flightradar24

[Otter Spotter]

I do not understand why RAF and others are flying missions from UK to the borders with Ukraine: gives them less time on operational station.

Why not temporarily station some crews in Poland. I know they may have to return to base for more major maintenance, but airlines manage to night-stop aircraft all over the place.

One of the issues would be logistical getting sufficient backup equipment to Polish airfields would need a large number of transport flights which could panic the Russians, in addition the accommodation and infrastructure available at these airfields is poor, (think east bloc).
Currently there is a massive training up situation happening in the UK and other NATO countries as most squadrons rarely have a full set of Pilots who have trained for every scenario, so they will be trying to get the younger in service pilots up to speed. If you have been watching Flightradar24 over the last 3 weeks there are many more fast jet and cargo aircraft, A400m C130 etc flights in the UK airspace.
As regards Military Transponders on or off, in the UK most training flights will have Transponder ON thus the aircraft will show up on Flightradar24 or the other plane tracking site, once a flight is tactical then transponder goes off and there are specific unmarked airspace and heights that in particular fast jets will transit through, these are designed to separate Civil from Military aircraft. In addition Military aircraft have a vastly updated and secure IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) system which will tell controllers who and what the Aircraft is.
Hope that helps.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Anyone know what the actual regulations are regarding transponders and having them switched on/off?

For example there has been a low flying heli going around our work today but doesn't show up on FR. It looks like an ex fire service heli maybe. Given that we are so close to Aberdeen Airport with all the oil industry helicopters in the air space I thought it would be mandatory to use your transponder.

See my post 841 re transponders ,but to amplify low level aircraft may not show up because the Signal is ‘line of sight’ Some pilots have an aversion to speaking to controllers so will not, and as a result they will not have been asked to Squawk a 4 number code to identify them on the controllers screen. There is still a lot of uncontrpolled airspace in the UK, so you, as a pilot could get away with flying from one grass strip to another without having to switch your transponder on or talk to controllers.

 

[Revolvor]

brocola

This is 2nd day they have flown this pattern. What do you think they are doing?

 

[Otter Spotter]

brocola

This is 2nd day they have flown this pattern. What do you think they are doing?
View attachment 594582

Interesting that it’s showing takeoff from Kemble, when they are actually flying out of Fairford, which is 5 or 6 miles away.

 

[MichaelT]

brocola

This is 2nd day they have flown this pattern. What do you think they are doing?
View attachment 594582

Looks maybe like a rabbit or hare to me but maybe others see something else

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[brocola]

Sorry, don’t know what they’ve been doing out over the sea this last couple of days.

The press release said the daytrip over Europe down to Romania was for a few things - giving other NATO jets practise in bomber interception and bomber escort, along with practising close air support with JTACs (a bit like a forward observers) on the ground.

Maybe another country has complained, or they don’t want to take the risk flying over EU at the moment?

It looks like they mostly stayed at the same altitude when over the sea.

Maybe they’ve been playing with other invisible planes? Or random thought, there a big RAF radar site in the South West that they’ve been playing hide & seek with?

Nowadays B52s can use a lot of stand-off munitions (cruise missiles, laser/gps guided bombs etc) , so don’t have to fly over an area doing old school carpet bombing. Maybe they’ve been sighting up tourist attractions?

 

[nicholsong]

It's called a 'Squawk'. You set the number on the transponder, and that shows up on the ATC screen as the transponder broadcasts information back to the radar station (in simple terms).

VFR flights are routinely given squwak codes - if you fly out of Aberdeen, you'll be given one so ATC can track you in and out of the VFR approach lanes. Outside of controlled airspace, you'll usually be given one (for Scottish Information as an example, 7401) to show that you're talking to someone - however there is no requirement to be doing so. In other places, it again identifies who you're talking to, or you're given a discrete code which identifies your aircraft - it's a routine thing when flying VFR and you'll usually get one when contacting a new ATC service.

Outside of controlled airspace, there's no requirement to have a transponder and many vintage/light aircraft/gliders do not. And again, outside of controlled airspace, there's no requirement to be talking to anyone. If you have a transponder, you can set it to 7000 just for conspicuity, but that doesn't mean you're contactable, and doesn't mean you need to do it. Nobody sets a transponder code outwith of 7000, a code you've been given, or the other "important" codes, because doing so would make you very visible and prompt someone to wonder what you were up to, and that's not worth getting your licence pulled. Easier to just turn the transponder off.

There are several modes. Mode A is "hello - I'm here", mode C includes altitude, and mode S includes the registry of the aircraft (which the others do not) and requires certification to install etc (and it's not cheap).

monzer - FR can be patchy at best depending where the receiving stations are - that heli will have had their transponder on, with mode S, but if it's low level it's probably just not being picked up by the various ADS-B receivers which people run in Aberdeen which then upload to FR24 - at low level, you'd need to have a receiver near by (or a decent set-up) otherwise you're not going to pick it up. If you had a ADS-B dongle plugged into your PC, and line of sight to it, you would likely be picking it up no problem. Same as if it was at 5000ft - it'd appear on FR24, but at 1000ft? Probably not. The top of the Tyrebagger is about 1000ft (ish) - so if you're on the other side of that, you won't pick it up.

Remember the FR network is largely based on people who have a PC set up to receive and upload the data - it's not an official/government data stream. With a basic dongle from Amazon, I can pick up flights at 30,000ft 30 miles away with a small desktop antenna, but I can't pick up anything from the airport (which is 3m away) because of line of sight/elevation.

