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What's flying over your house


David Pearce 4
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A bit different here. We are in the Lot valley and get low flying which is superb for me! - Tucanos, Alphas , Jaguars, Rafales , Mirages F1s, 2000s etc, Transaals ... and once not that long ago a two seat Harrier and a vintage Fouga-Magister! Helis - Gazelles, Cougars and Gendarmerie Helis too.

With Toulouse not too far away in flying terms we also get (at a higher altitude!) Airbus 380 and A440Ms test flying - usually low speed handling. Plus the Belugas bringing in the wings from UK.

Directly across the valley from us is a tourist hot-spot so when military low flying isn't happening we get 'air-tourists' which come over the house across the valley and do one or two circuits of St Cirq Lapopie and off again. These are mainly Pierre Robins of various specs plus, ULMs (Micro lights), Robinson helis, Motorised paragliders and quite a few auto- gyros (noisy but they fascinate me!). Sometime hot air balloons early in the morning.

What do I miss - the chance that occasionally I will rush outside for the sound of a Merlin. Been here 6 years and never seen a WW11 aeroplane let alone a Spit or Hurri!!

Terry

 

Edited By Terry Walters on 01/05/2014 07:53:07

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We are bang on the center line six miles out from Newcastle airport and the aircraft are around 1200 ft when they come over us.

The biggest one at the moment is the Emirates 777 from Dubai,the rest are run of the mill A320, 737,757 and the smaller city hoppers Dash 8 etc.

Flight radar 24 keeps us well informed as to what's overhead.

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I am located on the Heathrow flight path and also not far from Biggin Hill,Redhill and the defunct Kenley and Croydon aerodromes. A few years ago our house was circled at least three time by the Lancaster at low level -I just looked in awe but did not manage to get my camera in action,I was mowing the grass at the time!. I saw the last flying Concord just. Many of the Biggin Hill air show planes fly over including those show-offs the Red Arrows-brilliant. When I lived in Thornton Heath as a youngster virtually every plane that flew over was propeller driven. However,I remember being alerted to an over- flying Comet 1 and later a B47 Stratojet. I can also remember there was a regular night time flight of a piston engined plane. After it passed over our house you could hear the engines droning away for ages-superb!

MJE

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Posted by cymaz on 01/05/2014 12:22:39:

When I was young we used to live near St. Mawgan Aerodrome. Nimrods on night excersises use to turn over our bungalow and the lights used to shine into my bedroom window...it's made me who I am today...face 7face 17

Have you thought of suing the MOD?teeth 2

Pete

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I was born in the tiny village of Austerfield, right at the end of R.A.F. Finningley runway. Plenty of Chipmunks but of course this was still No.1 Bomber Command (Bawtry) so all day and most of the night, Vulcans! They flew in a direct line over our tiny school (25 children) and straight over our house, take off and landing. Our house had cast iron windows which cracked the panes ever few days, my Mum called a free number from the local call box and they were replaced same day! What a pleasure and indeed now a privilege to have seen so many of these wonderful beasts, to this day I actually miss them. I no longer live there, not that it matters anyway as it is now Robin Hood airport, but I saw the last Vulcan fly over my present house a couple of years ago on its way to the Lowestoft show, it was very close to tearjerker ! To me they as much a wonderful work or art as an aircraft, just so gracefull across the summer skies, at times so often we didn't even notice them, apart from the slight noise.

I became an aero modeller, can't for the life of me imagine why?

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Security!!? Forgot to say, used to cycle down the side of the runway, and more than once at around 8 years old, climbed up the ladder and sat in the cockpit as they sat on the apron. M.P.s would come and put us and our bikes into a land rover and drop us off outside the gates, all done laughing and joking, "see you next weekend boys" . Imagine that today? No! 60's innocence. We got into the annual air show every year for free, climbed over the 3ft wire fence, all the M.P.s new us and thought it was a big joke.

What memories.

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I'm glad I started this, great response.

When I was a boy I lived in Chippenham and if I watched out of the front window I saw Comets and Britanias from RAF Lyneham. If I looked out of the back it was Hastings in circuit over RAF Colerne. I cycled out to both and saw the first C130Ks Hercules on delivery at Colerne. I remember seeing 9 Hastings in box formation, lovely sight and sound. Always fancied an RC Hastings...

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What's flying over my house ... well today it's everything which is departing from Manchester.

The wind is out the East so all departures are lifting off from 05L, I'm about 2 miles from the end of the runway and a couple of hundred yards south of the extended centre line so everything is coming near enough over the top of us. In fact anything heading south is usually starting turn right immediately over head so we get a great view the undersides.

