What's flying over your house

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Yesterday in my garden I could hear a noise similar to a fast moving slope soarer, and sure enough it was a full size glider on it's way to Kenley aerodrome. I was not quick enough with my camera.

[Jimbo565]

We are 6 miles east of Newcastle airport bang on the center line of runway 25,snapped this RAF A400 doing a spot of training,did about 3 laps and then headed south., this was about 10 days ago.

 

Edited By Jim Carss on 04/09/2020 19:21:26

[PatMc]

Hi Jim, you must just about sick of the sight of them by now. Over the lockdown period the A400's doing circuits of Newcastle airport were the most common aircraft we saw from Seaton Sluice.

OTOH last Monday saw this Christen Eagle from our back garden, the first time I've seen one outside of an airshow. It was heading north following the coastline, I just managed to grab the camera & snap it before it disappeared from view behind houses. By the sound I think it may have turned & headed back south over St Mary's island & just beyond sight from our house.

Excuse the poor quality, it was so far away by the time I managed to snap it that I had to crop most of the image away to get a half decent picture.

Edited By PatMc on 04/09/2020 22:13:07

[i12fly]

For plane spotting I use Flightradar24 for civil and military Hawks around Anglesey, and Freedar.uk for military (and civil). Both free.

For some reason the Freedar does not show the Hawk T1s around Anglesey, don't know why.

Kevin, you might be getting attacked by Harvest Mites rather than midges. They are nasty little biters that you only notice a few hours after being bitten and itch like crazy for 2 or 3 days with a raised lump about 10mm across. The mites are about 1mm across live in the lawn and bite humans and animals late July through to mid September. We managed to catch one and our vet confirmed the id. They are arachnids so flea treatments don't work, our cat has to have steroid injections to help stop the itching, unfortunately the vet wont give me the injection too, so I avoid the lawn and have a gardener to mow -who either has skin like leather or the mites just don't like him. Apparently they don't suck blood but inject digestive juices then suck up the liquidised flesh. Vile. There is no licensed treatment in UK/EU but is is the US....

[Peter Miller]

The best thing for harvest mite bite is TCP. Apply with a cotton wool swab and it will take the itch away very quickly. Sometimes a bad one will itch longer and need more applications.

I have a patch which gets me in the front garden just where I get into my car!!!

They go at the first frost.

THey get between the toes on dogs and cats so if you see a dog desparately chewing between its toes you know it is a harvest mite bite

Edited By Peter Miller on 05/09/2020 08:24:49

[Jimbo565]

Pat

may have some info on the Eagle,a pal of mine lives in Amble and he knows the chap who owns it,could be based at eshott.

the most odd ball aircraft Iv'e seen is this one,came into newcastle about 3 times early summer and sounds like a demented wasp

Piaggio,greek reg.

Pat

latest on the eagle,it belongs to the guy who runs the Newcastle aero club flying school and is based at Fishburn in Co Durham

Edited By Jim Carss on 05/09/2020 10:58:20

[Jonathan M]

Two silver coloured Chipmunks flew over the house in close formation at lunchtime - I wasn't wearing my distance glasses but they were pretty unmistakable!

Mind you, the first summer I moved here 18 years ago, two Spits and a Hurricane flew so low over the village the old shed vibrated!

[Andy Hibbert 1]

Three B52's at approx 10,000ft over Northampton earlier this week. Maybe letting down into Mildenhall. Great sight and sound!

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[BackinBlack]

Posted by Andy Hibbert 1 on 05/09/2020 20:16:32:

Three B52's at approx 10,000ft over Northampton earlier this week. Maybe letting down into Mildenhall. Great sight and sound!

B52s have been very active from RAF Fairford the last couple of weeks. This last week at least a pair has flown out every morning from Fairford roughly ENE at 10,000ft over Northamptonshire then over Lakenheath and onwards easterly climbing to 30,000ft plus. They disappear from radar roughly over NE Poland and reappear 4-6 hours later to return on the same route to Fairford.

Quite a sight even at 8-10,000ft (I'm near Northampton too) and unmistakeable sound.

[GrumpyGnome]

A eurofighter is currently flying around iverhead. Very noisy!

GG

[Andy Ellis 1]

Two F15s chasing each other in the dark. Afterburners show up well at night!

