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

[treadigraph]

Looks like it may have landed at Ciudad Real? Is that a parking lot? Edit: yes it is...

Another B-52 out over Eastern Europe as LeMay 26 - good callsign!

Avanti D-INKY just passed by a few miles to the west and at 37000', they seem almo0st as noisy as the dreaded Fastlass!

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by treadigraph

Looks like it may have landed at Ciudad Real? Is that a parking lot? Edit: yes it is...

Yes, preceded yesterday by B-HLH.

[treadigraph]

Wot's that droning past? Why! It's an Antonov 26, UR-CQD! Not seen or even heard one in quite a while...

[TCU]

From my pad, 15m or so West of LHR, saw a BA 747 climbing in the clear blue sky on Monday morning....what a sight and sound. Seems from BA Source it was G-CIVP on her final flight to St Athan

[wub]

I managed to catch BA's last three 747s last Thursday, G-CIVP is at the top, wearing the One World livery

Here is G-CIVP taking me to Bangkok a few years ago

[SpringHeeledJack]

Did anything interesting fly over north London at altitude, descending East to West, I think around 15:30 today ? Sounded like more than one 'big' something and I was wondering if it was another B-52 flight (that I didn't see) ;-)

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack

Did anything interesting fly over north London at altitude, descending East to West, I think around 15:30 today ? Sounded like more than one 'big' something and I was wondering if it was another B-52 flight (that I didn't see) ;-)

One of the Fairford B-52s was certainly flying today.

[treadigraph]

A Turkish 737 TC-JYM went over N London about that time descending into Birmingham. I mention it as it went SE over London at about 6pm on its way home and was bloody noisy!

[Big Eric]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

One of the Fairford B-52s was certainly flying today.

It didn't fly over North London though as it was much further North, it went over Marham and then down the Daventry Corridor between 16.10 - 16.30 local time and landed at around 16.45.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Big Eric

It didn't fly over North London though as it was much further North, it went over Marham and then down the Daventry Corridor between 16.10 - 16.30 local time and landed at around 16.45.

Thanks for the update. Needless to say, the Buffs don't show up on the flight trackers.

Another possible candidate for the mystery flight was a TUI B738, also inbound to BHX (from Paphos) about 10 minutes behind the THY on pretty much the same track.

[TCU]

Originally Posted by wub

I managed to catch BA's last three 747s last Thursday, G-CIVP is at the top, wearing the One World livery

Here is G-CIVP taking me to Bangkok a few years ago

CIVO and CIVP operated a series of 7 repatriation flights from CPT-LHR, late May to early June (I was on VO on 27/5). VP flew the last flight on 4th June, so she may have been the last ever BA747 to carry passengers, albeit on a charter not a scheduled service. Apols for slight drift

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by TCU

VP flew the last flight on 4th June, so she may have been the last ever BA747 to carry passengers, albeit on a charter not a scheduled service. Apols for slight drift

In fact the last ever landing of a BA 747 at LHR.

[esa-aardvark]

Lots of Lakenheath & Marham jets all week, stealthy so not seen.
Rain today so nothing flying, or is it Friday off ?

[treadigraph]

The B-52s are out over Europe again, one heading back west towards Copenhagen, two more at play over Poland.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Another possible candidate for the mystery flight was a TUI B738, also inbound to BHX (from Paphos) about 10 minutes behind the THY on pretty much the same track.

Oh well, here's hoping next time! 4 of them currently tooling around Gloucestershire at 10,000ft at 16.40pm if anyone lives that way and the clouds are friendly.

Out of interest has the BOAC 747 been sent off to the scrapper, or is it being kept alive a bit longer ?

[Big Eric]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Thanks for the update. Needless to say, the Buffs don't show up on the flight trackers.

Yes they do show, this is 3 of them in the Fairford area just now (25/09/20 at 16.55 local) and a fourth has just landed.........................

[TCU]

Originally Posted by SpringHeeledJack

Out of interest has the BOAC 747 been sent off to the scrapper, or is it being kept alive a bit longer ?

G-BNLY was ferried LHR-CWL on 15th June. Perhaps Dave knows if she is still there?

[Big Eric]

Originally Posted by TCU

G-BNLY was ferried LHR-CWL on 15th June. Perhaps Dave knows if she is still there?

G-BYGC is the one in the BOAC livery, was ferried to Cardiff on 20/06 and is still there. G-BNLY is in the Landor livery, ferried to Cardiff on 15/06 and is also still there.

[renfrew]

Making it's distinctive noise a Ruby Star AN-12 just passed Glasgow en route from Vatry to Keflavik.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by Big Eric

Yes they do show, this is 3 of them in the Fairford area just now (25/09/20 at 16.55 local) and a fourth has just landed.........................

You're right, of course - what I should have said was that they don't send ADS-B, so the flight trackers don't get positional data from the aircraft, but some trackers make use of multilateration to estimate their location (with varying degrees of accuracy, depending on how many feeders are tracking the flight at any given time).

Interestingly, looking at my Mode S log, they also send EHS (Enhanced Surveillance) data, which includes groundspeed, track, IAS, TAS, etc. For example, LEMAY53 popped up at 09:33 on an initial track of 333° (heading 327°), before turning right onto 069°. Initial speeds noted were 166 kts GS, 206 KTAS, 191 KIAS.