What's flying over your house?

[itsafokker]

Wherever I have lived in recent years I have been lucky to have lots of local aviation buzzing around, from Lightnings in Saudi, Herky Birds and Hunters overflying Cirencester and now lots of General Aviation in Churchdown. In fact as I sit in my study I can see anything from Stearmans, Army Islanders, Stampes and plenty of small private stuff lining up on my window before they clear the chimney by about 50 feet. Smashing!

So what flies around your place and has anyone else been clever enough to persuade their wife that a house that’s in line with a runway is the one to buy? (Well it’s only a small runway!)

Cheers

David

[pigsty]

Airbus, Airbus, Airbus, Boeing, Boeing, Airbus, Boeing, Boeing, Airbus ... and the occasional Cherokee. Dull, dull, dull.

[crookedmouth]

I live near Blackbushe (on the A30 near Camberley) so I get the occasional boring biz jet or stringbag. Did have an Antonov A2 once, but the airspace is fairly boring mostly. However, during the Farnborough Airshow, the Red Arrows use my town (Yateley) as their rendevous and they form up overhead after their various maneouvres. Which is nice.

[Mike]

Airbus, Airbus, Airbus, Boeing, Boeing, Airbus, Boeing, Boeing, Airbus ... and the occasional Cherokee. Dull, dull, dull.

Similar here, all heading to Liverpoodle airport. Also, the flying pigs like to take a ride out in their Islander when the weather's nice The one exception used to be the Mossie based at Hawarden when I was a nipper but now we have the fairly regular appearance of the Beluga... when, oh when will I get one in model form!

[fraxinus]

mostly currently swallows & local chaps pigeons!!.......occasionaly at any time of the day a Chinook swinging in across the valley to canterbury Barracks, & very occasionaly during the summer the 'dead sparrows' when based at Manston, occasional spit/BBMF flight appearance. Most common light aircraft a lovely Stomp based at maypole farm strip (where it was rebuilt). helicopter traffic mostly police squirrel, occasional Merlin & Sea King. Heavy civil jobs...cargo stuff from manston (cannot ID boring airliner white tubes)

[Chally2]

I live nearly a few miles out nearly under the approach to Boscombe Down and unfortunately it isn't the place it used to be, Alpha jets and Hawks are the norm with the occasional goodie, this years highlights have been a couple of F-15's and a NATO AWACS.

I would have seen an Anotov 124 as well go over my place but i was at the end of the runway waiting for it

Plenty of helo action,with the Ripple Hips getting a bit close to a neighbours chimney on occasion when they were flying, my missus has given up trying to get us to move house and ignores me everytime i rush outside to see something

[TonyT]

everything really, I live about a mile from and parallel to East Mids Runway, additionally I see everything under the sun at work, at the moment I am looking out of the door at G-PUPP a getting scarce Scottish Aviation Bulldog Pup

Edited May 4, 2010 by TonyT

[vtecjack]

Ryanair or easy jet sometimes one can have too much choice,oh look another boeing 737 snore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I remember the good old days britannias,caravelles,111's,ahhh the memories

[Giorgio N]

I'm looking straight down the runway of Bresso airport on Milan's outskirts. And there's the usual mix of general aviation types.. have to say I'm not too good at telling a piper from the other

During sundays there's some aerobatic going on, with CAPs and others. There's also some parachuting and a pilatus is used for this.

There used to be an Army Aviation base too and back then there were plenty of army and Carabinieri (kind of a military/civil police service) helos, mainly AB 205/212. Now there are still choppers flying but mainly private and ambulances, with the odd police one. During the Monza GP days it's much busier with a lot of civilian types around (Monza is only 3-4 km from here).

There's still the occasional military plane flying above. The Frecce Tricolori passed a few times and can be seen when they overflow Milan for ceremonies. A couple of typhoons overflew my house around a month ago.

