Seen Over Your House Today

[rickshaw]

on my way home from work, a black Bell 206 Jet ranger took off from a field somewhere in Koekelare, i dont see many of those arround here 

"Excuse me, Sir?  If you'll just look at the light for a moment...."

[scooter]

on my way home from work, a black Bell 206 Jet ranger took off from a field somewhere in Koekelare, i dont see many of those arround here 

"Excuse me, Sir?  If you'll just look at the light for a moment...."

Just ignore the black Sprinter or Transit lurking around the corner.

[MiB]

Someone called me? 

[perttime]

Above my house, all I can see is clouds and wet snow falling.

But for the last few minutes, I've been hearing a squadron, or so, of F-18 Hornets returning from a training mission.

[Mossie]

Sea King ASaC.7.  I'm used to seeing the RAF yellow HAR's so I knew it was a Sea King before I saw it, but I was thrown for a moment when a grey helicopter came into sight.  Once it was close enough I could see it was indeed a RN Sea King & the dustbin antennae identified it.

It was going pretty slow, even for a Squeaking and heading towards the Humber so it was maybe carrying out some surveilance or training?

[scooter]

Had a pair of Devils Yawn Darts pass right over on final at KACY my car as I was headed home for lunch.  If I had a slingshot, I could ahve knocked the lead bird down, that's how close they were.  And damn, they're loud; Eagles sure as hell ain't as loud as a Block 30 Dart.

[Rheged]

Not today, but last Thursday in the Lake District, a pair of Herculeses  (Herculi???) at about 300 feet  heading North over Grasmere and Dunmail Raise towards Thirlmere.   Mrs Rheged tells me that there's been a lot of this going on recently  and that there are occasions when they are so low that .a man with a javelin (I think she means a man with a pointy stick, not a big delta  wing) could have hit them. 

We can tell that the tourist (lemming)  season is starting, we  are seeing the big yellow paraffin budgies, and   occasionally their R.N. brothers, coming in to perch at the local hospital very regularly.

Mrs R had been given a birthday present of a trip to a London show so off we went over the week end .Back of the Grand Circle in the Lyceum  is so far up, I expected to see 747s on final approach to Heathrow below us..........but "Lion King" was extremely good.   Stayed one night in a hotel overlooking Heathrow, with an interesting view out of the room window. Chatted to a "mature" Belgian airline pilot over breakfast, who tells me that the most attractive aircraft in the world is the Nimrod that escorted him after a "partial instrument failure" over the North Atlantic.

[PR19_Kit]

Also on the Herk thing, I was driving along the A40 en route to Oxford the other day and saw two of them in a row on approach to Brize. I'm well used to seeing all sorts of stuff going in there, having been driving that road since the 60s, but Herks have been pretty unusual until now. Of course they've all moved across from Lynham after it closed so I guess they'll be common in the future.

However, the lead Herk was trundling in on the usual 3 deg glide slope but the no. 2 was holding steady at around 1000 ft or so. The lead disappeared below the trees at the side of the road and the no. 2 suddenly pitched nose down to around -45 deg for a Khe San/Sarajevo type approach and headed for the threshold! Luckily I was just approaching a layby so I dived into it to watch the landing. I needed to stand on the roof of the car to see its final touch-down which was impossible of course, but I managed to watch its final flare and it was VERY low!

I don't think I've ever seen that before except at air shows, most impressive.

[NARSES2]

Again talking of Herc's the one at Cosford is interesting. Various shades of green with grey nacelles except the inboard panels on the port inboard engine which are another shade of green 

[pyro-manic]

At work a few days ago, I heard a helicopter so went outside to have a look. We get civvie helis buzzing around all the time, but this one was in Raspberry Ripple. Not something you see often.

[Pellson]

Not over my house, but not far from. Yesterday, aircraft manufacturer SAAB started off its 75th birthday celebrations by having all their jet fighters bar the first (J21R conversion from propellerdriven pusher J21) airborne simultaneously and in formation. The aircraft photographed over SAAB:s hometown, Linköping, are in chronological order the SAAB 29 aka the flying barrel, SAAB 32 two seat strike a/c (although here in it's interceptor variant), the SAAB 35 Draken, famous for its double delta wing, the SAAB 105 trainer and light strike/recce a/c, the SAAB Viggen canard wing strike a/c and the current SAAB 39 Gripen, here in its 39D twoseat variant.



This is a remarkable sight in more than one aspect. There hasn't been a Viggen airborne anywhere in almost exactly five years until this one, the 68th Viggen ever produced, was reentered into the air by the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight just five days ago.

There is actually only one more military SAAB type still airworthy, the SAAB 17 divebomber of WW2 vintage. The only restored example has however suffered engine problems and is regerettably unavailable for the time being. Nevertheless, what you can see above is 64 years of swedish stalwart air tradition, and actually a complete set of the air defenders of almost half the european front during the cold war. Yes, Sweden is that long..

Please note that this pic isn't mine, but taken by another SAAB enthusiast.

[pyro-manic]

What a cracking photo!

[MilitaryAircraft101]

That's beautiful  

[JayBee]

Oh WOW, I can not say any more.

[scooter]

Oh WOW, I can not say any more.

Agreed.  Gorgeous shot.