any idea

gerky

I was visiting a relative this evening and noticed a jet of some kind flying in circular motions it was very fast much faster then a passenger jet.
I thought maybe it was aerial mapping,any ideas?

Foggy43

If you can give us the location where this happened we maybe able to help.

gerky

Sorry forgot to put that in, the relatives live in south Leitrim.
If its any help I can stick up a picture of one of the trails.

highlydebased

Do....stick up a picture

Approx how high was it? A slight possibility was that it may have been burning off/dumping fuel......if it was in an emergency....its a possibility anyway

gerky

It did several of these kind of things,I wouldn't be very good at heights but I'd say high altitude at least the same as passenger jets if not higher it seemed a fairly small jet.

Steyr

May have been in a "stack".

cyrusdvirus

A stack over Leitrim??? for which airport?

I didn't hear anything about any emergencies either

oscarBravo

Are you sure it was a jet? Contrails generally only form at cruising altitudes. I'd guess from the picture that it was an aerobatic plane with an exhaust smoke system, practicing maneouvres.

gerky

I'd be nearly sure it was a Jet just from the speed and height but I could be wrong, if it was a jet it was a small one.
That trail has spread out a bit I'll put up this pic don't know if its any help.

jmayo

oscarBravo wrote: »

Are you sure it was a jet? Contrails generally only form at cruising altitudes. I'd guess from the picture that it was an aerobatic plane with an exhaust smoke system, practicing maneouvres.

Sounds very plausible.
It could be the small and faraway Dougal argument.
Although not sure how long the smoke lasts as sometimes disapates quiet quickly. Maybe Dave Bruton is moving north ?
Either that or the Al Quida have finally invaded or maybe some bored RAF pilot playing silly buggers over Fermanagh

highlydebased

I thought also that it may have been in a stack holding, but over leitrim?!

cp251

It is in fact this:Chemtrails

cp251

On the other hand, looking at the picture and eliminating what it is not: It's not an airliner, too small. Not likely to be military as they tend to operate at least in pairs and they would most unlikely be operating above Ireland. So most likely a bizjet, a long range one, Falcon or Gulfstream. That wasn't smoke but a contrail.

The question is this. Which way did it go after the hold, west or east? I would guess west in which case it was most likely a hold for separation purposes on the Atlantic route. When you cross the Atlantic there is no ATC and no radar. So before each Atlantic crossing the flightcrew works out what track, speed and altitude they want. Also their ETA at the start point which is where radar coverage ends. This has to be negotiated with ATC, probably SHANWICK in this case. There are a number of allocated tracks on the Atlantic each day.

Because there is no radar coverage on the Atlantic, aircraft can only be separated by means of the above allocation of tracks, altitude and speeds. Positions reports are broadcast on HF radio by means of SELCAL.

Most likely in this case the pilot didn't get the ETA he wanted at the start point or possibly, but less likely he arrived too soon and had to hold over lovely Leitrim.

Mystery solved, unless of course he departed to the east

gerky

I seen it over about 45-60mins and The first pic is in the southeast awhile later it was in the southwest and the last I seen it it was going northeast.
The clouds came in at that point so I couldn't see if it turned again or not.

therecklessone

Possibly an aircraft doing flight checks after maintainence at Dublin or Shannon?

Biro

gerky wrote: »

I seen it over about 45-60mins and The first pic is in the southeast awhile later it was in the southwest and the last I seen it it was going northeast.
The clouds came in at that point so I couldn't see if it turned again or not.

There was a 737 I think training out of Knock a while back, but you could tell that it was a commercial airliner, as it was much lower than normal, maybe 10 to 15 thousand feet.