurking to the north so I expect I'd have missed it...

[treadigraph]

Noisy turboprop just went WNW south of London, prob an Antonov but not showing up - two flashing strobes under the fuselage it seemed, rather like the AN-124. Only went out to get a glimpse of the ISS...

PS and not the RAF Herc that's following a similar route, just approaching East Grinstead as I post...!

Edit: ah, Webtrak shows Strix 67 which'll be a USAF C-130J inbound Mildenhall, turned onto a Northerly heading as I fled back into the warmth, not visible on the ADSB sites for some reason.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Edit: ah, Webtrak shows Strix 67 which'll be a USAF C-130J inbound Mildenhall, turned onto a Northerly heading as I fled back into the warmth, not visible on the ADSB sites for some reason.

Possibly the one coming home that went on the reciprocal track, outbound from Mildenhall over London City (and audible) , at lunchtime.

[Stormonttrooper]

The other morning I saw an Airbus M400 come up on FR24 As it was a hazy blue sky I thought I would have a look but nothing visable,. just the sound of a Kingair type aircraft and a contrail of a four engine aircraft, but not showing on FR24 So I took a photograph and it turned out to be the M400 with contrails.

[treadigraph]

WHBM, could well be, heard that as I was walking home just before lunch. AN-26 outbound Brum at 7am this morning, served as an alarm clock for air-minded Londoners!

[MATELO]

Just been overflown (Newcastle Upon Tyne) by a FRATL heading South West at FL200. (FRATL - French Military Atlantique)

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

AN-26 outbound Brum at 7am this morning, served as an alarm clock for air-minded Londoners!

For me the perfect alarm clock are the first outbounds from London City each morning. Open at 0630, but the first of several departures typically lift off about 0650, which somehow penetrates through to me. A recent schedule variation has a nightstopping Luxair Q400 part of this initial wave, with of course a notably different sound to the Embraers.

[SpringHeeledJack]

There's been a few Hercs, both 'visible' and non today, there must be something on ;-)

Whilst looking upwards for the last one I spotted a large-ish red/orange blob, possibly tapering to the lower side. Amazingly i had a pair of binoculars to hand and for a short moment watched it as it passed overhead roughly in lockstep with the broken cloud around it. I'd like to think it was a balloon of some sort, possibly a weather/research type, my viewing angle was almost underneath so little perspective. As they don't show up on trackers, how does one find out ? Wind is coming from the North and this was over London at 14.00 local today.

[paulc]

Yesterday i saw 2 kc46 that did a circuit over london before headin back to Moron in Spain

[EGTE]

A Turkmenistan Boeing 737-800 EZ-A020 turned up at Exeter from Frankfurt late afternoon on Friday. There were a couple of visits from them in the summer of 2021 but not something that is common in this part of the world!

[Geezers of Nazareth]

Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack

There's been a few Hercs, both 'visible' and non today, there must be something on ;-)

Whilst looking upwards for the last one I spotted a large-ish red/orange blob, possibly tapering to the lower side. Amazingly i had a pair of binoculars to hand and for a short moment watched it as it passed overhead roughly in lockstep with the broken cloud around it. I'd like to think it was a balloon of some sort, possibly a weather/research type, my viewing angle was almost underneath so little perspective. As they don't show up on trackers, how does one find out ? Wind is coming from the North and this was over London at 14.00 local today.

SHJ, weathersondes don't show up on aircraft trackers as they do not carry the relevant electronic gizmos. However, check out https://radiosondy.info/index.php? and zoom-in to your area of interest. if there's a sonde in the air then it will show, and the track will show which way it is heading.
FWIW there are 'weekday' daily launches from Larkhill on Salisbury Plain at about 6am and again at about 10am. Further afield, there are daily launches from west Wales, Watnall (just N of Nottingham), Camborne in Cornwall, one from up near Newcastle and one from NI. There are other infrequent launches from Shoeburyness and Cardington, and Herstmonceaux in Sussex. All these different sites launch at different times, so there is an element of pot-luck involved. Ask if you need more info.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Thank you GoN! very interesting website. I'm amazed that the launcher/owner of radiosondes don't have to have at least a tiny transmiter on their payload to keep aviators aware of their course, as getting one of those sucked into an engine would cause a lot of damage. Is it that ATC can follow their track and therefore notify pilots to take avoiding action if required ?

[Geezers of Nazareth]

Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack

Thank you GoN! very interesting website. I'm amazed that the launcher/owner of radiosondes don't have to have at least a tiny transmiter on their payload to keep aviators aware of their course, as getting one of those sucked into an engine would cause a lot of damage. Is it that ATC can follow their track and therefore notify pilots to take avoiding action if required ?

The sondes are very light-weight, and the addition of 'another transmitter' would not necessarily help with them reaching their best altitudes ... also, they've been around much longer that 'high flying' aircraft have been around. Some of these weather sondes reach FL600 plus, so there is very little for them to bump into up there - it's the getting there and getting back down again which should be cause for concern. When you consider that the prevailing winds in the UK are from the west and south-west, launches from Larkhill often head towards London and the home counties, and are generally coming back down about 90 mins (plus or minus) after launch. They do have a small transmitter on them (402-406 MHz), but that is sending back to ground stations the metereological measurements and the position data (which is how they appear on the map on that web-site). Every launch site leaves the transmitter running for the entire flight ('all the way up', and 'all the way down'), but those from Larkhill (for some reason) are programmed to stop transmitting after about 75 minutes after launch, so their location data is lost as they pass back through the London CTZ - yikes!

The launcher/owner of these sondes is the Met Office; perhaps they don't know/don't care/don't realise the potential hazard to aircraft they are creating.

[WB627]

Hope the EasyJet SLF on these two aircraft enjoyed the combat manoeuvring on the way into LGW . I've never seen a flight path like that into LGW and then there are two at the same time . What's going on? Did the controller fall asleep, go for a comfort break, just doesn't like EasyJet or just forget where they were going

[c52]

Commoner is to go into a holding pattern about where the sharp right turn is but for these two flights obviously a 20 mile detour was sufficient.