Flightradar24 Interesting Finds

[dmccarty]

Like I mentioned previously, I use Flight Aware to see what is flying around the house. Usually, the aircraft that gets my attention are jets flying into RDU, low flying general aviation, and helicopters. The helicopters are usually medical and running from hospital to hospital. For month early in the lock down, those flights were not happening. We do get military helicopters from time to time. Usually, National Guard from RDU, but sometimes one will be on a bearing to/from Ft. Bragg/Pope, and even more rarely, USMC helicopters on a bearing to/from Camp Lejeune. For US Army helicopters, only a few of the Ft Bragg/Pope flights will show up on Flight Aware, I have never seen a US Army RDU flight or USMC flight on Flight Aware.

I will also hear large jets from time to time, but won't be able to see them since they are flying low, and they won't be on Flight Aware.

Just this week, two Ospery's flew over. They make a very distinct sound and they were on a bearing to Camp Lejeune. A few years ago, I heard a VERY loud aircraft flying low, fast and heading towards us. In the few seconds it took me to get to the front porch, a flight of 3-4 Ospery's flew LOW, right over the house. Tree top level low. They were in train, one plane after the other, and I only saw the last two. For a few seconds. The sound was amazing. They had to be USMC or Air Force Special Operations Ospreys and I assume they were doing training at Ft. Bragg. I have seen an C130 refueling a couple of the huge CH53 Super Stallions.

One night I heard an aircraft fly over and I check Flight Aware. The plane was nothing out of the ordinary but I saw some that was odd. Most of the commercial jets i see in my area are the smaller and medium size aircraft. Seeing a heavy on Flight Aware in my area does not happen very often. But this night I saw a heavy and it got even more interesting. Flight Aware showed the plane took of from Honduras but did not have any other information about the flight. The aircraft id did not make sense either....

With the information on the Information Super Highway, it did not take long, in spite of the lack of information on Flight Aware, to figure out that the aircraft was in fact Air Force 2 flying in one of the modified 747s. The VP had been down in Honduras, and I had looked at Flight Aware just at the right time to see Air Force 2 fly over our area.

It is amazing how much information is on websites like Flight Aware.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

The other day I was looking around and saw several delta-shaped symbols, so clicked on them and they are military trainers flying around Whichata Fall, TX and they were military trainers, usually in pairs. Pretty cool!

So then I saw one somewhere else, and it was a U2 owned by NASA. It took off from Salina, KS, flew east, did some laps over South Carolina, then came back to Salina. Neat, so I took some screen shots.

 

[MossRoad]

So I think he's gonna land in Salina.

 

[MossRoad]

Then he makes a figure 8.

 

[MossRoad]

Then he starts making a bunch of circles and I had to go pull my Suburban over to my mechanic's house because it wouldn't start (mouse chewed the wire to the crankshaft position sensor GRRR!).

 

[MossRoad]

So I come back about half an hour later and my session had timed out. So I refreshed it, and after those circles, they had flow west towards Wilson, KS, turned and came back, which, of course, drew an obscene picture in the sky, which I won't post. You see this kind of thing from time to time posted in the news, but I never thought I'd see it happen live. Your tax dollars at work.

 

[bcp]

This was a puzzler, but I finally figured it out.

Hint: There is an aircraft manufacturer in Scapoose, Oregon.

When FR24 doesn't know what aircraft something is, they use a jetliner icon. Several days ago there were a pair of icons flying in formation. One was a helicopter icon and the other was a jetliner icon. Their registration numbers were only a few last-digits apart. The helicopter icon led to a military helicopter, The jetliner icon was unknown type.

Bruce

 

[dmccarty]

A few years ago I was driving home from work and I could see a contrail that was heading north. What was odd was that the plane made a HUGE 180 degree turn and headed south parallel to it's north bound track. Never seen a plane do that before. The turn had to have been many miles across and it was very precise. I have always wondered what plane made that turn and why.

Later,
Dan

 

[RobertN]

The other day I was looking around and saw several delta-shaped symbols, so clicked on them and they are military trainers flying around Whichata Fall, TX and they were military trainers, usually in pairs. Pretty cool!

So then I saw one somewhere else, and it was a U2 owned by NASA. It took off from Salina, KS, flew east, did some laps over South Carolina, then came back to Salina. Neat, so I took some screen shots.

Here in N. California, we see a lot of that coming out of Travis AFB and Beale AFB Will funny names given to C-5's and C-17's out of Travis.

We also see a lot of flights out of NAS Top Gun Fallon, coming across the Sierra's to the old Mather AFB(still used by National Guard and some military flights). Sometimes they're the delta shape, sometimes they're just code names. Right now, ROPER12 and ROPER13 are flying around Beale AFB; WORK17 is a C-17 flying out of Travis AFB.

If you watch around Edwards AFB in SoCal, there's frequently test flights, with military code names.

 

[JethroB]

I can see C130‘s, Fort Rucker helicopters and the like. I am in an A-10 Warthog training area. They don’t show up on any radar services I’ve looked at. An A-10 buzzed the house today at maybe 1,000 feet or less, no sign of it on Flightradar24 or FlightAware.

 

[MossRoad]

I can see C130‘s, Fort Rucker helicopters and the like. I am in an A-10 Warthog training area. They don’t show up on any radar services I’ve looked at. An A-10 buzzed the house today at maybe 1,000 feet or less, no sign of it on Flightradar24 or FlightAware.

That's because those sites don't use radar, and even if they did, all they'd show is a blip with no way of identifying what the blip is.

Planes show up on those sites because they squawk a code that announces what they are and some other info. (in simple terms).

