Seen Over Your House Today

[rickshaw]

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. 

I could always tell when an "Angry Chook" was coming as the rotor beat is much heavier than other choppers.  I know what you mean about the rotors getting out of phase when there is more than one flying over.  It's an odd sound, to say the least.  Blackhawks are odd as well, they sound almost like a piston engined aircraft for some reason.  Not quite but very close.

[zenrat]

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The first pic could just be a trick of the eye but it looks to me like it has a 3 blade rotor and I think I can just see the tail rotor on the boom, I think you've snapped a pic of a passing Aerospatiale Ecureuil or similar there but I could be wrong .

Could well be.  My eyes aren't too good plus I used a phone to take pics.  There was something else sniffing around that day.  I thought it might have been a news chopper.

[Librarian]

The sight and sound of a Chinook is something to stir the soul. It's a truly stunning machine. We get a lot of mowers flying around over London with their r/c sound but two years ago a Chinook suddenly turned up, for what reason no one ever found out. It landed in the nearby park then took off and flew a couple of circuits overhead before flying away. EVERYONE stopped and watched, the sound was truly breathtaking...you felt and heard its solidity .

[PR19_Kit]

...you felt and heard its solidity .

When you look at the chord of the rotor blades you can see why, they're MASSIVE! Even the BERP blades on a Merlin pale into insignificance by comparison. Oddly enough you don't hear the beat of the blades when you're aboard a Chinook, or not as much as I thought I would, even though they are right above your head.

[PR19_Kit]

I've thought that about all helicopters that I've flown in, is it because the sound is mainly coming from the rotor tips and moving away from the chopper?

Or because the sound is generated by the overall down downwards airflow from the whole blade? If you're inside it most of that is outboard of you so you may not hear it so well.

[JayBee]

Well, regarding the A-4 that I saw yesterday evening, I went out to the airport this morning to see if it was still there.
It was and it is not Discovery Air as I had thought, it is BAe Systems. It looks like the contract in Germany has ended and the aircraft are being returned to the USA.

Oh yes, there was not one A-4, there were SIX.

Also a Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign acting as formation leader.
I arrived just as the first flight of Citation and three A-4s had started engines for the flight up to Keflavik in Iceland.
The Citation will be coming back to collect the second flight of three and they are due to depart at 1530 this afternoon.

Here are shots of the first flight departing:

http://s652.photobucket.com/user/JBricknell/library/A-4N%20PIK%2003-12-14?sort=3&page=1

Jim

PS As usual Photobucket has put the photos in reverse order  

[pyro-manic]

Coooool. I've never seen a Skyhawk fly, and I suspect I never will. A dwindling breed, much like Phantoms....

[PR19_Kit]

A wonderful set of pics there Jim, thanks so much for posting them.   

What were BAe Systems doing with them in Germany? Some sort of aggressor unit? I note them in blue/white, USN Grey and psudo IDF camo too, were there any others?

[JayBee]

I believe they have been performing a type of aggressor role for NATO.
There were six two in camo. and the other four in the white/blue scheme.
Now to the continuing story:

Went out to the airport to see the second flight of A-4s departing, they have been delayed until 1000 tomorrow morning.
However this lady was just taxying for departure.














For those who may be interested she is ZZ337.

[PR19_Kit]

Magic, those Voyagers are really something!  

Somehow they manage to look larger than A330s, I see them often as I head back and forth to my Mum's place as there's usually one in the circuit at Brize Norton.

[Later] I just noticed the grey/blue lightning stripe has two kinks in it, one obvious one near the tailplane and another more subtle one just forward, presumably so it follows the kink in the aft cabin windows on the Airbuses. 

[rickshaw]

...you felt and heard its solidity .

When you look at the chord of the rotor blades you can see why, they're MASSIVE! Even the BERP blades on a Merlin pale into insignificance by comparison. Oddly enough you don't hear the beat of the blades when you're aboard a Chinook, or not as much as I thought I would, even though they are right above your head.

The few times I've flown in an Angry Chook, they've handed out ear defenders and so I could hear the blades but I do remember the whine of the engines.  The vibration was super heavy though.  I remember the first time watching the lip of the rear ramp which was down as we lifted off and it was visibly moving about 3-6 inches very, very quickly!   

[JayBee]

I went out to the airport to see the A-4s (second flight) depart. They went about 30 minutes late and used the opposite end of the runway, which is not so good for photography as by the time they pass you they are already airborne and moving fast making them  rather difficult to track, but I did my best.




















While I was waiting for the A-4s to go the Voyager came back in. It was the same one as yesterday.










There were also two Canadian Herks in. One was parked where it could be seen, with the A-4s parked behind it. While the second was hiding away at the main terminal only becoming visible when it taxied out for departure.
It commenced it's take off run but after about ¼ of the runway aborted. It then taxied back round, this  time followed bythe Citation/A-4 formation, and got airborne OK.










That's all folks,

Jim

[Captain Canada]

Oh my ! I have to wait until I get home to view the pic.

[Captain Canada]

Wow. What a great selection of pics ! Great day of spotting if you ask me ! Thanks for sharing....well worth the wait !

[Captain Canada]

PS- I forgot to add we had a C-17 doing a few laps around the city today. Then my bro saw it in a diferent town about 15 minutes later. Must have been flying the flag !