Flight Radar 24 pt 2

[NoGravyForYou]

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

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

As has been said they're standard Ryanair 737s (AFAIK).

This is really one for a licenced engineer to comment on but AFAIK whilst you are right about the stress of takeoff and landing some aircraft systems, particular items in hydraulic systems such as pumps, actuators, o-rings, seals ( as in landing gear, flight controls, etc, etc ) don't seem to cope to well to extended inactivity.

My take on it is that there may well be a requirement for (possibly expensive) recurrent maintenance on a parked up airframe if the thought is that the aircraft will be needed again in the near future, so from a cost vs. benefit view a quick flight might be the cheapest option. If the plan changes to a long parking up then the philosophy might change and the aircraft might be "mothballed" long term.

The flight bringing stranded people back from Peru is just south west of Truro at the moment - BA9115.

I also found, but then lost again, an Aer Lingus flight bringing PPE cargo from China, somewhere over Russia.....

I also had a look at the arrivals and departures boards in Dublin Airport - usually Monday mornings are manic, but there was a gap of almost 3 hours with NO DEPARTURES at all!! And a number of the few left had already been cancelled today, AMS, BRU etc.

And I've also noticed that most flights are departing right on or slightly ahead of schedule, but they are nearly all arriving WELL ahead of schedule - I guess reduced delays for slots at both ends.

There is nothing on the Irish sea going to or from Dublin.

Skies are pretty much clear over London as well. There are only about 6 planes around the outskirts (outside M25) and 3 helicopters...

And I've also noticed that most flights are departing right on or slightly ahead of schedule, but they are nearly all arriving WELL ahead of schedule - I guess reduced delays for slots at both ends.

Yep, once you've actually got away from the gate there are fewer delays taxiing out to the runway and much reduced airborne holding prior to landing at the usually busy busy airports like Heathrow.

If it wasn't for all the stuff going on I'd say they were practicing landings and taking off - circuits and bumps.

The RAF have got an Airbus out from Brize Norton at the moment, it's heading up towards North Wales at the moment.

If it wasn't for all the stuff going on I'd say they were practicing landings and taking off - circuits and bumps.

To my mind other than engineering that's the only other possibility for what people say they witnessed on Flight Radar..if it was one aircraft doing multiple circuits then the reason for doing this event might be it was flights to retain pilot(s) "recency". It might suit Ryanair at the moment to at least keep some of their pilots in recency in case they are suddenly needed...

To be legal to operate pilots need to have logged a certain number of take-offs and landings in a designated period, for instance there might be a requirement for captains to have done a minimum of one take off and one landing in any 35 day period....not normally an issue for short haul pilots, they are normally flying their backsides off, and usually if there is a recency problem it is recovered in the simulator. However if you go out of recency another option is to regain recency by flying on the aircraft with a training captain.

If what was happening with the Ryanair flight was multiple circuits it's not impossible for Ryanair to have stuck a load of pilots on one aircraft and flown circuits for "touch and goes", rotating pilots through the seats between each touch and go.....it's how what was known as "base training" was done back in the days of basic simulators, when it was possible to take a 747 to somewhere like Shannon and qualify 6-10 pilots on one flight by repetitively going around the Shannon pattern, playing musical chairs every second or third circuit on the downwind leg (I hasten to add a training captain was at the controls the whole time..the seat swapping involved the other seat.)

Anyhow - will we ever know what went on with Ryanair... ??

EasyJet are currently flying Edinburgh to Glasgow - a flight of barely 20 mins and def not a regular route.

Do you think this is just moving aircraft to park them up?

Do you think this is just moving aircraft to park them up?

Rumour from elsewhere is today (?) Easyjet are moving aircraft from both Edinburgh Glasgow , and elsewhere and parking them up at Southend.

It's possible the aircraft you are looking has brought some flight crew into Edinburgh and is then going into Glasgow those flight crew will do the parking up/positioning flights possibly later today.

They are also parking up other aircraft in the fleet today at Liverpool..might be an interesting few hours on flight radar if the rumour is true.

TARTn19 has come out of Brize Norton and appears to be flying in a loop in the middle of the north sea.

Also currently three easyjet flights in a row out of Glasgow going to Southend.

Yep, I can now see the caravan of planes heading for Southend, and the BBC are reporting that EasyJet’s entire fleet is grounded for the foreseeable

TARTn19 has come out of Brize Norton and appears to be flying in a loop in the middle of the north sea.

I hope it's not doing loops.........

Best guess to my eye is that the flight is set up on a Air-to-Air refuelling tanking "towline"...that's where the tanker goes around an elongated holding pattern and every now and then the receivers (who may not be visible on Flight radar) will pop up to take on fuel.

Edit to add: Just checked some aeronautical charts I have access to and the TARTN19 aircraft is sitting nicely aligned inside one of the published areas of UK airspace that can be blocked off for Air to Air Refuelling purposes.

There’s a lot of helicopters up again today

Doing loops is great fun but I wouldn't fancy doing them in something that size

Talking of size, there's been a Hercules out over Oxfordshire/Worcestershire/Gloucestershire as well.

The RAF have been on a jolly down in France too - they're just coming over the channel now.

I wonder if this one did any loops?!

Talking of size, there's been a Hercules out over Oxfordshire/Worcestershire/Gloucestershire as well.

That has reminded me, there was a stealth plane over Oxfordshire a couple of weeks ago. Never seen one of those for real before! (I'm guessing it probably didn't show up on Flightradar - I had forgotten about these threads at the time).

I can’t see the Hercules

Extraordinary isn't it - just six planes in the air above mid and north England. Maybe another 30 in the south east and a handful in the rest of the U.K. (excluding helicopters). 40 planes airborne.

Babblebee have a look on the Freedar app that a PP mentioned, there's all kinds on there.

From freedar.uk @BabbleBee

For I would hope fairly obvious reasons the data from/position of/even existence of many military aircraft, especially the fast pointy stuff and anything that does interesting work will not be made available to Flight Radar...

The Voyager aircraft are a bit of an exception.