Flight Radar 24 pt 2

[NoGravyForYou]

I don't know if anyone else has made one!
BA2665 has missed LGW and is circling again

Wednesday is the day when the oil rig crews swap over.

BI006 (that's I not one) doing aerial data surveys over North Wales/Shropshire/Staffordshire

N955SH doing circuits over Cambridge. I wonder why all these small airfields are open for private pilots when gliding clubs have been told to close.

RVR7NJ doing circuits over central London after flying down from Merseyside
GCTCB CAA flight examiners from Bournemouth to Southend via Doncaster

Still a ridiculously unacceptable number of flights over the US though.

Still a ridiculously unacceptable number of flights over the US though

Do you know what’s in/on those flights? It might be the spring breakers on the way home, OTOH it could be vital supplies, possibly being flown on passenger aircraft that are being used as ad-hoc freighters operating on commercial callsign...such as this:

simpleflying.com/lufthansa-makeshift-cargo-a330/

I can’t speak directly for the States flights but I’m right in the middle (as in “boots in the air,” thousands and miles away from home and family) of a major effort to repatriate Aussies and Brits...we’re using a route I know many people here have used, we are using the normal callsigns...but we’re not jetting holidaymakers and business people around just for the heck of it, people are desperate to get home.

If anyone's still awake, RRR9301 RAF Voyager is coming in over Bristol, it looks like it's heading back to Brize. It's returning from the Azores, wonder what it was doing over there?

AF6731 is taking an unusual route to Prestwick.

@midnightstar66 I noticed the same, lots of flies or ants.

@peekaboob I assume that flight was meant to say Paris not Prestwick

Still a lot helicopter activity around Aberdeen. 12 in the air and 3 on the ground, plus a few other to and from the islands and Norway

I wondered about the volume of US flights, it looks like it is exactly as normal and no reduction at all.

I've noticed much more helicopter activity off the coasts of Aberdeen and Bergen than usual. What's really striking though are the number of helicopters in the air throughout Europe, when you wouldn't normally see that.

Hopefully, it's reflective of sick people being taken to hospital, rather than of rich people hiring helicopters because they don't think the lockdowns apply to them.

AF6731 is taking an unusual route to Prestwick

It was never for Prestwick. It was for Paris. FR24 was doing a bit of guess work based on previous flights. Happens a lot with the cargo flights.

It's returning from the Azores, wonder what it was doing over there?

Lajes Firld Air Base. Possible refuelling;

RAF flight: are the Azores the refuelling site for flights to/from the Falklands? Ascension is no longer used because the runway needs repairing.

I suspect the states is simply going from it’s normal “incredibly incredibly“ busy to just “incredibly busy” . You’d have to have a very practised eye to spot the difference on flight radar..

I was in the States a couple of times in early March and even then to the naked eye it was obvious flights were reducing and aircraft were being parked up. It is certainly not business as usual.

www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/03/18/coronavirus-travel-fallout-united-jetblue-allegiant-slash-flights/2863432001/

At the risk of repetition... Freight, most especially time sensitive stuff such as pharmaceutical supplies and medical equipment, will of course continue to need to be flown by the likes of DHL, FedEx and as belly cargo and/or in the cabins with the major carriers.

From a FR24 point of view it is highly highly unlikely this will look like it did like post 9/11 or during the volcanic ash event, when there was nothing flying at all over large chunks of the globe....

The Azores are used for refueling, yes.

Someone having some fun over Hungary

That's brilliant

Question for people who are knowledgeable about this stuff: any idea why planes are taking off from Luton and Stansted, flying in a circle and landing again? Like this one just now?

@SeasonallySnowyPeasant ones just taken off from stn so will keep an eye.

Military plane RRR2300 has just taken off from Brize Norton.

This is one of the stn planes

Here’s a Luton one. From the figure-of-eight pic it looks like they’re having a play about, but why?? Surely they’re not still having to keep using the slots to keep them?

Question for people who are knowledgeable about this stuff: any idea why planes are taking off from Luton and Stansted, flying in a circle and landing again? Like this one just now?

Well.....rumour has it....but you’d need an engineer to confirm...:

The longer an aircraft is not flown, engines not run, hydraulic fluid not circulated the more maintenance it may need to be brought back into service. So there might be a cost/benefit argument to firing the aircraft up for a quick circuit....

Certainly down so would allow some pilots to retain “recency” (see the err..discussion elsewhere about Prince William, helicopters and perishable skills), but TBH pilot recency is usually recovered by way of the simulator....

What sort of planes are they? Take offs and landings put much more stress on both the body of a plane and the engines than just flying once you're up does (which means, all else being equal, second hand planes that have done a lot of short haul hops are cheaper than long haul ones) so I doubt they'd be doing very short little loops like this unless they had to.

They’re just bog-standard Ryanair short haul passenger planes. The engineering/maintenance thing makes sense. Which reminds me, I need to take the car out for a spin at some point this week.