Flightradar24 Thread Part III

ozzy jr

Irish Steve wrote: »

Globemaster in the air again, about 30 minutes ahead of the A330, TOW2230

Would it make it to the Malvinas Islands without another stop, or could we see a mid air refueling on FR24?

Irish Steve

Based on the distance it's just flown earlier today, it should make the rest of the way without another refuel stop,

dashoonage

i wonder is the tanker heading down for the return trip.

edit: C17 up again https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR6370/246380b4

Irish Steve

Most likely the 330 is the regular passenger flight, they are multi role aircraft, rather than the older concept of being pure refuel tankers, the globemaster will be taking down heavier freight that won't fit in the hold of the 330.

From reading elsewhere, there is a 330 permanently on station down there to provide cover for other aircraft that don't have the same range capability.

LXFlyer

Just to confirm that the two aircraft landed at RAF Mount Pleasant within an hour of each other early this morning, Irish time.

Just to add that the A330 Voyager aircraft operating the Falklands "airbridge" to/from the UK remains on the civil register as the service is open to ordinary passengers.

The aircraft that are actively used for refuelling would be the ones on the military register.

dashoonage

LXFlyer wrote: »

Just to confirm that the two aircraft landed at RAF Mount Pleasant within an hour of each other early this morning, Irish time.

Did you spot that on FR ?

LXFlyer

dashoonage wrote: »

Did you spot that on FR ?

Yes - I've a gold account and if you click on Mount Pleasant airport and then click on "on ground" you can see the two aircraft.

Globemaster:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/zz171#246380b4


A330 Voyager:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/9l2230#24635085

A330 Voyager ZZ334 is the locally based Voyager in Mount Pleasant currently and FR24 also reports an Airbus A400M (ZM414) at the airport also.

dashoonage

LXFlyer wrote: »

Yes - I've a gold account and if you click on Mount Pleasant airport and then click on "on ground" you can see the two aircraft.

Globemaster:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/zz171#246380b4


A330 Voyager:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/9l2230#24635085

A330 Voyager ZZ334 is the locally based Voyager in Mount Pleasant currently and FR24 also reports an Airbus A400M (ZM414) at the airport also.

Thanks very much for that LX!

LXFlyer

Just to note that there are a couple of other scheduled civil flights operating to/from Mount Pleasant, but which are suspended at the moment I suspect.

LATAM operate two flights weekly:

1) To/from Santiago in Chile via Punta Arenas (also in Chile) with a monthly stop at Rio Gallegos in Argentina.
2) They recently launched a weekly service to/from Sao Paolo in Brazil (stopping at Cordoba in Argentina once a month).

dashoonage

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR4004/24645f99

Another RAF one ZM407 this time

donkey balls

A Hainan 787-9 just landed at Dub is this a PPE flight?

Irish Steve

dashoonage wrote: »

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR4004/24645f99

Another RAF one ZM407 this time

Taking a different route than the previous flights out of Espargos Amilcar Cabral International Airport (SID), going much more south east back towards the African continent, Not sure if that's a range issue, so they need to make another fuel stop on the way down, as it's an A400 rather than a globemaster, or if it's going somewhere different.

LXFlyer

Irish Steve wrote: »

Taking a different route than the previous flights out of Espargos Amilcar Cabral International Airport (SID), going much more south east back towards the African continent, Not sure if that's a range issue, so they need to make another fuel stop on the way down, as it's an A400 rather than a globemaster, or if it's going somewhere different.

Possibly heading for Sierra Leone? The UK have significant ties with that country in terms of military support.

Irish Steve

Another really interesting RAF flight, getting specific details of this one is likely to be a challenge

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR6396/24647fec

Came out of a base on the west coast near Las Vegas, China Lake, a weapons test area, and it's just about to land on the East Coast at Dover AFB, presumably to refuel before coming back to the UK.

Tenger

donkey balls wrote: »

A Hainan 787-9 just landed at Dub is this a PPE flight?

Probably. Dublin Airport had a pic up earlier to showcase the medical flights they are receiving. (no doubt to counter Gemma O'D)
Hainan was in the pic


Regarding that RAF flight out of China Lake. Could well be connected to the F35 program. RAF has pilots embedded in the testing program in the US, could be testing UK specific equipment.

marno21

Hainan flights from Beijing and Shenzhen are medical PPE as per https://www.dublinairport.com/latest-news/2020/04/09/dublin-airport-facilitating-essential-cargo-flights

List of other cargo flights in that link also.

dashoonage

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR9943/2465366e

Another Globemaster over Saudi at the moment

Inquitus

Just the 3 Aer Lingus flights up atm :

• 1. EIN9021 coming home from PEK about 4 hours out over Russia.
• 2. EIN123 just taken off heading to ORD.
• 3. EIN93C heading from LHR to BHD.

