5 x Dassault Falcon 20 - Prestwick
 

I was looking at FR24 playing bae

Some kind of training I guess?

Anyone any suggestions as to what they are up to? There was a Hawk in the same area too.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....38dbcaca8f.png

Hawk seemed to operate out of and returned to Aberdeen.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d530d574de.png

The Falcons were probably Cobham's.

Maybe this as it seems the screenshots show the 15th Oct. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/u...scottish-coast

4th - 15th so the screenshots could have been from the last day I believe.

For me it looks like a testflight after heavy maintenance

Military Exercise - Joint Warrior, well publicised these days !

The Cobham Falcons are often based at Prestwick.

The recently finished JW also had visiting participants from France and Canada based at Prestwick.

Been playing off the NE coast today as well, along with a pair of Voyagers and KC135s, hawks and things that were noisy but didn't have Mode S on.....ADSB exchange gives access to Callsigns and airframe info.

They likely had Mode S (but not ADS-B).

In the absence of Mode S, the only way to ID an aircraft (other than Mk.1 eyeball) is to correlate the Mode A squawk that ATC have allocated.

We used to ring the London mil assistant to find out what was wearing the interesting squawks that appeared now and then.....

There are Cobham Falcons based at Durham Tees Valley and they frequently work all over the North Sea.

https://www.teessideinternational.co...sside-airport/

We were staying in Uig (Skye) last week and 2 of the Cobham Falcons in close formation skirted the village at approx 500ft (wed I think at approx 1630-1700ish).
The day before we had 2x Hawks overfly us whilst walking around the little peninsula (An Aird) at Balmeanach Bay mid morningish (1000ish ??).
Lovely to see a little flying going on :)

Thanks everyone, that is interesting. I had no idea that these aircraft existed. According to Dave Reid's link they use the Hawks to simulate sea skimming missiles :-)

Sorry, I should have made the date clearer.

Regarding ADSB Exchange, does anyone know if it is possible to replay historic material on the map? I recently had a good look and didn't find anything.

Some years ago whilst I was doing a 6 month contract at Hurn,one of the Culdrose 'Fleet Requirements' Hawks flew so low over a Navy ship/through the ship funnel exhaust plume that he had a flameout on the engine,he pulled up and luckily got an engine relight - closely followed by a diversion into Hurn.
There is no truth at all in the rumour he had his girlfriend in the back seat :)
Hawks have a very small frontal Radar RCS which makes them ideal to play a 'missile'.

Certainly do!

In the early '90's I was "stitched up" to organise the Potential Officer Candidates who were visiting the FAA. The "win" was that, whatever I organised for them to do I got to do too (me being mere Engineer-filth (but who could fly gliders)!). Even if I say so myself, they had a brill couple of weeks - as did I . One of the highlights was a trip with FRADU, then based at Yeovilton. Flight Refuelling Ltd (Cobham) had the contract by then.

On my trip we were flying on a "Thursday War" off Portland in Hunter T8C WT772/875 against various ships. On the way out I'd mentioned I had flown gliders + had 10 hrs PPL training and so I was given control to have a play over Dorset while we awaited our Serial to begin. Nothing was said but it was great!

Eventually, into "war" we went and "low level" (this is below bridge height of a Type 42) was the order of the day. Unbelievably, as we rolled in for the 3rd or 4th run the immortal words "You know the score ... your turn! Ready? You have!!" and that was it.

Fortunately, Portland Radar had our Mode 3 readout as, half way in on my run we had "C/S XXX, check height!". Cool as a bl@@dy cucumber from the Pilot all I got was "Ease it up a bit H 'n' H, I don't want to swim if that's OK!" and I completed the run in.

To this day, I wish I had that Pilots name (he must be long retired now) - to thank him for his absolute trust in me that day. Clearly, my "playing" over Dorset had told him enough - and I went on to Instruct and fly commercially in several roles. But I still have the photos of that day which was, to be honest, the absolute BEST. Plus the memories of that whole flight are etched in my mind and soul still today.

Arrival back at VL for a few "touch and goes" by the Pilot the first "arrival" which was quite "firm" (but seemingly normal) to which I involuntarily said "Owch!". Pilot turned to me with a big smile under the mask "What's up H 'n' H, that was a b@@dy good touchdown!!!!! You should see a bad one!!"

To that Pilot, thank you Sir for an absolutely unbelievable hour or so in my life!!!!! Probably The best ever!

Living 4 miles on the approach to Teesside I have the pleasure of the Da 20s most week days, a fast and low return by a pair for a run and break sounds great. Or more fun when they get chased by up to three Typhoons.

Come on Hot 'n' High, we're waiting! :)

Some people!!!! ;) For I42! :ok: Excuse the non-David Bailey standard and, for some reason, at some point, I cropped the side view. Anyway, now scanned in. I see from some notes I dug up it was XF289 who was 875 at the time (seems nose codes moved as airframes came and went by the look of things). The flight was on 4th July 1986 (blimey, even longer ago than I thought) and was against HMS Gloucester (a Batch 3 Type 42 if you want full geek mode!!).

Most pix self-explanatory. The return is back to Yeovilton where, on the turn in to final, the ski jump can be seen to the left of the main Runway 27. Positioning on the run-ins against the ship was dictated by the PWO(A) on the ship who wanted us to fly various headings inbound and to pass ahead or astern but, IIR, it was almost always to pass ahead, presumably so the Sea Dart could track us. :uhoh:

Six weeks later I was on the Illustrious in Singapore for the latter part of Global 86 returning to the UK in Dec 86! Yes, I did do some work ..... honest! As many of my Staff Reports observed, "If cornered like a rat, H 'n' H will attempt to achieve something which at least appears on the surface to be something akin to "productive work". Sadly, though, such events are few and far between."

Happy daze eh!!!! H 'n' H :ok:


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1196533f3f.jpg
XF289/875 on the FRADU Line, Yeovilton 4/7/86
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....67a71d4403.jpg
Heading into the Portland Exercise areas
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....943e22e299.jpg
Low-level turn
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....aba68b7946.jpg
On a run-in against HMS Gloucester
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fef4c218fe.jpg
Bit high on that one .... but a good view from the bridge for the OOW
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6ca2d80518.jpg
Downwind for a Roller
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3e17c30a6b.jpg
Continuous turn approach
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5bb57e91e1.jpg
Rolled out on "short final".
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5988f59638.jpg
Safely back down ... or maybe just rolling again
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....aaedb200ce.jpg
1:45 after leaving the line it was, sadly, time to park up again.

Explains why I saw a variety of military jets flying low through the pass last Thursday as I climbed up the fells overlooking Grasmere.

Two Hawks came through followed about 30 mins later by what looked like Ospreys. Couldn't believe I was seeing tilt-rotors in the Lakes but makes sense if the Americans were in town.

jimjim1

Yes if you click on a target that is currently displayed. On the panel that opens to the left there is a caption marked "history" which you can click on to open a search function.

Cobhams G-FRAJ is 50 years old!

Is that the one that's one of the original FedEx aircraft? I think one is...