[GrumpyGnome]

We moved to the Yorkshire east coast a couple of years ago and i was immediately surprised at the aircraft flying over - the military ones probably on their way to or from the MOD airspace just off the coast. Geographically, I am 5 miles from the coast, about 2 miles from an 'inactive' RAF base, about 4 miles from a private airfield, and a mile or so from my flying field😊

From what I can remember, these have flown over/around at various heights (often EXTREMELY low...) some are almost daily

Eurofighter/Typhoon

F15

F16

A400M (VERY VERY LOW)

USAF Galaxy

Tucanos (often have 3 practicing aeros overhead)

Grob Prefect

Tornado

Hawk

Tiger Moth (flew over one way at about 1000 feet; 20 mins later flew back much much lower to be under the clouds)

Bell 222

R22

R44

Various SAR helis

Chinook

Couple of autogyros (these land at Edsfield the private airfield)

Various other helis that I cannot identify

Microlights ditto

Usual cessnas and pipers

A Hurricane (I think) - probably going to/from an airshow....

My wife thinks it's funny that I run into the garden when I hear an aeroplane. Like a 60 year old child.

As an aside, we drove to our local refuse/recycling centre a while ago, and whilst waiting for a train to pass (LOADS of level crossings round here), I said "wow look at that long flat field, would have been great for WW2 bombers". I later found it was an emergency field for just that in WW2 - just outside Bridlington.

This place feels a million miles removed from Halifax!

GG

[J D 8]

When RAF Brawdy closed nearly thirty years ago things became very quite around here [ boring ] As I was a Coastguard rescue officer at the time we also lost the SAR Seaking's with which we practiced with and sometimes just went for jolly with.

I have to say the most "interesting" flight was on a practice when I was plucked off a cliff face [ no winchman, coastguards were expected to fit the strop themselves ] and instead of being winched into the helo went for a trip around the harbour on the end of the cable before being landed back on the clifftop.

[buster prop]

I was in some gardens near Wing in Buckinghamshire this afternoon and a Catalina flying boat went over. It was going slowly and not very high, probably under 2,000 ft. I expect it’s from Duxford, remember seeing one there at an air show. I don’t know of any others in the UK. A rarity, glad I was there to see it.

[Erfolg]

A largish plane just flew low over the house, with strobe effect lights across the leading edge of the wing, which jolted my memory.

Yesterday, I saw two Chinooks flying near BAE, never seen one before. My wife said said she thought there were three, flying past the golf course. I am a golf widower.

As for Typhoons, I hear them often, see them occasionally, mostly a tiny delta. As said the noise is a give away they are about. In this local, a bird of good omen, for this region.

Edited By Erfolg on 10/09/2020 20:35:31

[GrumpyGnome]

Spooky. Couple of Chinooks were flying around earlier, quite low, doing triangular circuits, passing me at about 0.25 miles away. Surprisingly graceful machines..

GG

[Ace]

This morning 2 Apaches at about 500' following the A1 north in W Yorks, then this afternoon 1 Apache, 1 Chinook and 1 Osprey all few over the patch heading south.

[Peter Miller]

Round here it isn't even worth mentioning Apaches, they are around day and night.

[Graham Davies 3]

We regularly get an aerobatic display from a Harvard. It fair shakes the ground. Which is nice...

[Peter Miller]

We don't get him over this side Graham!!

[Graham Davies 3]

That's a shame Peter. We also get your old friend in his Pitts from time to time.

[Ace]

Peter, so did we before their training base up the road at Disforth was closed, now they are rare - for us.

[Peter Miller]

I haven't seen the Pitts for ages.

ACE: I was at Dishforth for a few months working on the Beverly major reconditioning program....I still have nightmafes over that one but luckily I managed ti get posted awayagain.

That was in 1964

[leccyflyer]

It somehow passed me by that the RAF basic fast jet training in the lovely Tucano turboprop has now moved from LInton on Ouse in Yorkshire to RAF Valley in Anglesey, with the Tucano being replaced by the TII Texan, based on the Pilatus PC-9, but manufactured by Beechcraft.

I only noticed this when a pair of Texan II's showed up on the ADS=B tracking website that I have switched on to see what we've got operating around these parts. Yesterday we had a few Eurofighters out and about over the North Sea and in a more zoomed out view I noticed that the BoB Memorial Flight Spitfire and Hurricane were busy over the south of England. Then I saw an unfamiliar icon and it was a pair of Texans which peaked my interest and have a look on the MOD website.