Jump to content

What's flying over your house? Thread #2


HP42

Recommended Posts

Coming into Budapest Airport today and saw out of the plane window. 

An24 in camouflage. 

Tu154, so surprised to see one , did not really take in colour scheme. 

A number of AH64s and UH 60s parked on the grass. US  Army on exercise. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This weekend there is an airshow in Krakow museum of aviation, and the main guest is Duxford's Catalina (lets call it Vickers build Canso :) ). Today twice she was above my house, on approach to Krakow aiport Balice which is nearby

First takes from my garden:

48110235893_bdf0507d5a_b.jpg

48110300072_795dbe8861_b.jpg

48110235353_ea2746f672_b.jpg

 

And from second approach (after second flight in show)

 

48110299577_1613f6fdc6_b.jpg

 

Very nice to me in particular since my most recent builds are PBN-1 Nomad (Broplan conversion to Academy kit) and restoration of old model of Airfix Catalina converted to Mk I of 209 Sq (so called "Bismarck Catalina").  I think that comparison show that blisters in Acedemy kit are too bulbed... (Ok, I know, that this Canso has modified blisters made of a single piece).

Regards

J-W

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/5/2019 at 5:49 PM, Wez said:

Me and a colleague took our lunch break down at Haslar sea wall, just happened to coincide with the D-Day 75 flypast :whistle:

 

We saw the Spitfire XIX, Hurricane, Lynx on steroids (refuse to call it a Wildcat), two Merlins (including an ex-RAF cab), Sentry, two Herc's, a Voyager, some Hawks, a couple of Typhoons all followed up by the Lead Sparrers - not bad for a Wednesday lunchtime!

All junglie merlins are crab cast offs/hand me downs 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, junglierating said:

All junglie merlins are crab cast offs/hand me downs 

Yes, I know the junglies are EX-RAF cast-offs but one of them was an anti-sub version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, junglierating said:

So both Roger Nigel then😀

Yes, both Captain Pugwash's Flying Circus :wicked:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Armee de l'air have been quite active where me and my self propelled temporary home on wheels are near La Rochelle, hitherto they have been quite quiet, I guess the hot weather has brought them out to play!

 

So far today I've seen a Transall, a PC-21 and a Mirage 2000 (which made a glorious racket)!

 

They were either too far away for a photo or in the case of the PC-21, I was swimming.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Biggles87 said:

Not very much happening at all here, about 120km east of you. I hope you’ve got plenty of factor 40 with you, 38C forecast for the next two days.

Take care.

 

John

Thanks John and you likewise.

It's the fair-skinned English Rose that's Mrs Wez I worry about, she doesn't cope with super warm very well, just hoping for a decent breeze, off toward Nantes next followed by Brittany, both have high temperatures forecast for the next few days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At 0615 this morning as we were putting our horses out, a hot air balloon appeared over the trees at about 75m and descending steadily. As horses don’t always react favourably to balloons we got out of there quickly but the field has a lot of grass so they didn’t even bother to look up. The balloon eventually disappeared behind another row of trees, clearing the power lines in between by about 25m and presumably landed somewhere nearby as we didn’t see or hear it again. Of course I didn’t have any sort of photographic device with me, typical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At 09:15 this morning (27 June 19) a Spitfire, possibly a Mk IX as it had equal sized radiators flew over my garden on an easterly heading, altitude about 1000ft. 

Could be something to do with the AFD Event in Salisbury over the coming weekend. 

A glorious sight and a wonderful sound! 

Of course, my phone was in the house, I was out watering the plants in the greenhouse! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the south coast of Brittany near Vannes, just had an ALAT Gazelle fly over going west to east, I bet they had the cockpit windows and all the vents open cos it will be damned hot in that goldfish bowl of a cockpit!

 

Don't see so many Gazelles in the UK these days, time was they were ever present especially around Salisbury Plain.

 

My first ever helicopter trip was in a Gazelle, when I was in the final airfields phase during trade training at Cosford we did some helicopter marshalling practice with a Gazelle from nearby Shawbury after which we were given air experience flights at low level around Ironbridge etc, I was fortunate to have a front left hand seat, great view!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Wez said:
1 hour ago, Wez said:

 

Don't see so many Gazelles in the UK these days, time was they were ever present especially around Salisbury Plain.

There's still 51 on the books last time I looked at GoldEsp

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, junglierating said:

There's still 51 on the books last time I looked at GoldEsp 

That many? I wonder which variants, I guess a lot of HT. 2&3 as well as the HCC. 4's got flogged off when helicopter training and the Royal Sqn got contracturised, they must have kept a few back to supplement the AH's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not so much over the house, but in the garden, I spotted something glinting in the bright sunlight. A closer look revealed a couple of ruby-tailed wasps. To the untrained eye, you'd think they were tiny, black flies, but when the sunlight hits them, they appear to light up with the most intense, iridescent blue-green and red hues. I have seen them before at the RSPB reserve at Minsmere, but never in this neck of the woods. This is what they look like:

14343413085_37b3923ed1_b.jpg

 

 

 

Later on, a tiger moth (the moth, not the aeroplane!) flew across the garden. Although it was going rather quickly, I was able to positively identify the family, if not the specific species. The deep red underwings and size make me suspect that it was a scarlet tiger, though the Jersey tiger is similar and both have been recently reported in Bedfordshire.

Scarlet tiger:

Butterflies-And-moths-hd-images.jpg

 

A family of magpies have also been visiting today. We don't get them in our garden often, but they don't seem particularly fazed by my presence.

 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of young Red Kites working the thermals above the allotments behind our garden just to the south of Salisbury. 

Magnificent to behold, but possibly not if you are a mouse, vole, shrew and so on. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same place as my Gazelle sighting (see post #1465 from earlier today).  This time a C-47 heading east to west, quite high (but then, being EX-RAF SH, I think 250ft is quite high).

 

It was the big piston engines that caught my attention, identification was by the distinctive wing shape.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Wez said:

That many? I wonder which variants, I guess a lot of HT. 2&3 as well as the HCC. 4's got flogged off when helicopter training and the Royal Sqn got contracturised, they must have kept a few back to supplement the AH's.

I'll take a look Monday.....you got the Netheravon (Tudor air station) lot,NI,Canadia....etc think it was 36 active ...I'd be interested to take a look too

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As the sun sets, we've been watching the antics of the chauve-souris as they call them around here (bat's to you and me).

 

Their aerobatics are amazing as they wheel and jink to catch these large beetles which are rising from the ground and congregating around the trees, the bats are having a feeding frenzy and are a joy to watch. Some of them pass within an arms length of us as we watch.

 

Any of our French correspondants care to offer an opinion as to what the insects are?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

@Wez not French, but I wonder if those beetles are cockchafers? They tend to congregate around tall objects around this time of year.

I thought cockchafer too, they certainly fit the pattern of emerging from the ground with a buzzing sound before launching themselves aloft, they're also the right size too.

 

I only dismissed it because I know them as May Bugs and I thought it too late for them, it turns out out there's a Summer Chafer species which shares the same characteristics but is slightly smaller. They rise about this time of year so I'm guessing it's those that the bat's were having a feeding frenzy on! Certainly a substantial meal for a Pipistrelle sized bat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...