Seen Over Your House Today

[bobbo]

0700:  He's back . . . Where's my shotgun??   

-bobbo

[PR19_Kit]

An H-53 of some description flew directly overhead my model railway club yesterday.

IIRC the USAF have a few of them in the UK for Combat Rescue, but I'm not sure where they're based, so quite what one was doing over Gloucester I have no idea.

They're surely BIG and LOUD! I could hear the thing coming long before I could see it, and it had a much faster rotor 'THRUM' than the distinctive 'WHUP WHUP' of a Wokka.

Odd, because all the Pave Lows and Super Jollies were retired in 08.  Unless it was a Navy/Marine Stallion

Ah, OK.

Maybe there's a USN carrier nearby? Now you mention it, the sponsons were the larger variety........

[rickshaw]

0700:  He's back . . . Where's my shotgun??   

-bobbo

Wait for him to show his belly! 

[ennobee]

I wonder what the RAF were doing way out West???

I have actually seen UK C-17s at the Boeing repair facility next to Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I lived there up until two years ago and part of my job was to make a tour of the Boeing facility once a week with a specialized shredding truck and take care of all the confidential paperwork in their trash cans. Thanks to their merger with McDonnel-Douglas, Boeing San Antonio is one of the service stations where the C17s fly in to get their overhaul/inspection. So I saw lots of drab grey US national guard C17's, every once in a while  Canadian one, at least one Australian and several RAF planes. Comparing all the ones side by side, I must say the English ones had by far the best paint jobs as a squadron. For individual planes there once was a C17 showplane from Quatar painted all crimson and white with a logo of a stylized onyx antelope head worked into the tailfin. This one won the beauty contest by far.

[perttime]

C-130 right over my home.
Couldn't spot insignia to identify which country it belonged to. Something colourful on the tail. Pretty loud. I just realised that while I've traveled on one, I haven't seen one fly past me before.

[Spey_Phantom]

just had a high altitude flypast from a Hawker Sea Fury 

[kitnut617]

So yesterday I saw one of these taxi around and then take off



I then found out that Meridiana is contracted to haul freight and passengers for the Brit Forces

Today though, I got to see a Voyager land (not just a bit of the tail like the other day)

[PR19_Kit]

Today though, I got to see a Voyager land (not just a bit of the tail like the other day)

They used to have the contract for the Falkands Ferry, and you could often see a red Meridiana fin sticking up above the hangars at Brize Norton from the A40.  AFAIK the RAF fly the Ferry route themselves now, using non-tanker Voyagers.

[Captain Canada]

Cool beans. You're getting to see lots of stuff now eh ? 

[kitnut617]

Yep!, had a good look at the Voyager today as it was parked on the adjacent apron and in plain view for most of the day. They then towed it off to another apron.  Then just as I was gearing up to go home, watched the RAF C-17 come into land again.  As I'll be at work tomorrow, there's a good chance seeing it up closer, I'll be working at a new apron which is being built so aircraft at the south end of the airport don't have to come all the way up to the terminal to get de-iced, and it's right off to the side of Charlie taxi-way.

Then as I was driving out of airside, I saw this getting ready for take-off

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/UPS_Airlines_A300_N142UP.jpg

Yesterday though I saw something a bit scary, a CargoLux 747 was taking off but it looked like he almost ran out of runway, it had rotated for take-off but didn't seem to get into the air, next I saw a huge cloud of dust getting blown back behind it, then it's nose came up even more and then it managed to get off the ground.  The explanation I got was because of the heat we had yesterday it was effecting the 'hot & high' capabilities.

[zenrat]

Had some of these over the house today.  We only see them once or twice a year.  We regularly get flocks of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos (and of Corellas) passing at dusk and dawn making their cacophonous racket but the Yellow Tailed Black Cockies are a bit special as they are significantly bigger, fly in smaller groups and make a different (but still raucous) noise.

Not my pic - I don't have a long enough lens - borrowed from here

[kitnut617]

Worked in a different part of the airport today, right between the two main north/south runways.  

Anyway, saw the top of the fin of the RAF C-17 for most of the day as it was hidden behind a building. But at around 2 pm it taxied around to my side then took off in the shortest run I've seen at the airport (think the pilot was showing off). Then a couple of hours later, the Airbus Voyager came back, touch downed right near where I was stationed.

Then another treat was in store --- another Lynx took off right behind me and pass almost right over head, and this one had wheels for undercarriage too -- and it looked like a two-tone grey scheme but that could be what I saw against the glary overcast sky.

Finally, saw an overall dark green C-130 parked near the Shell hanger, only airforce I know that camo's them in that colour is the RAF , so that would be a C-130J I think.

The boneyard was about a 100 yards away too, there's mostly CRJ's or CL-600 there, but there is a couple of BAE-146's (supposedly sold to a fire fighting outfit but they've been there for years) and an old Fokker 70 too (I think it is one of those but I could be wrong on the variant number).

So in between directing construction traffic, got to watch aircraft landing and taking off all day.

[Captain Canada]

Cool looking bird, that's for sure. Looks big !

And love these updates Robert. Lucky you !

[PR19_Kit]

Finally, saw an overall dark green C-130 parked near the Shell hanger, only airforce I know that camo's them in that
colour is the RAF , so that would be a C-130J I think.

Denmark maybe? Only some of the RAF Hercs are green, and they have weird areas of a darker green/grey on the undersides too. From observation at Brize Norton most of them seem to be grey these days, like almost every other C-30 in the world. 

[kitnut617]

Finally, saw an overall dark green C-130 parked near the Shell hanger, only airforce I know that camo's them in that
colour is the RAF , so that would be a C-130J I think.

Denmark maybe?

That's interesting to know Kit, but considering the Lynx took off near where the C-130 is parked, and the recent RAF activity at YYC I'm thinking it's RAF.  Anyway, I'll be down this end of the airport (south end) again next Saturday