Planespotting!

[escargot]

This is the police apparently searching over North Staffordshire right now. It's been doing this for hours.

Dunno what they're after but they haven't found it.

We were out on the bikes in an area where we could have looked for it if I'd known about it.

 

[Souleater]

This is the police apparently searching over North Staffordshire right now. It's been doing this for hours.

Dunno what they're after but they haven't found it.

We were out on the bikes in an area where we could have looked for it if I'd known about it.

View attachment 36326

An open doughnut shop?

 

[Sgt Girth]

I think they’re closing in on Lord Lucan.

 

[escargot]

A Welsh Air Ambulance G-WROL was flying northwest from Stoke. I reckon it's taken a casualty to the Neurosurgical Centre at the Royal Stoke University Hospital. Good work all round!

It's now landed at Hawarden Airport near Chester.
Nearby on the Welsh Hills is a Schempp-Hirth Arcus glider so maybe the Air Ambulance has an eye on that!

This morning an RAF Hercules breezed over our gaff on way south from Scotland to Brize Norton. Made a lovely sound.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Some gliding going on over Loch Leven in Fife, nice day for it too.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Balloon over South Africa - more about Loon Balloons here https://loon.com/

 

[Lord Lucan]

I think they’re closing in on Lord Lucan.

They won't find him there!

 

[Kondoru]

So this covers all flying things?

(As I have stated elsewhere several times, I do have wings, but they are just for sexual display purposes).

 

[Bigphoot2]

I was having a close up look at some bases in Antarctica and found this - a pair of DC3s! These planes seem to go on forever. Not sure about the other plane - could be a Twin Otter.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Looks like the military are snooping around Swifty's neck of the woods

 

[Mythopoeika]

Looks like they have snakes on that plane.

 

[escargot]

Looks like the military are snooping around Swifty's neck of the woods
View attachment 36683

Hahaha, I spotted Snake over there last week!

 

[Bigphoot2]

Hahaha, I spotted Snake over there last week!

They flew all the way down from Leuchars (which is now an army base) to fly around in circles. They must be getting really dizzy now.

 

[escargot]

They flew all the way down from Leuchars (which is now an army base) to fly around in circles. They must be getting really dizzy now.

Yesterday a Hercules went from Leuchars to Brize Norton via my gaff. We waved.

 

[escargot]

The East Anglian Air Ambulance is out too late too.

They are grand craft to track. Last night on Vera we saw a genuine Great North Air Ambulance helicopter.

Like birdspotting!

 

[Austin Popper]

Helicopters icons have revolving rotors!

t'other day I was 'watching' some USAF Ospreys doing practice manoeuvres over the Wash. (Next to Norfolk, near @Swifty )
They are awesome craft which sometimes show as helicopters on Flightradar.

You get to know which planes are going over. RVL Cessnas fly over Cheshire from East Midlands to the Isle of Man very early every day.
I got to know their cute names like G-BODY and G-SOUL.

When we're out cycling on the North Wales coast I point out planes that are climbing over the Irish Sea to Techy and say 'Look, that's just taken off from Belfast for London and it'll go over our heads and then over our 'ouse, and then over Escette's before it lands!'

He rolls his eyes.

For about three years, I lived about a mile from one end of the two or three mile long runway of an old SAC base in Kansas. The Air National Guard still used it as a base, so I saw lots of things flying in, out, and around the place. It was also a municipal airport with some scheduled service. The Guard flew aerial refuelers, KC-135 which is a 707 variant. They still had their old turbojet engines, so they were loud and distinctive. One time while I was on the phone, the conversation was interrupted by one of those. Without realizing I knew them so well, I said, "Yeah, that's a refueler taking off."

A hurricane threatened a base on the east coast one summer, a place where they flew C-5s out of. They all packed up and headed to Kansas for a week or so. Good god, those things are loud! I think they were the loudest plane in the world at the time.

One of my first trips as a charter bus driver was out to the old air base to welcome the refuelers home from the first Gulf War. The planes and most of the crews had been away for over a year, so it was quite a big deal. They arrived in two groups, five and four I think, flying in tight formation like the Blue Angels or something! 707s with their wings overlapping. That was a sight. I started carrying a camera with me after that.

 

[Bigphoot2]

Yesterday a Hercules went from Leuchars to Brize Norton via my gaff. We waved.

It's not the same around here since the RAF moved up to Lossiemouth. There was always interesting stuff in the skies - apart from the base planes- most recently Typhoons but in the past we had Lightnings, Phantoms and Tornadoes we also had a lot of interesting visitors over the years. I've seen Hercules, AWACs, C5s, Mirages (responsible for sightings of a "flying triangle" over Fife), F15s, F18s (bloody enormous - I didn't realise how big they were until I saw one). We'd also get exercises going on, I once saw two Jaguars doing a mock attack coming in very low over the Forth and then heading towards Leuchars. There would also be Hawks pretending to be cruise missiles during some exercises. They would fly beside another plane, usually an executive jet type and then "launch" themselves at Leuchars.
The sky's a pretty boring place around here these days

 

[Souleater]