It can get quite noisy, to the point where you can't have a telephone conversation, but it doesn't bother me, since I've made a living for 25 years putting fuel on these very aircraft.

If I want to see anything interesting of the GA type then its a 20 minute trundle down the M60 to Barton or City Airport Manchester as it now calls itself!

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Posted by Codename-John on 30/04/2014 22:12:36:

Lol,

This big ugly thing is a regular occurrence too, taking the wings from Airbus in Hawarden over to somewhere in France I believe, Flies so low you could almost throw stones at it

Well CJ these are the one's that come over my house on the way into Airbus in Toulouse!

Terry

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I used to live on the Hatfield edge of St. Albans and was regularly treated to low level flypasts by the BAe owned Mosquito as well as 146s being test flown and demonstrated. A Buccaneer at low level was a memorable experience one afternoon. Just down the road one lunchtime, I saw two Mustangs in close formation doing repeated passes and drove to the edge of the airfield where I was transported in time to the Second World War - they were filming the final action scene of Saving Private Ryan and it looked utterly realistic from my viewpoint!

I now live close to and abeam of Luton Airport's runway and see plenty of commercial traffic - we get a lot of those things with rotating wings overhead but not much fixed wing - one memorable exception was a Twin Pioneer which took most of the afternoon to go past!

Another was when a most unusual (and hugely impressive) sound pulled me out of my modelling shed - and 17 (if I counted right) Tucanos flew over at very low level in close formation - they were the bulk of the Diamond Jubilee formation who had done a pre-arranged flypast at the airport while returning to their bases from their duties at Windsor Castle.

And not exactly fixed wing, but we get regular visits from Red Kites - a privilege and a visual treat.

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Not over my house but I was on the seafront at Ilfracombe today when a Hunter T2 flew along the coast, west to east. A bit of research shows it likely to have been WT722 from the Classic Air Force collection in Newquay. The only thing was, it looked distinctly pale sky blue rather than the grey of pics I've found. Was it just me?

Pete

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When I was a kid North of Birmingham in the early fifties you'd see military stuff in the sky all of the time. Meteors and Vampires, even an occasional Spitfire, often flying quite low. Bigger stuff too as well as well as the commercial traffic in and out of Birmingham, (Elmdon Airport to us) most of which I remember as BEA DC3s, which we thought of as Dakotas but they called "Pionairs".

A lot of Tiger Moths as well, the flying club used to fly them off the grass at Elmdon and we'd regularly see them over the house in Great Barr. Sometimes dad would take us to the airport and we'd watch them coming in and out over the hedge. Also Dragon Rapides, dad paid for us (him, mom, baby brother and me at 4 years old in 1950), to go for a flight in one of those and I've never forgotten that, looking down at tiny gas towers and little cars. I've been enthusiastic ever since and need to get another flight in a Dragon Rapide before I'm too far past it.

Vampires flew out of Honiley, long since gone and dad would do his Parachute Regiment training there, or at Castle Bromwich. As well as kite baloons, they used RAF Hastings or Dakotas and sometimes jumped with the USAF from Fairchild Packets, "Flying Boxcars", I remember them well and saw them on the ground as well at Castle Bromwich. RAF Lichfield was still active and you'd see Wellington trainers, Valettas and Varsitys from time to time.

By comparison, today is pretty boring. Military sightings are a rarity and it's mostly the usual commercial stuff in and out of Birmingham, plus The Air Ambulance helicopter in and out of Good Hope Hospital. Times then were far more exciting and I think those experiences were a main reason for so many of my generation became so hooked on aeroplanes, which continues with our modelling exploits to this very day. The most exciting thing within the last 10 years was hearing a loud and very familiar noise overhead while in my shed, rushing out and seeing Vulcan XH558 going straight over the house at no more than 1,000ft. and clearly headed for Birmingham Airport! I don't know what the event was, but it was quite a thrill.

Sorry for reminiscing, it gets worse as you get older.

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This morning there was a pair of Spitfires both with one wing painted black, flying abreast with Vans aircraft between them, good omen for the rest of the day! Then to see a Red Kite soar at the same height and time as the models, along the pit line of the rc section at Old Warden Show was also amazing. Great day!

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My thoughts was air to air photographic sortie too! Did they fly near Old Warden at all?

Pretty sure both Spits, flew over the top of house by the time I got out the front they were flying into the sun!

 

Edited By Glenn Stratton on 04/05/2014 22:58:25

Edited By Glenn Stratton on 04/05/2014 22:59:46

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