Biman DC10 Flights
 

I was a passenger on the flight at noon yesterday and am trying to establish where we flew.

Departure runway was 33 and tracked out pretty close to runway heading. Looking at the AIP it would be consistent with a Whitegate SID.

At some point we were joined by a chase plane, a US registered Beech 99, for air/air photographs. During these we flew a number of 360degree turns.

I suspect we were over Shropshire and the Welsh Borders but have been unable to confirm as the a/c does not show on FlightRadar 24.

Does anyone have any concrete facts?

Hi Airbanda, I am flying over tomorrow from Cork for the day for a flight on the DC-10. As I am being expected to get some merchanise etc is that facility in place for trinkets, cups and the like?

Thanks & greetings from Cork.

I was on the same flight, I have to say you were keeping track of the turns a lot better than I was.

I have it on the authority of one of the American enthusiasts (who had come from Dhaka, and had links to Ian Allan tours) that we were in military airspace out to the west (Welsh border somewhere). They had supposedly opened it to allow the chase plane to take photographs.

Not sure on the truth in this, but it fits with what was said in the Birmingham thread on Thursday:

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...ml#post8330475

Today it's flying up to MARGO then turning South back towards the MCT

I have watched some of the flights on flight tracker and the ones I've seen have all headed up to Scotland before turning south back to BHX.

Airbanda - we watched your flight depart and then tracked it on Flight Radar until it disappeared. You went directly NW then turned W tracking just to the North of Snowdon and out over the Irish Sea.

We were on the 1500 flight which took off on Runway 15, turned left and tracked NW to a point just to the NE of Keswick, before turning left and tracking SE back towards Wolverhampton, then E to Lichfield before flying an orbit and turning finally SE for an approach to 15.

I don't know about you but I was glad to be back on terra firma! The old girl looked like she was ready for the big hangar in the sky!

Also forgot to mention that BG002, the 9.00am morning flight, on Saturday reportedly went as far as Lockerbie

Thanks for responses.

We were over broken cloud throughout except for about 5 mins complete cover. That must have coincided with coasting out as I never saw ocean below. Some heavier cloud cover and presence of the odd lenticular formation is consistent with a proximity to Snowdonia though.

Mil airspace over the borders tallies with my 'feel' for where we were, presumably keeping east of the Brecon/Knighton/Wrexham airway (Amber25 in my spotting days).

A full video of the flight is available for anyone who is interested. One of the passengers (charlest103) filmed the whole thing!

Anyone get any air-to-air of the Beech 99...I was in it!

I have no idea when BG002 routed on Sunday as most of my fellow passengers were poking about the interior and having their photos taken with the cabin crew, pointing out the Canadian Airlines and Singapore Airlines logos on various bits and pieces and generally wandering about with a silly smile on their faces.

Such fun!

These flights certainly dispelled the theory that electronic equipment can interfere with the aircraft systems. 150 people on our flight and at least 150 individual electronic gadgets in constant operation filming take-off, landing and taking photos of every nook and cranny througout the cruise! :ok:

Hi Matspart3 there are some photo's of the beech 99 from the DC-10 here :


Biman DC10 Farewell Scenic Flight — Trip Reports Forum | Airliners.net

Quite a lot of extensive coverage on BBC Midlands Today and ITV Central, last night.

BBC Player available for a few more hours.

BBC iPlayer - Midlands Today: 24/02/2014

I too was on the 'air to air' flight, was treated to lots of power changes, slat popping, banks climbs, dives and spoiler activations-wonderful stuff. Until I saw the Beech alongside us, I had no idea what we were up to, I just assumed it was a wild ride for us enthusiasts!
Someone on board told me we were in 'Military Airspace', and after getting home that night I was sent this by a friend of mine who plotted the flight-I cant vouch for its accuracy, but it seems to fit pretty much what we did?!
Bill

http://www.pprune.org/[IMG]http://i....om/W2wD7YI.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/W2wD7YI.jpg

I got loads matspart3, here is one to start with :O

You looked great from our viewpoint, we must have looked awesome from yours!
Where and when can we see your results??

http://i.imgur.com/lfgPn2K.jpg

Diverskii, I enjoyed the video. I get the impression from the fluctuations in engine power through most of the flight that the PF was also enjoying probably his last chance to fly the DC10 and hand flew it most of the way. Good for him :)

Doors to Automatic, Most electronic equipment like cameras, laptops, I-pods and so on don't cause any interference to flight instruments or comms. They operate at much higher frequencies than the radios or avionics operate at. They also produce very little RF.

Transmitting devices such as mobile phones and radios do interfere with radio communications. A transmitting device or even just an RF receiving device such as a little FM radio could cause problems with the avionics especially if they are both working at the same frequency, which is why they are not allowed to be used on an aircraft. I could go into more technical details, but I would most likely bore you all to death with it.

That plot looks pretty accurate. Not sure where/when the official pics will be up but I'll post when I do.