Flight Tracking Services - Interesting Observations

[blackfive460]

As for the Hawks in general they're the RAF jet training aircraft, based out of Valley on Anglesey and Leeming in Yorkshire.

Sorry for going into pedant mode but since the disbandment of 100 Squadron, the 9 Hawks based at RAF Leeming (Hawk T2A) are part of 11 Squadron and mainly used for training Qatar Emiri Air Force pilots jointly with the RAF.
The majority of RAF pilot fast jet training is concentrated on 4 and 25 Squadrons who have 28 Hawk T2 aircraft at RAF Valley .

 

[Bigchris]

I hope this is the right thread to put this in (I've never used this part of the forums before!), but I was looking at FlightRadar24, and saw this flight: https://www.flightradar24.com/SARAB11/311e1f1b

I'm by no means an aviation expert, but I've been hearing loud planes going overhead these past couple of days (as well as seeing a couple flying past earlier today) and was able to find the tracking info for this one just now. Does anyone happen to know what sort of thing it might be doing? I've never looked into aviation enough to have even the slightest idea what it is, so I thought it was quite interesting. I'd really appreciate any explanation!

Thanks in advance,

-Peter

EDIT: I've also just seen this one, which is apparently a US plane. Never seen one of those round here before! Would anyone happen to know what it's doing?

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

View flight from Ramstein to Fairford on Flightradar24

www.flightradar24.com

The Hawk is from the joint Qatari Air Force training Sqn at RAF Leeming. The other one is a Learjet C-21A, US Air Force Europe used as a VIP transport. I've seen it at RAF Northolt a few times as that's a regular spot for military VIP flights.

 

[DaleCooper]

There's a lot of balloons over the low countries at the moment.

 

[Iskra]

Can anyone offer an explanation for what this aircraft is doing please?

 

[ainsworth74]

Can anyone offer an explanation for what this aircraft is doing please?

Expect Bing or Google to have updated "satellite" images of that area in the near future would be my suggestion!

 

[Ediswan]

Can anyone offer an explanation for what this aircraft is doing please?

Appears to be operated by "SLAGBOOM & PEETERS AERIAL SURVEYS.".

 

[Iskra]

Expect Bing or Google to have updated "satellite" images of that area in the near future would be my suggestion!

Yes, that would make sense

Appears to be operated by "SLAGBOOM & PEETERS AERIAL SURVEYS.".

Thank you

 

[PsychoMouse]

Can anyone offer an explanation for what this aircraft is doing please?

View attachment 142024

May be helpful for the future.

 

[Iskra]

May be helpful for the future.

Informative, thank you!

 

[Mojo]

I heard this plane fly over me in the north of England yesterday afternoon at 19,000ft and wondered what the hell it was doing.

It did a few loops after leaving Dublin, presumably to burn fuel; thought it would have returned there but in the end it diverted to Cologne (at the time I looked it was still shown as going to Antalya). It flew most of the way there at 19,000 ft. Guessing it had some sort of fault and the airline wanted it to not be stuck in Dublin, what sort of things would cause it to only go at 19,000ft.

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

View flight XQ533 from Dublin to Antalya on Flightradar24

www.flightradar24.com

 

[PsychoMouse]

I heard this plane fly over me in the north of England yesterday afternoon at 19,000ft and wondered what the hell it was doing.

It did a few loops after leaving Dublin, presumably to burn fuel; thought it would have returned there but in the end it diverted to Cologne (at the time I looked it was still shown as going to Antalya). It flew most of the way there at 19,000 ft. Guessing it had some sort of fault and the airline wanted it to not be stuck in Dublin, what sort of things would cause it to only go at 19,000ft.

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

View flight XQ533 from Dublin to Antalya on Flightradar24

www.flightradar24.com

Pressurisation failure I'd guess. Cologne is potentially a maintenance base for them so they'd have a spare aircraft and they can fix the tech one.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Pressurisation failure I'd guess. Cologne is potentially a maintenance base for them so they'd have a spare aircraft and they can fix the tech one.

Given it climbed to 19,000ft after the orbiting and remained at that level for the entire transit, wouldn't that indicate something else? Don't they usually stay at no greater than 10,000ft with any kind of pressurisation failure?