During my years in Ireland I had the chance to see something interesting flying to and from Shannon, apart from the hundreds of Ryan Air 737s. I remember the Patrouille de France,a couple of Mirage F-1CR, the 41 Sqn Jaguar with the white tail, the concorde during the tests after the accident, a Ju52 and a number of american transports and elint planes.

Best of all though is when I stay un my parents house on the adriatic: plenty of military planes from Cervia and Aviano, although not as many as during the days of the war in bosnia.

[itsafokker]

I live nearly a few miles out nearly under the approach to Boscombe Down and unfortunately it isn't the place it used to be, Alpha jets and Hawks are the norm with the occasional goodie, this years highlights have been a couple of F-15's and a NATO AWACS.

I would have seen an Anotov 124 as well go over my place but i was at the end of the runway waiting for it

Plenty of helo action,with the Ripple Hips getting a bit close to a neighbours chimney on occasion when they were flying, my missus has given up trying to get us to move house and ignores me everytime i rush outside to see something

Yes, they don't understand do they. Why is that even if I've seen our local Piper Cub 4 times already, as it does circuits, I still stop what I'm doing to watch it again, and again and . . .

Now I'm even getting to quite like the noisy modern Twin Star that often turns up. Not exactly "Ah Dehavilland" but it's avaiation on my doorstep which is great!

[Scarlet]

Used to be very busy with Low Level stuff here, at the end of the Dee Valley, but very quiet these days. Get the occasional Herc and about half a dozen choppers from Shawbury a week, if we're lucky!

With some of the locals around the 'Loop' winging that there's too much Low Flying around there, send some our way!

[modeltankman]

Where to start, I live in Horsham, West Sussex,

A) Sunday morning a Sentinel R1 going at a very rapid rate of knots towards Dunsfold/Guildford area.

A Lynx AH9 Friday afternoon, again heading off towards Dunsfold/Guildford area.

C) Three or so weeks ago two Apaches in formation heading towards Worthing/Shoreham area.

D) At various times during the week, Chinooks going all over the place.

E) Various times of the day and sometimes night, Sussex Police's Eurocopter from Shoreham.

F) Various times of the day, Sussex air ambulance from Dunsfold.

G) Many years ago a Jaguar that was doing recon trying to find the little girl Sarah Payne who was murdered and found near Adversane.

H) When Dunsfold was open various Harriers and anyhthing BAE.

I) Concorde when it was flying, we are on the Gatwick flight path.

J) Various airliners coming in and out of Gatwick.

K) On the way home from work in the Henfield, West Sussex area, two Hercules C4's VERY LOW, scared the crap out of me !!.

L) Red Arrows tail end of last year at the White Rock air display in Brighton, I work in Brighton and got a superb free display !!

M) Up until very recently, Sea Kings about three miles away from me, doing some kind of thing with the TA and SAS on Denne Hill in Horsham, the MOD & Police had many, many, many complaints from local residents that there were strange lights in the sky and loud engine noises keeping them up at night, and it was confirmed by the local rag it was the RAF dropping the SAS off for some kind of

war game.

N) My best mate lives in Southwater which I believe is a low fly zone and he gets, Tornados, Eurofighters, Chinooks, Merlins, Hawks the lot at very low level as well I may add !!.

O) Various light aircraft from Shoreham airport.

Thats about all I can think of !!

Kev

[Shar2]

Similar story to Pigsty, living near H'row as I do. At work we get quite a few Helios on their way to Battersea Heliport, and it's quite common to see/hear Chinooks and Merlins overhead enroute to ????. We occasionaly have an Apache or two cruising around over Richmond Park or Wimbledon Common.

[fraxinus]

[ Apache or two cruising around over Richmond Park or Wimbledon Common.

Blimey thats how they control the red deer population in Richmond Park now!!.....

[Tripehound]

[ Apache or two cruising around over Richmond Park or Wimbledon Common.

Blimey thats how they control the red deer population in Richmond Park now!!.....