It's not the same around here since the RAF moved up to Lossiemouth. There was always interesting stuff in the skies - apart from the base planes- most recently Typhoons but in the past we had Lightnings, Phantoms and Tornadoes we also had a lot of interesting visitors over the years. I've seen Hercules, AWACs, C5s, Mirages (responsible for sightings of a "flying triangle" over Fife), F15s, F18s (bloody enormous - I didn't realise how big they were until I saw one). We'd also get exercises going on, I once saw two Jaguars doing a mock attack coming in very low over the Forth and then heading towards Leuchars. There would also be Hawks pretending to be cruise missiles during some exercises. They would fly beside another plane, usually an executive jet type and then "launch" themselves at Leuchars.
The sky's a pretty boring place around here these days

A friend of mine used to live a mile or two from Heathrow, on the approach/take-off path, i swear i could see the pilots and passengers in the windows of the planes as they came in to land, the noise was horrific and the windows would shake in their frames, especially when the A380s were taking off.

 

[Bigphoot2]

A friend of mine used to live a mile or two from Heathrow, on the approach/take-off path, i swear i could see the pilots and passengers in the windows of the planes as they came in to land, the noise was horrific and the windows would shake in their frames, especially when the A380s were taking off.

We'd get a few window shaking moments at the height of the Cold War when jets from Leuchars would scramble to intercept some Russian plane that was getting too close to our airspace.

 

[Souleater]

We'd get a few window shaking moments at the height of the Cold War when jets from Leuchars would scramble to intercept some Russian plane that was getting too close to our airspace.

This is were my friend lived (red pointer, Heathrow runways highlighted in red)

 

[Bigphoot2]

About $6 billion at Pearl Harbour

 

[Sgt Girth]

It's not the same around here since the RAF moved up to Lossiemouth. There was always interesting stuff in the skies - apart from the base planes- most recently Typhoons but in the past we had Lightnings, Phantoms and Tornadoes we also had a lot of interesting visitors over the years. I've seen Hercules, AWACs, C5s, Mirages (responsible for sightings of a "flying triangle" over Fife), F15s, F18s (bloody enormous - I didn't realise how big they were until I saw one). We'd also get exercises going on, I once saw two Jaguars doing a mock attack coming in very low over the Forth and then heading towards Leuchars. There would also be Hawks pretending to be cruise missiles during some exercises. They would fly beside another plane, usually an executive jet type and then "launch" themselves at Leuchars.
The sky's a pretty boring place around here these days

I was Airfield Manager at Leuchars for a year or so...for my sins! Just around the time that the army moved in......I would call it a “character building” period in my life.

 

[Mythopoeika]

A friend of mine used to live a mile or two from Heathrow, on the approach/take-off path, i swear i could see the pilots and passengers in the windows of the planes as they came in to land, the noise was horrific and the windows would shake in their frames, especially when the A380s were taking off.

I have relatives who live right next to a runway at Heathrow.
They bought the house because they're plane spotters and it was cheap. The airport or the council gave them sound insulation and triple glazing as a compensation deal. I've visited them and could hear no noise at all from the airport.

 

[Souleater]

I have relatives who live right next to a runway at Heathrow.
They bought the house because they're plane spotters and it was cheap. The airport or the council gave them sound insulation and triple glazing as a compensation deal. I've visited them and could hear no noise at all from the airport.

My friend was staying as a guardian in an old nursery with single glazing and holes in the wall where extractor pipes used to be, the rent was extremely cheap for the area but it was freezing in the winter and very loud lol

 

[Bigphoot2]

Helicopters going out to the North Sea oil rigs from Dyce near Aberdeen

 

[maximus otter]

Navy disciplines aviators who drew penis in the sky

December 1, 2017

Two Navy aviators who used their EA-18G Growler to draw a giant sky penis over Washington State have been disciplined, according to Navy officials.

The aviators of Electronic Attack Squadron 130, known as “The Zappers,” set the internet ablaze last month after local reports emerged of sky-drawn genitals that upset some local residents.

“The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.”

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...sciplines-aviators-who-drew-penis-in-the-sky/

maximus otter

 

[Bigphoot2]

They're swarming

 

[Ascalon]

Navy disciplines aviators who drew penis in the sky

December 1, 2017

Two Navy aviators who used their EA-18G Growler to draw a giant sky penis over Washington State have been disciplined, according to Navy officials.


The aviators of Electronic Attack Squadron 130, known as “The Zappers,” set the internet ablaze last month after local reports emerged of sky-drawn genitals that upset some local residents.

“The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.”

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...sciplines-aviators-who-drew-penis-in-the-sky/

maximus otter

I have to say this is about as puerile as me giggling every time I read the designation"Growler".
[Sniggers].

Does anyone else find that a little amusing due to childhood slang usage?

 

[Souleater]

I have to say this is about as puerile as me giggling every time I read the designation"Growler".
[Sniggers].

Does anyone else find that a little amusing due to childhood slang usage?

A female of mine still uses that as a description for her delicate areas

 

[Ascalon]

In my experience it was the particular term used for the entirely unkempt examples that were usually to be found in the pages of certain publications that used to be "found" around the place when we were young.

Happy days.