LXFlyer

dashoonage wrote: »

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR9943/2465366e

Another Globemaster over Saudi at the moment

Went from RAF Akrotiri to Al Minhad air base in the UAE.

LXFlyer

dashoonage wrote: »

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR4004/24645f99

Another RAF one ZM407 this time

Irish Steve wrote: »

Taking a different route than the previous flights out of Espargos Amilcar Cabral International Airport (SID), going much more south east back towards the African continent, Not sure if that's a range issue, so they need to make another fuel stop on the way down, as it's an A400 rather than a globemaster, or if it's going somewhere different.

On reflection, and looking at the direction of flight, I suspect that this aircraft went on to Ascension Island which is outside FR24 coverage - while the runway cannot take the AirTanker A330, it is suitable for an A400.

Another interesting and very unusual working was former BA A318 G-EUNB (it used to do LCY-JFK), now of Titan Airways which flew medical supplies and a small number of passengers from London to Ascension Island and on to St Helena via Accra this week.

It then performed several familiarisation circuits at St Helena before returning to London via Accra.

The regular flights from South Africa to St Helena using an E190 of SA Airlink have been suspended.

This was the first working of an A318 to St Helena. and the aircraft will be available to do further flights in due course. The aircraft remains in an all business class configuration.

A video has been uploaded here:
http://sthelenaairport.com/news/successful-visit-st-helena-airport-airbus-a318/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfkXm7iQC6k

A report on the trip here:
https://onemileatatime.com/saint-helena-swanky-rescue-plane/

Irish Steve

Is the issue at Ascencion a weight or width issue, or are there still works ongoing on the runway, I think I saw a notam somewhere about works on the runway. It's 10,000 Ft, so plenty long enough. The RAF are working those 330's hard, there's one just landed at Stockholm, the one from the other day to Mount Pleasant is on the way back up to Dakar, one just airborne from Prestwick, and one probably heading for Akrotiri. They are standing out more due to the lack of other trafffic.

LXFlyer

Irish Steve wrote: »

Is the issue at Ascencion a weight or width issue, or are there still works ongoing on the runway, I think I saw a notam somewhere about works on the runway. It's 10,000 Ft, so plenty long enough. The RAF are working those 330's hard, there's one just landed at Stockholm, the one from the other day to Mount Pleasant is on the way back up to Dakar, one just airborne from Prestwick, and one probably heading for Akrotiri. They are standing out more due to the lack of other trafffic.

The runway at Ascension needs to be relaid. Work has yet to start.

The A330 is too heavy to use it in its current condition.

More info here:
https://www.ascension.gov.ac/wideawake-runway-reconstruction-contract-awarded

https://en.mercopress.com/2020/02/14/ascension-island-airport-to-reopen-to-wide-body-traffic-by-2022

dashoonage

is it common for this amount of RAF air traffic , not that ive been keeping an eye ?

Irish Steve

I suspect it's heavier than normal, there was a Globemaster flight from Istanbul earlier in the week to bring PPE to the UK, which would not be normal, but things like the Falklands trips are a regular ongoing requirement, as are the flights to Akrotiri.

The absence of normal commercial traffic is making it easier to see that the RAF flights are in the mix. I've got some airline codes in a filter at the moment to make it easier to spot them, but with normal traffic I would not be looking at specifics like this, and the other aspect would be a lot more (too much?) computer time at the moment.

fr336

Jet2 on route Stansted to Brize Norton. Probably Corona related.

dashoonage

fr336 wrote: »

Jet2 on route Stansted to Brize Norton. Probably Corona related.

mmm it says operated by Airtanker.... i wonder have they been leased?

LXFlyer

fr336 wrote: »

Jet2 on route Stansted to Brize Norton. Probably Corona related.

That’s actually one of the four AirTanker A330s on the civil register - they are spare that they charter out and it was operated for Jet2.com - but they remain available for RAF use.

It appears to have operated a repatriation flight from Gran Canaria earlier today.

eastmayo

Anyone else haveing problems with flightrador 24 app the last hour?...won't open for me.,says flightrador has stopped

Irish Steve

eastmayo wrote: »

Anyone else haveing problems with flightrador 24 app the last hour?...won't open for me.,says flightrador has stopped

Just signed in again now, and it's working for me at the moment. Web overall has gone slow this evening, so it might have timed out and need to be restarted, depending on which browser or app you're running.

PukkaStukka

Not just flight radar, it seems to be a number of apps that use Maps like Google maps, Irish rail app, netweather rainfall app