Nah, that's the Revenue Protection Squad looking for people who haven't paid the parking charge...

I work on the site of the old DH/BAe airfiled in Hatfield. We get the odd DH type on what I assume are nostalgia trips. Last week we had what I suspect was a Beech Expeditor (only got a fleeting glimpse) possibly either lost or with a v out of date map.

[itsafokker]

Thanks for all the replies, it's interesting to hear what's on everyones daily flying menu. Keep them coming.

One thing I was puzzled by at Steverton was a Dornier 228 with what looked like a weapon station under the wings. It turns out to be from the National Environmental Research Council Airborne Research & Survey Facility used to investigate the ash cloud. The following link shows an interview with a good view of the pylon and it's load. Quite cool for a civilian aircraft!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8626060.stm

[IainA]

Up until three weeks ago I was very fortunate to spend six years on a farm in N Yorks underneath what appeared to be a line up to something further north (Cumbria playgrounds?). Window rattlingly low Tornados, ditto Harriers, Eurofighters, Hawks, Chinooks, a few Americans (F15's I think), BBMF at least twice a year going?, Apaches hedge-hopping when they were at Dishforth for a while and last, but by no means least, XH558 on it's way back from Sunderland last summer (effing fantastic)...........happy days!

[Enzo the Magnificent]

F-15s from Lakenheath; Tornados from Marham; KC-135s, C-5s and C-17s from Mildenhall.

[Tigerausfb]

'Hammer 31 and 32', F-15s from Lakenheath thundering up above the clouds as I type heading towards Holbeach range and I can see Tutors in the circuit at Wyton. G-SHAR, a Cessna 182, is just crossing Wyton ATZ.

Andy

[ursa_major]

Pretty much anything in the Waddington circuit, I'm just about under high key for rwy 20, so I catch stuff for both ends in the circuit, and can see the 20 approach from the front door too. had a Typhoon through this morning for a couple of circuits, and there's a civvy-marked KingAir doing a lot of local work as a crew trainer for one of the units at the moment too. Normal fayre is E-3s, Sentinels, Nimrod R1s, Shadows, KingAirs, Tutors, Typhoons, the BBMF Dakota is a regular, the odd Tornado, occasional C-130s, F-15s, Harriers, plus visiting aircraft - FAF AlphaJets appear quite regularly to wreak havoc with the controllers' sanity

[daz greenwood]

Just general aviation types out of my local (Rochester), we also get the Air Ambulance, and the occasional Police helicopter if someone's been misbehaving on the estate. We do also get the occasional nice visitor, we had a Lakes Amphibian call in for gas a few weeks ago!

We also get a few Warbirds when BAe or the Airstrip have an Open Day!

Edited May 4, 2010 by daz greenwood

[XL929]

At home it's the usual mix of light aircraft flying along the coast from Shoreham Airport, but at work there's a nice mix of Merlins, Lynx and Sea Kings with the occasional Chinook thrown in for good measure

[Mark M]

ok where do i start

i live between 2 power stations out side retford, about 7 miles as the crow flies to scampton, 12 miles to waddington and 24 miles to cranwell

so most days get visits by the reds, tonkas, harriers make bombing runs on the power stations, all the trainers from cranwell, awacs a plenty, a mad C-17 the other week at about 500ft flying round like a fighter, high level trafic from roobin hood - finningly, last year the vulcan a few times (apparently mr withers has relatives in the next village), oh and lots of chinooks, but thats because a friend of my wives, her brother is a chinook pilot and plots his course to flyby his sister and mums houses!! (im not joking)

so it can be a bit busy!!

Edited May 4, 2010 by markmarples

[Scarlet]

but thats because a friend of my wives,

How many wives have you got?

Edited May 4, 2010 by Scarlet

[Fmk.6john]

About an hour ago we had two pairs of F-15's overhead, very low and very fast..........noisey buggers!!!.

JB.