Seen Over Your House Today

[scooter]

Had a C-40B out of Andrews doing touch and goes at KACY yesterday.  Still think they'd make a neat little tactical tanker.

[Scooterman]

Still think they'd make a neat little tactical tanker.

Get on it, man!   

[scooter]

Still think they'd make a neat little tactical tanker.

Get on it, man!   

I've got one lurking somewhere in the bench.

[chrisonord]

Not seen but heard at one ish this morning a piston engined aircraft wandering back and fore over where I live. I hear turbo props alot going to and from either Warton or Blackpool at all hours, but never before a piston engined aircraft in the early hours of the morning strange 
Chris

[rickshaw]

No camera unfortunately but I've just seen a Pilatus PC9 fly past overhead on the way to the city for the Australia Day celebrations fly-past.  They do a fair clip, here one second, gone the next.    Usually they fly further out to sea, off the coast so as to avoid "disturbing the tax payers".   I like seeing them and the Hawk 127s occasionally.

[MilitaryAircraft101]

There was a Hornet flypast over Canberra this morning. Those things are pretty in the sky

[rickshaw]

There was a Hornet flypast over Canberra this morning. Those things are pretty in the sky

Surprisingly noisy though, IIRC.   Used to work across the road (more or less) from RAAF Edinburgh.  The F/A-18 were occasional visitors to ARDU.

[MilitaryAircraft101]

Well the future mount, the F-35 is reputedly twice as growly! I really can't see why the JSF gets such a bad wrap. Oh well, better not start another of those debates 

[perttime]

There was a Hornet flypast over Canberra this morning. Those things are pretty in the sky

Surprisingly noisy though, IIRC....

I'm pretty much under the approach to a base (prevailing winds point them that way... ). You can usually hear them coming, and tell them from the airliners. The noisy part, on this side, starts when they lower landing gear and flaps.

[pyro-manic]

Interesting day yesterday. Glorious sunshine, if a bit cold, and lovely clear sky so I went out with the camera. Just the weather for some flying, I think you'd agree. Which is what this chap was doing, tooling over Weymouth seafront in his little GA machine (don't know what it is - not at all up on civvie prop types):


But I think he got a bit of a shock when this thing showed up!


Along with his mate, who was following close behind:


The photos don't really do it justice. I think the pilot must have had a nasty shock when he saw the Wokka barrelling in head-on - he pulled a hard right turn (as in the photo) and disappeared inland. It was a busy afternoon here - just after this happened, I spotted some Navy activity over Portland harbour. Two Lynxes and a Sea King, all doing some sort of training - they'd fly in fast and very low, pull up sharply into a hover, then go round and do it again. They were at it for a good half an hour before they left. I see this fairly frequently, but usually only one Lynx. Very rarely has it been a pair, and I've never seen a Sea King as well. Didn't really get any decent photos - my little 80mm lens can't really reach out the three miles or so to where it was going on. Here's a crop of the centre of one of the shots I did take though:


And a slightly better one of the Sea King as it was flying round over the bay for another go:


Also had one of the Hurn-based Dassault Falcons (complete with underwing gubbins) go over the town a bit later, but the camera was away at that point. I also took some other photos which you can see via the link to my Flickr account in my sig. They're the latest in my photostream, and are of various boaty things in the old harbour.

[perttime]

tooling over Weymouth seafront in his little GA machine (don't know what it is - not at all up on civvie prop types)

My guess is Piper Cherokee.

[PR19_Kit]

Certainly looks like a Cherokee. 

The ship which the Lynxes and Sea King are working with looks like RFA Black Rover, the last of the Rover Class in service. As she's the Flag Officer Sea Training tanker she does all the RAS training stuff for the FAA choppers.

[pyro-manic]

I'm not sure it is Black Rover - the ship's been there for several years, and hasn't moved at all in that time. She might be another of the Rover class that's been decommissioned? She's moored next to the (blocked) south entrance to the harbour, which makes getting a good photo tricky. I will try one of these days to get close enough to get a pennant number if she has one.

[PR19_Kit]

OK, odd that it's been moored there all that time.

It seems it could be Gold Rover also, those two are the only Rover Class left in UK now, the other three earlier ships have either been scrapped or sold abroad.

[Jschmus]

These weren't taken anywhere near my house, but I couldn't keep them all to myself.

Tuesday was National Guard Appreciation Day at the Capitol.  I'd been meaning to run by there on the way home from work to take pictures, but I got sidetracked.  Riding the bus west from work, I spotted this sitting in an overflow parking lot.


It's a UH-60L assigned to the 1-171 of the Georgia National Guard.  Units of the local Florida unit were there in support with various vehicles.






After a while, they prepped the bird for flight and they flew away.  I've taken countless photos of helicopters in flight, but I've never captured one taking off before, nor seen a takeoff from that close.




I know some of you work around helicopters all the time, so it's probably not a big deal, but I haven't been on an active ramp in years now, so this was pretty cool.