Seen Over Your House Today

kerick · July 31, 2015, 08:39:35 PM

Quote from: Captain Canada on July 31, 2015, 05:31:30 AM
Midway sounds like a good place to go watch a few comings and goings ! The wifey ( and just about everybody else I know ) have gone to Chicago via Amtrack. One of these days !

You can get very close to the ends of the runways and still be on the sidewalk of the public road. Only problem is there is a wall along the streets near the runway ends. Impossible to see actual touchdowns. Halfway from the street corners where the runways end there is regular fence and you can see the whole airport.

kitnut617 · August 01, 2015, 05:46:52 PM

Saw two Voyagers today, one was already there when I got to work and later was towed to an apron near where I was where there is a CBSA office for checking cargo coming in (customs), and watched about 200+ troops embarked aboard it. Not sure if this was a standard boarding because three Greyhound type buses had arrived shortly before where the troops went into the office and then re-boarded the buses where they then pulled up onto the apron near the aircraft and then the troops were 'formed-up' before entering it in an orderly fashion. Saw the second one about two hours later after the first one left.

kitnut617 · August 05, 2015, 03:32:42 AM

Between the intense rain storms we had yesterday, I saw another C-17 come in, but it was too far away to see which one it was (it landed on the new east side runway and I was at the extreme west end of the airport).

However later in the day, a plain all-over white A340 with no other markings parked itself on the apron where I was working which disgorged about 250 troops. It started as a bit of a mystery because when I asked the guy who was closer to it to tell me what the registration number was he told me it was CS-TQM. Doing a google on my cell brought up something, if it was this registration it was supposed to have been retired in November 2014 and then scrapped, also found out it had been used by the Australian Defense Force ----

Personally I think it was CS-TOM, there's some photos on the internet which show it as an all white with no other markings aircraft. If it's still there this morning I'll go have a look myself.

Almost at the end of my day I then saw two Chinooks flying in formation come in, again too far away to identify them properly and they landed at the extreme south end of the airport

rickshaw · August 05, 2015, 03:47:40 AM

CS-TQM is apparently located at your airport...

kerick · August 05, 2015, 10:37:24 AM

Three Hawks are hanging around my neighbor hood. Two flew directly over my head diving at squirrel. Morning dove population is way down and squirrels are very nervous.

kitnut617 · August 05, 2015, 06:05:38 PM

Quote from: rickshaw on August 05, 2015, 03:47:40 AM
CS-TQM is apparently located at your airport...

It must have left real early then because it wasn't there at 6.30am this morning where it was when I left the airport last night. ~~Mind you Brian, I can't figure out how you would know it's there from that link, what do you do to find out ?~~
OK, I just figured it out. Not sure where they had it parked then as it says the update is only 4 minutes old and it's right on the apron where I've been working. But the airport map is very old, the new runway on the right side has been in use for almost a year, and it has all the taxiways connecting it to the old network of taxiways.
Today, just glimpsed the C-17 taking off to the north and then a few hours later, the two Chinooks took off to. Plus I saw an Avanti

take off.

rickshaw · August 05, 2015, 06:49:08 PM

I suspect there might be something wrong with their map when I watched the plane moving across the airport at 0 altitude and 3 knots speed...

kitnut617 · August 06, 2015, 03:20:25 AM

Yeah

I was going to see if it had off-road u/c, it had it traveling all over the airport but not on runways

JayBee · August 06, 2015, 07:18:07 AM

Just gone over the house, no time to get the camera, a pair of A-4 Skyhawks.
Both grey/grey camo and ex Israeli going by the style of refueling probe and the extended tailpipe.
I hope to find out in the next 24 hrs whether they are west bound or east bound.
It is gloriously sunny here to-day and they looked superb as they turned over the house.

Jim

JayBee · August 06, 2015, 09:00:08 AM

and they have just departed, heading SE.

perttime · August 06, 2015, 11:39:11 AM

Hot air balloon. I heard the sound of its burner and looked up. There it was, seemingly right above the neighbour's roof. A blue balloon against blue sky.

PR19_Kit · August 06, 2015, 01:35:45 PM

The sky's going to be BLACK with hot air balloons around here tomorrow and over the weekend. It's the annual Bristol Balloon Festival and they're expecting it to be the largest ever. Let's hope the winds are southwesterlies as they'll be coming this way.

kitnut617 · August 06, 2015, 06:09:39 PM

Today a CargoLux 747-800F landed right near me and did the almost impossibly short run-out I've ever seen, looked like it outdid the C-17 that comes in regularly (which I saw take off earlier in the day), it was un-loaded and loaded and was gone again in under an hour.

jcf · August 06, 2015, 08:43:39 PM

That would be a 747-8F.

Aint' no -800.

kitnut617 · August 07, 2015, 03:06:32 AM

Quote from: joncarrfarrelly on August 06, 2015, 08:43:39 PM
That would be a 747-8F.

Aint' no -800.

Thanks for the correction Jon -- knew you would be on the ball with that one ---

I think it could only have used about a 1/3rd of the old north/south runway after it landed before it was going slow enough to turn off onto the east/west runway. I guess being a freighter you don't have to worry about what passengers are going to complain about after they get slammed into the seat in front ---