Thanks for the VFR use of transponders. I think that in my years of flying commercially I never flew outside controlled airspace, nor on a VFR flightplan, so had no need to know. We were always squarking a given code.

Geoff

 

[brocola]

Apparently not that hard to spoof FR24.

Someone spoofed the recently destroyed Antonov AN225 Mriya circling Kyiv today

 

[Busybeeyellam]

Did anyone else see the tracking this morning of an aircraft flying around the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv ? It was circling the city at 4000ft flying at 300kts. It was registered as the Antonov 225 with a callsign : FCKPUTIN !

 

[Silver-Fox]

Would that further antagonise Putin? More NATO aggression?

I would hope so.

Keep him on his toes so he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on.

Might surprise the Russian Air Force as well.

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[Revolvor]

Interesting that it’s showing takeoff from Kemble, when they are actually flying out of Fairford, which is 5 or 6 miles away.

I was at the AV8 cafe at Kemble airport last weekend. It may be possible to land a lightly loaded 747, but a B52 could not take off!

 

[Silver-Fox]

I was at the AV8 cafe at Kemble airport last weekend. It may be possible to land a lightly loaded 747, but a B52 could not take off!

I’ve been told 747 can land and take off.

They can obviously land as that’s where they break them up

Have they cleared any the ones parked up on the boundary as there was loads parked up.

 

[Otter Spotter]

I was at the AV8 cafe at Kemble airport last weekend. It may be possible to land a lightly loaded 747, but a B52 could not take off!

Agreed, the runway is not long enough for a fuelled and bombed up B-52. I did a Top Gun flying day there years ago.

 

[Revolvor]

I’ve been told 747 can land and take off.

They can obviously land as that’s where they break them up

Have they cleared any the ones parked up on the boundary as there was loads parked up.

There are still a few along the road, but others also parked elsewhere. There is an ex BA747 parked by the café, that is open to the public. Still got it's engines, and Ground Power Units and AC connected.

 

[daveandsan]

Just a link to info which some people on here might find interesting.

A look at some military activity in airspace around Ukraine | Flightradar24 Blog

Plenty of military aircraft are visible on Flightradar24 in the vicinity of Ukraine. Here's a look at what we've seen and what they might be up to.

www.flightradar24.com

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[Raul]

This Forte10 it’s been up here for hrs. Wonder what’s the view reach at 56000ft.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

American Biggles in their F16’s were having fun at Donna Nook range yesterday most of the day. I live about 20 minutes away so could hear them. Credit to one of the spotters Andrzej Rutka for taking some great photos of sticks of bombs being dropped and posting on the Donna Nook spotters page.

 

[brocola]

This Forte10 it’s been up here for hrs. Wonder what’s the view reach at 56000ft.

This lady’s work should give you an idea

 

[sonar]

View attachment 593524

Seems very low and interesting flight path

I think it fitted with a top secret engine called the bumble bee.

 

[Jenben]

brocola

This is 2nd day they have flown this pattern. What do you think they are doing?
View attachment 594582

My plane enthusiast tells me that there is military restricted airspace there and they practice a race track patterns as their live missions often need them to follow a race track pattern for hours on end.

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[2657]

Two USAF Globemasters out of Rota overflew Tavira a few minutes ago westbound.

 

[brocola]

JAKE11 Rivet Joint has done a whole loop of Kalingrad today, not seen that before.

 

[David and Sally]

What is Jake 11? Surveillance?

 

[brocola]

USAF RC135W Rivet Joint - electronic surveillance aircraft. Sucks up any electronic signals for later analysis eg radio, cellphones, radar etc.

Broken Link Removed

 

[monzer]

Interesting flight path for this USAF reconnaissance aircraft to be taking when tensions are so high with Russia. Completely encircled Kaliningrad before heading back to the UK.

View attachment 569873

JAKE11 Rivet Joint has done a whole loop of Kalingrad today, not seen that before.

View attachment 594985

It was over there in December. Feels like a lifetime ago.

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[Silver-Fox]

There are still a few along the road, but others also parked elsewhere. There is an ex BA747 parked by the café, that is open to the public. Still got it's engines, and Ground Power Units and AC connected.

View attachment 594878

I used to work at Kemble when I can access the site from the main road.

Worked in the ATC tower and all over the site.

One hanger had an older swept wing fighter, no idea what it was, but had a yellow to blue fade paint scheme.
Looked the biz

 

[NicM]

So I'm guessing that any of the drones in Ukrainian could be flown from anywhere in the world in this day and age, wonder if it's happening?

 

[Paulypaul]

My plane enthusiast tells me that there is military restricted airspace there and they practice a race track patterns as their live missions often need them to follow a race track pattern for hours on end.

Could that be why a Hercules was flying over us on Thursday for a few hours doing what appeared to be a constant circuit? We get a lot of military flying over us but this just seemed a bit odd?

 

[gus-lopez]

Would that further antagonise Putin? More NATO aggression?

Why are we bothered what that scum thinks? It should be made perfectly plain that what he might have started we will be finishing regardless even if he packed up & went home. We should be taunting him & having digs at all & any opportunity & at every border he has with any country.

 

[Silver-Fox]

Could that be why a Hercules was flying over us on Thursday for a few hours doing what appeared to be a constant circuit? We get a lot of military flying over us but this just seemed a bit odd?

I know a retired ATC and he told me the regularly put planes in holding patterns.

It’s part of the training apparently, they have to hit certain markers.

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