The contests will be the first time the aircraft have gone head-to-head in UK skies, RAF sources said.
A dozen F-22s arrived at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk earlier this week and are due to stay for practice missions with the RAF until the start of next month.
I thought it might be but I couldn't be sure. I think we saw a couple of fighters going overhead last night but it was dark so I couldn't be certain. One thing I did notice was when one altered course to follow another the white blinking light went to steady on while it turned. Is this something they do?
Gorgeous contrails over Grass Valley today, one feathered out really beautifully and looked like a wing: (excuse image quality and my lack of scientific terminology (; )
And another, newer contrail seemed to bisect a persisting contrail, almost dragging it along:
Pretty cool.
As it's a dull day today, I left my superzoom at home and pocketed a TZ-60 instead. It was enough to capture three slow aircraft at a distance, flying south toward London. One of them was Osprey and the other two were similar helicopters, which I haven't identified yet and which did not get together in one frame:
The aircraft probably originated from RAF Mildenhall, where Ospreys are based, and their deployment may be related to the Obama's visit.
The build up to President Obama's visit to the UK this week began with the arrival of his unique aircraft at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk - The MV-22 Osprey. The Osprey will be available to the President and his secret service staff throughout his visit, with the ability to vertically take off or land like a helicopter and with the flick of a switch the wings rotate converting it into a high speed aircraft.
I didn't take the picture myself, but it is too beautiful not to put it here. Found it on spaceweather today.
(Picture by Jenniffer Werner, Vienna):
comment by spaceweather:
Visually, the dense white contrail appears to be underneath the clouds. But the contrail's shadow tells a different story. In fact, the contrail is above, casting its shadow on the clouds below. Where the shadow steals sunlight from the ice crystals in the cloud, the circular halo vanishes.
Boeing was testing a 767 over my area, doing touch and go landings at Meadows Field, Bakersfield, CA, we usually only have small regional jets. It was passing over my house between 750 ft - 1100 ft. Those big engines sure rattled the rafters.
Distrail through what may be an old contrail, and a twisty contrail Taken from the train window in London (the thing at the top is a reflection of a light).
It's another day where contrails are forming low. These parallel tracks earlier were again from planes climbing out of Stansted, between about 26,500 and 29,000 feet.
No photos but perhaps an illustrative anecdote. An aircraft on approach to the nearby international airport caught our eye at the weekend because it appeared much slower and lower than what we're used to seeing and also appeared much closer than the usual approach path they take. Turned out it was following the usual path but was in fact an Emirates B777-300ER - much larger than the planes we usually see landing
Same plane, same flight, snapped from my office window as it came in to land in London. (I was keeping tabs on the flight because I know the person who was flying it ). If I had known it would be coming by I would have brought a proper camera to work!
Yesterday evening, I was taking photos of the remnants of the storms we had experienced over the previous couple of days due to the Omega Block. Just as I snapped the first photo, the sound of aircraft engines reached my ears. By the time I was able to focus my eyes on the plane, it was moving behind the cloud. I didn't know that I captured the A-380 in the upper right hand corner until this morning when I blew it up on my computer.
The plane was still on it's climb out of LAX, as it emerged from the other side, it was emitting some nice aerodynamic contrails.
A few moments later they sputtered out.
This composite shows the approximate rise in altitude and distance traveled in the nearly 4 minute sequence.
The first WOW Air Airbus A330 landing at CBG this morning.
The aircraft has flown in under former registration PH-IBC, but will have the new registration name TF-GAY.
Skúli [Mogensen, founder and CEO of WOW air,] says that the idea behind the name came about when WOW air announced that it would start flying to San Francisco this summer. “One of our pilots came to me and suggested this name and I thought it was a cool idea so we went ahead with it,” he recalls and adds that they thought it would be appropriate to name their first plane to fly to San Francisco TF-GAY, in a nod to the city’s queer history.
UPDATE
I didn't know that, but resonance caused by the new registration name of WOW Air A330 amongst LGBT networks was picked up by some tabloids as well. The aircraft is still in the of the process of delivery to the Icelandic budget airline. It was painted in WOW Air livery in China and flown from there to UK two days ago. It could not land in Cambridge because of rain and was diverted to the Stansted Airport, from where it has made a short flight to the Cambridge Airport this morning. I've cycled there at lunch time and taken a few photos of the plane on the ground:
It was the third A330 at CBG in the last week. The second, Air Europa EC-MIO is still there, the first one, Aeroflot VQ-BBE, departed back to Russia a week ago.
