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What's flying over your house


David Pearce 4
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Wherever I have lived in recent years I have been lucky to have lots of local aviation buzzing around, from Lightnings in Saudi, Herky Birds and Hunters overflying Cirencester and now lots of General Aviation in Churchdown. In fact as I sit in my study I can see anything from Stearmans, Piper Cubs, Stampes and plenty of small private stuff lining up on my window before they clear the chimney by about 50 feet. Smashing!

So what flies around your place and has anyone else been clever enough to persuade their wife that a house that’s in line with a runway is the one to buy? (Well it’s only a small runway!)

Cheers
David

(I started a similar blog on a plastic modelling web site in 2010 and it's still running with 1700 replies so far)

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If you download one of the apps to your phone, tablet, PC e.g. 'Plane Finder', 'Flight Radar Pro' ... other brands are available as they say .... you can sit anywhere (with an internet link) and just look up at the vapour trails and see what planes are over your head and where they are going to/from etc.

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Posted by Capt Kremen on 30/04/2014 15:26:28:

If you download one of the apps to your phone, tablet, PC e.g. 'Plane Finder', 'Flight Radar Pro' ... other brands are available as they say .... you can sit anywhere (with an internet link) and just look up at the vapour trails and see what planes are over your head and where they are going to/from etc.

Yes, got one of those but what about the small stuff you can see without binoculars? Tell everyone what's buzzing around your place.

Edited By David Pearce 4 on 30/04/2014 15:30:04

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I'm lucky to have nearly all the large civil stuff flying over to the USA and Canada from London and Western Europe so the menu is varied. During the summer months I always see the Red Arrows flying over (low!) on their way to one show or another. The strangest sight I've seen was a small con trail with what looked like smoke rings spaced evenly along its length that passed between two large cloud masses. The craft that was making it sounded like it was ripping every air molecule apart as it passed over. Trouble was it was so high that no shape could be identified and was only in sight for about 10 seconds. One of Uncle Sam's secret projects maybe?

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I live not far from Old Warden, Duxford is about 1/2hr drive away so see quite a variety of aircraft going back and forth, Cambridge Gliding Club is fairly close too, seeing about 15+ gliders in one thermal during a competition is something behold! Little Gransden is close by also, lots of Yaks there! See the Blades aerobatic team flying back and forth from Sywell. Military aircraft range from occasional Tuccano, Hercules, Apache, Puma, Chinook.

I used to live on the Somerset Levels, RNS Yeovilton about an hour away so had a lot of navy aircraft, Lynx, Seaking, Merlin, Hawks and Harriers. RAF Hercules, Tornadoes and Tuccanos. Various types of American military aircraft. Now all of these aircraft flew over at about 500ft or very occasionally treetop height! Sometimes you would see an aircraft approach then climb up sharply, our house had just been "bombed"! One day a Hercules at 500ft turned on his wing tip over the house, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

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Posted by Bill_B on 30/04/2014 17:06:06:

The strangest sight I've seen was a small con trail with what looked like smoke rings spaced evenly along its length that passed between two large cloud masses. The craft that was making it sounded like it was ripping every air molecule apart as it passed over. Trouble was it was so high that no shape could be identified and was only in sight for about 10 seconds. One of Uncle Sam's secret projects maybe?

That sounds like the fabled Aurora ramjet project, Bill..... You're in trouble now... No Men in Black outside your house, are there?....smile o

My plane-spotting consists mainly of Mirage F1's and 2000's; Alphajets; the occasional Rafale and Transall - even the occasional A400M out of Toulouse. Until the end of last year, A4 Skyhawks of the Royal Singapore Air Force out of Bordeaux were frequently seen. I do miss 'em.....sad

Last year had a pleasant surprise when a Hunter flew over at treetop height, en route back to Orange. A private company use them as target training for the navy.

