Seen Over Your House Today

[Librarian]

Every so often I've heard this god-awful noise coming from something as it heads out of London City Airport and over my house. Finally saw the guilty party today, googled it and identified it as a Piaggio P180 Avanti. Looks incredibly but sounds like a monster moped.

[Mossie]

It is the first ever NOTAR I have seen in person, I was surprised as to how quiet it was, much of the noise given off from a normal heli must come from the tail rotor?

The Calgary Police uses one, it has a very distinctive sound and you could always tell when it was around.  Mind you, when it was circling around some suspected trouble, it made quite a racket ---

I see a few, our local Police use an MD 902, it's a heck of a lot less noisy than the old Bo.105.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance have two, I snapped this one about four years ago:

[rickshaw]

Every so often I've heard this god-awful noise coming from something as it heads out of London City Airport and over my house. Finally saw the guilty party today, googled it and identified it as a Piaggio P180 Avanti. Looks incredibly but sounds like a monster moped.

Seems to be a trait of the PT6 engine.  I hear Pilatus PC-9s going over all the time and they always sound like that, going flat out, no matter what speed they are actually going.  I suspect their throttle controls pitch, not actual engine revs.  I've tended to liken it to a chainsaw myself.   

[zenrat]

We had a car crash on the Nepean Highway today bad enough to require the Air Ambos land on the footy oval at the end of the road.  They flew over, circled out the landing site (coming back over my place again) and then landed.
Sorry about the poor phone pics.

[Captain Canada]

Sad for the folk involved in the crash, but nice to see some chopper action, especially when they are saving lives ! Who's Huey is that ?

[scooter]

Sad for the folk involved in the crash, but nice to see some chopper action, especially when they are saving lives ! Who's Huey is that ?

Always is.  I've been on a few motor vehicle accidents, as an EMT/Ambo tech, that required one of the NJSP's Sikorskies for air evac.  And, sadly, on two of them the medevac'd patients didn't make it.

[zenrat]

Here's a pic from the interweb.  It's part of Ambulance Victoria and so belongs to Comrade Harps and I (and all the other Victorian taxpayers).

We had a drunk ram a power pole (which caught fire) with a car load of kids he'd collected from school a year or so ago and they landed in the middle of the cross roads just up the highway.  Usually however they use the footy oval as there are no adjacent power lines (just goal posts and trees).

[Librarian]

Had a Great Northern Diver (Loon) fly right over the house, heading South towards the Thames(?). A real 'Oh My!' for a birdwatcher .

[Captain Canada]

She's a beauty ! Looks quasi military.

[PR19_Kit]

At the opposite end of the helicopter size range we had the almost regular two-ship of Chinooks heading south of east today, presumably RTB'ing to Odiham after doing military type things in the Brecons.

When the rotor pairs are out of sync, as they usually are with a two-ship, the beating in and out of phase can be quite unearthly. People all over the car park were looking up with strange looks on their faces, but those of us 'who know these things' just nodded sagely and carried on with what we were doing. 

[JayBee]

Just had an A-4 Skyhawk break into the circuit here at Prestwick. I suspect it is one of the two Discovery Air A-4N's that came through two/three weeks ago.

[PR19_Kit]

A Skyhawk? Wow, I've never seen one for real in my whole life!

[Weaver]

I think that pic shows it landing, all the thrust reversers are open and the spoilers are up  ---

It is, but we're going for irony here

Who's asking who???

I'm not even sure that the An-225 flies wholly aerodynamically. It's THAT big that its self-generated gravity field has to be counteracted by an anti-grav system or it would never get off the ground!

I think the planet just sees it coming and gets the hell out of it's way......

[JayBee]

A Skyhawk? Wow, I've never seen one for real in my whole life!

That is the first one I have seen since the four Marine Corps ones staged through Edinburgh some years back.
Being Air Traffic we were able to get very close to them which was great, but later when spotters etc were allowed in our American guests got a little bit upset with the group who were going round with tape measures, measuring everything in sight.

[Captain Canada]

Lucky you ! Gow cool would that be to see ? Ya...that cool