I find it highly suspicious that planes from different countries come to the airport near me for so-called "service" @Mick West, beware! Your home is under the future flightpath of TF-GAY
Lovely morning in the North of the UK today, getting to see lots of activity, especially the Europe to USA morning flights as they hit the east coast, and a lot of flights out of Schipol.
Grabbed these two shots, persisted for around 30 mins. I'm facing due North from pretty much the centre of Hull, UK
(edit) the larger trail is actually still persisting...
Assuming you mean BST, I don't see any candidates in that time, If it was a few minutes later then it could be this EmiratesEtihad flight. That is the position at 9.29am, and it did make a slight left turn.
The AA flight had passed about 18 minutes before this one.
Assuming you mean BST, I don't see any candidates in that time, If it was a few minutes later then it could be this Emirates flight. That is the position at 9.29am, and it did make a slight left turn.
The AA flight had passed about 18 minutes before this one.
Ah, yes - thanks! I think the angle was throwing me out, and didn't go far enough in the playback. I did see the AA go over. Probably convinced myself the Etihad was earlier...
The first WOW Air Airbus A330 landing at CBG this morning.
The aircraft has flown in under former registration PH-IBC, but will have the new registration name TF-GAY.
Skúli [Mogensen, founder and CEO of WOW air,] says that the idea behind the name came about when WOW air announced that it would start flying to San Francisco this summer. “One of our pilots came to me and suggested this name and I thought it was a cool idea so we went ahead with it,” he recalls and adds that they thought it would be appropriate to name their first plane to fly to San Francisco TF-GAY, in a nod to the city’s queer history.
UPDATE
I didn't know that, but resonance caused by the new registration name of WOW Air A330 amongst LGBT networks was picked up by some tabloids as well. The aircraft is still in the of the process of delivery to the Icelandic budget airline. It was painted in WOW Air livery in China and flown from there to UK two days ago. It could not land in Cambridge because of rain and was diverted to the Stansted Airport, from where it has made a short flight to the Cambridge Airport this morning. I've cycled there at lunch time and taken a few photos of the plane on the ground:
It was the third A330 at CBG in the last week. The second, Air Europa EC-MIO is still there, the first one, Aeroflot VQ-BBE, departed back to Russia a week ago.
I find it highly suspicious that planes from different countries come to the airport near me for so-called "service" @Mick West, beware! Your home is under the future flightpath of TF-GAY
Awesome shots here. Im the CBGSpotter, PH-IBC didn't divert due to rain it had a pan, pan with a flap fault and diverted as CBGs runway isn't long enough given there problem.
Awesome shots here. Im the CBGSpotter, PH-IBC didn't divert due to rain it had a pan, pan with a flap fault and diverted as CBGs runway isn't long enough given there problem.
Thank you for info. I came across your youtube video and those of your fellow Cambridge planespotters and read the comments after I updated my previous post. An earlier explanation of the diversion to STN that I could found was the CBGs runway isn't long enough for A330 landing in wet weather. No technical problems was mentioned. If there was a problem, then perhaps PH-IBC will stay at CBG for longer. I'd like to take the opportunity and ask you a question. How do you know in advance when an interesting aircraft arrives/departs CBG? Is there a public site where one can find this information?
I was at Hurn airport yesterday after getting notifications of an A400M doing circuits but missed it by 10mins. While there I noticed a few passing airliners leaving non-persisting trails above my head so thought, practice makes perfect. (I was wrong and still can't overcome the camera shakes) Here's the results.
Best snapshot I could muster (video zipped and included in the uploads below)
Which I believe to be (video timestamp starts 15:13 yesterday) this Ryanair 737 dreamliner at almost 37K ft. My location as I say was at the airport, marked by the blue dot.
What I find most striking is how, from the ground, the aircraft appeared almost directly above me yet is shown to be some 10-15miles to my east. I had maybe a 10/15 degree tilt on the camera from vertical.