Other than that, there's a bit of GA, including a Robinson which fortunately never overflies the house....smile

Pete

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Apaches on a regular basis. The occasional Chinook. Even had an Osprey in the distance a while ago and I think one was making a row the other night.

Then there is a Pitts Special but he is a club member anyway. Sometimes we see a Luciole.

Light aircraft also seem to use our patch as a turning point as it is very distinctive.

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Posted by Glenn Stratton on 30/04/2014 17:23:13:

I live not far from Old Warden, Duxford is about 1/2hr drive away so see quite a variety of aircraft going back and forth, Cambridge Gliding Club is fairly close too, seeing about 15+ gliders in one thermal during a competition is something behold! Little Gransden is close by also, lots of Yaks there! See the Blades aerobatic team flying back and forth from Sywell. Military aircraft range from occasional Tuccano, Hercules, Apache, Puma, Chinook.

I used to live on the Somerset Levels, RNS Yeovilton about an hour away so had a lot of navy aircraft, Lynx, Seaking, Merlin, Hawks and Harriers. RAF Hercules, Tornadoes and Tuccanos. Various types of American military aircraft. Now all of these aircraft flew over at about 500ft or very occasionally treetop height! Sometimes you would see an aircraft approach then climb up sharply, our house had just been "bombed"! One day a Hercules at 500ft turned on his wing tip over the house, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

Old Warden, Duxford! So far you are my top candidate for a house swap!

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Posted by Codename-John on 30/04/2014 18:17:42:

We get the police helicopter around here quite often

I thought we'd warned you about your dodgy deals... wink 2

I've got Heathrow around 15 miles to my NW and Gatwick a similar distance to my South, so it's mainly Boeings and Airbuses like Tony mentioned. In the old days Concordes were a common sight.

Quite a few A380s these days - there are usually about 3 of them departing LHR around 10pm-ish for various places in middle/far-east. I have my own ADS-B radio (cost less than a tenner!) plugged into a spare PC which feeds flightradar24.com - not that I guess they really need any additional coverage in this area! But it does mean I get flightradar24 premium at no charge... And I can also view the output from my reciever a few seconds ahead of flightradar24. I've just "seen" a BA 777 fly almost overhead at 9000 feet.

We also get a fair bit of helicopter traffic - we're close to one of the heli routes from Redhill into London, and as well as the civil stuff we also get the occasional Chinnook (usually in pairs) and even the odd Apache.

There's quite a lot of GA traffic too - especially over on Epsom Downs when I'm flying. Cessna 150s from Redhill are very common, but a few more exotic aircraft appear too - Yaks, CAPs, Extras etc. In the airshow season we occasionally get warbirds flying over - mostly Spitfires and Hurricanes.

Oh, and we too get the police heli occasionally. they haven't caught me yet though... smile d

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I live not far from Swansea Airport, lots of small private planes some fairly new some sound and look a lot older. When I was younger I jumped out of one.....with a parachute. More recently I had the thrill of flying one. However, occasionally this aircraft makes a rare appearance. Sorry it's not the best photo but I did have to rush to grab the camera, start it up and finally take the photo

biplane.jpg

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I obviously live very close to Glenn as I'm also very close to Old Warden, and even closer to Little Gransden; I regularly see a Yak doing aerobatics, Apaches and Chinooks are also frequent visitors, the last Chinook was so low that it disappeared behind the roofline of the house opposite! Last night at 21:10 I heard the sound of a single military jet and looked out the window just in time to see it flying NW; it was low, probably less than 1000ft and sounded like it was running close to full thrust; too dark to identify though.

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Since moving house last year, I'm just a mile or so away from RAF Northolt so it's mostly 32 sq. or the Queens flight as some know it, and private jets. If I had been here during the Olympics I'd have had the pleasure of the Typhoons that were temporarily based there.

Previously I was near Tottenham and that meant I had the pleasure of the police helicopter. Nightly... It was as regular as the shipping forecast!

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