Lots of Lynxes about recently. I had 3 come over on Friday, then another one earlier today, and then 2 more just now (only 1 of them tracking, apparently). All going from Barton near Manc to somewhere further south of here
*Pedant alert*
Despite what ADSB says, the UK doesn't fly Lynx anymore, they were retired in 2018. What is flying now is actually the Wildcat. It is built on Lynx airframe but most other working parts are different.
*Pedant alert*
@slowoldman Hah! More like my granddaughter.... I seem to be plagued by random clothing ads from Temu and the like at the moment. No idea why. Don't even see half of them
Lynx:
Not a Lynx:
😉
Highly excitable US F15 tearing around Suffolk/Norfolk border this afternoon
Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) this weekend at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, there's been all sorts of stuff arriving over the last couple of days. A few videos on YouTube of some of it.
Last year in France we saw the Saudi air force display team parked up at Nice airport on their way home after RIAT.
Went to RIAT last year. Will probably go next year again. Camped for 3 nights at Wayside Camping - just a short walk from the runway and to the base entrance.
Went to RIAT last year.
I was looking at tickets for this year, the problem is that you can never rely on the weather. Naturally this is the one weekend after a shedload of heatwave where it's chucking it down - not sure how much of the scheduled flying has actually happened. It's such a risk with airshows in the country.
We went Thursday to Sunday. Thursday was roasting, as was Friday when we went into the show. We set up camp on the Thursday and watched the aircraft arrive and also practice sessions.
Slightly shorter display on the Firday, but it's cheaper (we only picked one day in the show - not that big a plane nerd). It did, however, give more time to wander round more, and having been in the grounds since 9am we were shattered by 5pm, and had a short walk back to the camp. However, Saturday, the clouds closed in, and we watched the display from the camp, and also by the runway. It was a 'flat' display, and only some of the bigger jets did the higher stuff, but you lost them in cloud. Hit and miss.
Got to see the F35's up close - immaculate when compared to active Typhoons which were filthy, and one was leaking oil. Also got what I wanted, to get inside a C17 Globemaster and a A400. the Globemaster was massive. I'd recommend camping near by to avoid the traffic.
Two Spitfires flew over the Prisoner of War bridge today.
That was nice 🙂
Two Spitfires flew over the Prisoner of War bridge today.
That was nice 🙂
I'm going with that being a typo for Prince of Wales? 🤔 🙂
B52 heading into the UK over Kent shortly. Currently passing Belgium
U2 over Wales
Another U2 over the west coast of Scotlandshire this morning as well a lot more Hawk/Typhoon/F15/A330 activity than usual.
a lot more Hawk/Typhoon/F15/A330 activity than usual.
There's a 3-week long helicopter training exercise just started - from the news about it some of it is helicopter strike stuff and some is dodging fighters.
https://www.army.mod.uk/news/british-and-french-helicopters-lift-off-for-combat-training/
In a book about military helicopter ops (mostly Chinooks), there's an amusing tale where the Chinooks go up against a fighter squadron with the fast jets all thinking it's going to be a turkey shoot. Turns out that shooting down an object which doesn't obey the normal laws of physics when you're in a jet travelling at 600mph is actually quite difficult!
Looks like the Italian aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, heading over the channel.
Edit, ignore me, same planes but I don't think it's the aerobatic team.
An Anotonov An-12 has just flown over Stirling
Have one come over where I am every month or so pretty high up. Even compared to the Hercules and A-400 its damned loud.
East Shrops. We've had a short period this evening, around 1730-1800'ish, with a bit off fast jet activity - it sounded like F15s heading back from mid Wales, as they do often fly past just south of here at a fair altitude. Nothing showed on ADS-B, which isn't that unusual. The slightly odd thing was the time of day, as they don't usually operate after dusk on that route.
An Anotonov An-12 has just flown over Stirling
Have one come over where I am every month or so pretty high up. Even compared to the Hercules and A-400 its damned loud.
Seems to be a regular route from Ankara to Belfast but stops off at Ostend on the return. It just flew over me in Delamere at 22,000 feet but so noisy. Last year the orange and blue coloured one had a regular route from Istanbul to Dublin so I'd love to know what the cargo is.
3 US military Pilatus U-28A Dracos on their way out from Wick presumably to check up on "that" oil tanker.
Stepped outside and looked up and saw these. Not on adsb, 2 other big American planes nearby. Heading east over north Manchester. 
Did anyone pick up on the entire USAF turning off their transponders last week?
There's been a steady stream of USAF c130's going over is in Blackpool this evening. Seems to be one every half hour or so, coming from Crete and heading out towards Ireland (undisclosed destination on FR.) Doesn't happen every night for sure.
Convoy of tankers passing over the UK currently.
What's the purpose of that then? Stands out as being unusual (yes I'm aware what's going on!) Just wondering why they're traveling from Crete heading back towards the us?
Apparently the tankers meet F22's mid Atlantic, refuel them then the F22's head on to the middle East. Been happening the last few nights but this is the first time I've heard it!
Just had a shufti on ADS-B to see if anything was going on, and noticed this over Cyprus:
RAF Voyager tanker, and an MQ-9 Reaper. Wonder if the tanker crew get air miles…?
The tanker flew out to Acrotiri on March 1.
Chinooks buzzing Stirling during the week.
There an army/police exercise at Murrayfield, Edinburgh pretending there was an armed siege.
Similar in Herefordshire on Thursday, only it was 3am, ultra low-level, and followed by several sonic booms as Typhoons went over as part of the Agile Warrior exercise:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy99jn13nxo
A mate who was telling me about it wasn't best pleased at the house shaking double-whammy on a school night. But then he did quickly say that it's a sobering reminder of the disruption of conflict, and he was grateful to be able to get back to sleep safely.
Another friend caught sight of a B-1B Lancer on approach to Fairford yesterday; it's a busy, busy time out there...
I'm assuming that B1 came in with transponder off yesterday? I had a few glances at ADS during the day but didnt pick up on anything weird
Have noticed the Stratotankers coming back into the UK with transponders turned back on over the Scottish coast coming in from the North Atlantic
Still begrudge living in South Wales for plane spotting, we hardly get anything exciting bar the odd A400 doing touch and goes and Cardiff airport
Yep, rare to see them with transponders on.
Quite a few Bones have come into Fairford accouring to spotters. Certainly not good news.
The Reaper is still cruising around over Cyprus, or rather, over the eastern side of the island, with a different Voyager scribbling flight lines all over the place.
Something else I spotted, which seemed rather out of place, was a Russian Government Ilyushin Il76, off the south coast of Greece.
B-1Bs are up again, showing on ADSB for a change.