The A10s that you see aren't announcing themselves. They'd show up on a radar, but with no info as to what they are.

Make sense?

 

[MossRoad]

Many times on Notre Dame football weekends, they have military flyovers. F16s, F15s, A10s, all kinds of stuff. They never show up on any of those sites.

 

[JethroB]

That's because those sites don't use radar, and even if they did, all they'd show is a blip with no way of identifying what the blip is.

Planes show up on those sites because they squawk a code that announces what they are and some other info. (in simple terms).

The A10s that you see aren't announcing themselves. They'd show up on a radar, but with no info as to what they are.

Make sense?

Ya, I mis-used the term radar. It appears that military support aircraft sometimes show on these sites, but not ‘attack’ types. I do see some trainers such at T-38’s and Texans out of Pensacola. Lots of helicopters out of Ft Rucker near Dothan Ala.

 

[bcp]

This site has filters. You can select "military."

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

Example screenshot over southern California, using "military" filter. I have seen some F- and B- types, but seldom.

 

[dmccarty]

Back in the 1980's there was an A-10 unit in Myrtle Beach, SC.

One day I was driving up the Florida Turnpike, which is a long, straight, BORING road, and at the time had a speed limit of 55 mph <sigh>, when ahead of me I saw four A-10s making strafing runs on a Cypress head, aka, a bunch of Cypress trees. Of Course, they were not really strafing but they would dive on the Cypress head, pull up, turn away to return to the stack of A-10's and make another run. Twas the one time I was glad the speed limit was 55 mph since it allowed me to watch the A-10s for awhile.

Best I could tell, the A-10s flew down from Myrtle Beach.

A few years prior, I was out on a sailboat in Biscayne Bay when we noticed some F-16s at a decent altitude heading in our direction. As we watched, they started to do bombing runs on us! They never got low, they stayed pretty high up compared to the A-10s, but it was obvious what they were doing. They would line up, then point their nose at us and started a dive, before pulling up and repeating. They were out of Homestead, AFB south of Miami.

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid in the 60s they had B58 Hustlers stationed at Bunker Hill AFB (now Grissom) in Bunker Hill, IN. They also had an air refueling wing. On US 31, which was just a 2-lane back then, they had caution low flying airplane signs, as the end of the runway was very near the highway. Once, on our way to Cincinnati, we saw a yellow VW beetle that had been crushed by a plane sitting on the side of the road. Yikes!

The Hustlers were imposing looking planes sitting there in their quonset hangars.

Here's the story of one, the Cowtown Hustler that won the Bendix Trophy setting record from LA to NYC, then back to LA. I used to work with the navigator's son. The plane is at the museum in Dayton. Beautiful machine!

"Reportedly, the U.S. Air Force received more than 10,000 damage claims for windows that were broken by the sonic booms created by the two B-58 Hustlers as they flew across the country."

Cowtown Hustler | This Day in Aviation

www.thisdayinaviation.com

 

[dmccarty]

When I was a kid in the 60s they had B58 Hustlers stationed at Bunker Hill AFB (now Grissom) in Bunker Hill, IN.

I would have loved to have seen a B58, flying or not, since it is one of the coolest looking bombers ever flown.

We used to live near Barksdale AFB n LA that was, and still does, operate B52s. I could see planes landing from the front yard and the view was even better if I climbed the pine tree in the front yard.

A B52 flew over the house one day which was odd. I was in my room and heard a loud roar approaching and the house started to vibrate. I ran outside to see a B52 in a tight bank, at very low level, almost over the house. The wings seemed to be perpendicular to the ground but of course they could not be. I had never seen a B52 fly over us before and one never did again. I could never figure out why the plane flew over us because we were well away from the runway approach, and if they had to abort a landing, the would not have been over us, much less making that turn.

I always wondered if they flew over the neighborhood for a classmate of mine. His father was a pilot or copilot in a B52 which was shot down over North Vietnam, and I wondered if they flew over the neighborhood for the classmate. Only thing that made sense to me.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

Every time military jets come in to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game, they do a fly-by of the tower at high speed and then turn either north or south and do a go around before landing. Sometimes they go right over our house, it shakes all the windows, and the cats head for the basement. I love it!

 

[flyerdan]

Growing up in way north Idaho in the 60's, every so often on a quiet day we'd be jolted by a window rattling boom, run outside and see a silver glint or contrail moving about twice as fast as the airliners today. Probably from Minot or somewhere in MT headed for Fairchild.

 

[RobertN]

I would have loved to have seen a B58, flying or not, since it is one of the coolest looking bombers ever flown.

We used to live near Barksdale AFB n LA that was, and still does, operate B52s. I could see planes landing from the front yard and the view was even better if I climbed the pine tree in the front yard.

A B52 flew over the house one day which was odd. I was in my room and heard a loud roar approaching and the house started to vibrate. I ran outside to see a B52 in a tight bank, at very low level, almost over the house. The wings seemed to be perpendicular to the ground but of course they could not be. I had never seen a B52 fly over us before and one never did again. I could never figure out why the plane flew over us because we were well away from the runway approach, and if they had to abort a landing, the would not have been over us, much less making that turn.

I always wondered if they flew over the neighborhood for a classmate of mine. His father was a pilot or copilot in a B52 which was shot down over North Vietnam, and I wondered if they flew over the neighborhood for the classmate. Only thing that made sense to me.

Later,
Dan

Grew up near Mather AFB. It was a SAC B-52 base. Occasionally would see them doing MITO's. It was really impressive to see the succession of B-52's and KC135's taking off.