 

[PsychoMouse]

Given it climbed to 19,000ft after the orbiting and remained at that level for the entire transit, wouldn't that indicate something else? Don't they usually stay at no greater than 10,000ft with any kind of pressurisation failure?

Not entirely sure to be honest, I can't think of much else which would necessitate a lower altitude but then still be able to fly a couple of hours. But yeah, 19k feet would be very high for cabin pressure issues.

 

[Cloud Strife]

I heard this plane fly over me in the north of England yesterday afternoon at 19,000ft and wondered what the hell it was doing.

It did a few loops after leaving Dublin, presumably to burn fuel; thought it would have returned there but in the end it diverted to Cologne (at the time I looked it was still shown as going to Antalya). It flew most of the way there at 19,000 ft. Guessing it had some sort of fault and the airline wanted it to not be stuck in Dublin, what sort of things would cause it to only go at 19,000ft.

Burning fuel, probably. FL190 (19,000ft) would be out of the way of most flights, while FL190 would allow them to burn off more fuel than if they were flying at cruise. It's likely that they chose to circle over the Irish Sea while they did the calculations so that they wouldn't have to circle over the very busy airspace in that part of Germany.

 

[Iskra]

I’ve just been watching these two Canadair- CL415 aircraft dipping into the sea to fight some local wildfires on the Ionian Coast, Italy- very impressive stuff!

 

[Bigchris]

Not flying right now but if anybody is interested there are 4x US Army Chinooks operating out of RAF Northolt this week.

 

[Iskra]

Not flying right now but if anybody is interested there are 4x US Army Chinooks operating out of RAF Northolt this week.

Ah, I saw one fly North over my work in Sheffield last week, but presumed it was RAF. Skycanner said it had come from Northolt but didn’t show where it was going.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Well... this is not a normal calibration pattern is it?

Normally it would be either a large perfect circle or a search grid type pattern... never seen this sort of pattern before.

Looks to me like it's testing the approach system at Heathrow in some way, but what would the north and south deviations be for?

 

[Ediswan]

Looks to me like it's testing the approach system at Heathrow in some way, but what would the north and south deviations be for?

Possibly to verify that the localiser signal is present and correct across its full design width.
See page 5-2 here: https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/defau...tional-notes-on-instrument-landing-system.pdf

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Possibly to verify that the localiser signal is present and correct across its full design width.
See page 5-2 here: https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/defau...tional-notes-on-instrument-landing-system.pdf

Interesting, thank you. That would also explain the non-standard altitudes being used.

 

[PsychoMouse]

Interesting, thank you. That would also explain the non-standard altitudes being used.

Likely to be some sort of ILS calibration rather than VOR or localisers, note the straight in approach to the runway from both ends.. They have to get certified every so often.

 

[Ediswan]

Likely to be some sort of ILS calibration rather than VOR or localisers, note the straight in approach to the runway from both ends.. They have to get certified every so often.

The localiser is part of the ILS.

 

[Bigchris]

2x Typhoons Wolf11 & Wolf12 over West London right now, military exercise at Heathrow tonight.

 

[AndyPJG]

Currently over the Dover Strait, clue is the operator! (Attachment shows Coastguard Beechcraft aircraft patrolling/searching at 2,300 ft over the Dover Straits)

 

[gabrielhj07]

Found the following on Twitter. G-TTNB was involved also.

 

[AndyPJG]

Due to the stormy weather, several planes doing go-arounds at Heathrow tonight. One has had do do 2, but landed OK on third approach.

{picture shows FlightRadar24 plot of plane route, with go-arounds and holding pattern over Orpington area}

 

[DustyBin]

Strange call sign!

 

[DaleCooper]

Strange call sign!

View attachment 154268

Perhaps it's a tribute to Hercule Poirot, he was Belgian.

 

[DustyBin]

Perhaps it's a tribute to Hercule Poirot, he was Belgian.

I hadn't thought about that!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

OK, this technically doesn't fit the topic since it was suppressed from Flight Radar 24, but one of the Emir of Qatar's pair of A320s, A7-AAG, was at Heathrow yesterday morning 27th July. Being suppressed from Flight Radar 24 doesn't stop one from photographing it close up*, though...


*Close up being defined as a 3rd floor runway view room at the Rennaisance.

( NB The pictures are still in the camera - I'll get them out within a few days and edit them into this post. )