The Planespotting Thread

[The Hallucinating Goose]

A place for the aviation geeks of the RL world.  

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I'll start us off; 

What is your favourite aircraft?

[CanaBull]

I’m not down the rabbit hole of crossing off registrations or anything lol but being where I am now in Toronto I’m blessed with a good few airports around, one aviation museum (with the other flying Lancaster) and on the flight paths for a lot of military stuff heading out east and to Europe. 
 

Love the old warbirds, always impressed by the tech of the modern jets (F22 is something else to see flying) but there’s something about the simpler time and the pilot connected by rods and wires to the aircraft and not a computer. 
 

Worked on a few helicopters over my working career so have a soft spot for the Lynx, Sea King, Apache and helicopters in general. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

5 hours ago, CanaBull said:

I’m not down the rabbit hole of crossing off registrations or anything lol but being where I am now in Toronto I’m blessed with a good few airports around, one aviation museum (with the other flying Lancaster) and on the flight paths for a lot of military stuff heading out east and to Europe. 
 

Love the old warbirds, always impressed by the tech of the modern jets (F22 is something else to see flying) but there’s something about the simpler time and the pilot connected by rods and wires to the aircraft and not a computer. 
 

Worked on a few helicopters over my working career so have a soft spot for the Lynx, Sea King, Apache and helicopters in general. 

My biggest passion in the aviation world is passenger airliners due to my love of travel and like you, I prefer older, simpler planes.

I also prefer smaller, more regional airliners rather than the huge Boeing and Airbus models. I love the ATR 42 and the de Havilland Canada Dash 8 models, and even smaller turboprops such as the Bae Jetstream 31 and 41. 

Up in the islands of Scotland they use 19 seater DHC Twin Otters to get between the islands and the mainland a lot of the time but i havent had the pleasure of flying on one of those. The smallest plane I have personally been on is the Dash 8 on a flight from Leeds to Belfast. I certainly prefer a turboprop to a jet.

In terms of helicopters, my knowledge there is nowhere near what it is for planes but we do get a lot of helicopters around the Hull area because of so many being based at Humberside with the big Sikorsky coast guards there and a lot of Leonardos taking workers out to the oil rigs.

Edited December 9, 2024 by The Hallucinating Goose

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

My biggest passion in the aviation world is passenger airliners due to my love of travel and like you, I prefer older, simpler planes.

I also prefer smaller, more regional airliners rather than the huge Boeing and Airbus models. I love the ATR 42 and the de Havilland Canada Dash 8 models, and even smaller turboprops such as the Bae Jetstream 31 and 41. 

Up in the islands of Scotland they use 19 seater DHC Twin Otters to get between the islands and the mainland a lot of the time but i havent had the pleasure of flying on one of those. The smallest plane I have personally been on is the Dash 8 on a flight from Leeds to Belfast. I certainly prefer a turboprop to a jet.

In terms of helicopters, my knowledge there is nowhere near what it is for planes but we do get a lot of helicopters around the Hull area because of so many being based at Humberside with the big Sikorsky coast guards there and a lot of Leonardos taking workers out to the oil rigs.

The smallest plane I've been on was a Britten Norman Islander flying between Tingwall and Papa Stour in Shetland. Eight seats and a route that is no longer flown.

[CanaBull]

Obviously there are a ton of DHC Otters and Twin Otters flying the lakes and the bush routes of Northern Canada, crucial to the small communities and wonderful aircraft still being produced. Occasionally you’ll see one of the older Noorduyn Norseman too, not many of those left now but they were one of the more successful cold weather bush planes in the 50’s and 60’s. 

[Futtocks]

In my last year of school, I did some holiday work at the Sutton Bank gliding club, which was withing cycling range of where I lived.

On my last day, the boss took me for a flight in a glider as a treat. At Sutton Bank, you get about 100 feet up, then the cliff drops away beneath you and the ground's nearly ten times further down and you're looking down at the White Horse. It is a little disconcerting.

[Futtocks]

12 hours ago, CanaBull said:

Worked on a few helicopters over my working career so have a soft spot for the Lynx, Sea King, Apache and helicopters in general. 

Last time I saw Sea Kings in action, they were lowering firemen by rope to the deck of the Pembroke-to-Rosslare ferry I was on. Someone had set fire to it in the middle of the night.

[CanaBull]

17 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Last time I saw Sea Kings in action, they were lowering firemen by rope to the deck of the Pembroke-to-Rosslare ferry I was on. Someone had set fire to it in the middle of the night.

My first memory of them was a SAR version doing a demo at a Malham show when I was a youngster. Remember Fed Dibnah being at one of them too with one of his traction engines, don’t think it was the same show though  heck of a character that bloke. 

Edited December 9, 2024 by CanaBull

[Fly-By-TheWire]

15 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

A place for the aviation geeks of the RL world.  

Aha.. you did it! 

I promised a few gems so I thought I'd start with some snaps of Cold War beauties.   They don't make 'em this mean-looking any more...    I'm not sure how I put a full image in the text window since there's a limit of 240kb, so I put the pics on a hosting site:

B52 visiting the UK

An IL-76 freighter flown by Russian mercenaries, snapped on the apron at Baghdad during a quick "in-and-out" in the days of the Green Zone.

A Sukhoi 22 and Sukhoi 17 abandoned at Hawarden near Chester... Shame about the state of disrepair.

A rare and beautifully maintained Polish AF example of a Sukhoi 22 visiting the UK.

 

I'll hunt out some more of my pics.   They're not always great quality as I sometimes have to snap them on my phone.   I have some nice shots of airliners too, new and old.

 

Edited December 9, 2024 by Fly-By-TheWire

[The Hallucinating Goose]

47 minutes ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

Aha.. you did it! 

I promised a few gems so I thought I'd start with some snaps of Cold War beauties.   They don't make 'em this mean-looking any more...    I'm not sure how I put a full image in the text window since there's a limit of 240kb, so I put the pics on a hosting site:

B52 visiting the UK

An IL-76 freighter flown by Russian mercenaries, snapped on the apron at Baghdad during a quick "in-and-out" in the days of the Green Zone.

A Sukhoi 22 and Sukhoi 17 abandoned at Hawarden near Chester... Shame about the state of disrepair.

A rare and beautifully maintained Polish AF example of a Sukhoi 22 visiting the UK.

 

I'll hunt out some more of my pics.   They're not always great quality as I sometimes have to snap them on my phone.   I have some nice shots of airliners too, new and old.

 

Is that Ilyushin a double decker with it seemingly having windows on the underside of the fuselage by the nose as well?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I've just been on the train and seen a couple of really low flying jets over East Yorkshire, almost skimming the tops of the trees. They didn't show up on flightradar so can't say for sure what they were but a photographer on Facebook took some pics of a couple of American F15s over the Yorkshire Dales, might be the same ones.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Is that Ilyushin a double decker with it seemingly having windows on the underside of the fuselage by the nose as well?

Yes, sort of.   The navigator sits down there. It’s accessed from behind the flight deck.   The aircraft itself is not a double decker though.

You’ve just reminded me that I’ve actually got some photos from inside one of Viktor Bout’s abandoned gun-running Il-76s from when he tried to hide his operation in Sharjah.   I’ll post them today.   It’s a fascinating bit of kit.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I've just been on the train and seen a couple of really low flying jets over East Yorkshire, almost skimming the tops of the trees. They didn't show up on flightradar so can't say for sure what they were but a photographer on Facebook took some pics of a couple of American F15s over the Yorkshire Dales, might be the same ones.

I grew up in a house on top of a hill at the edge of the North York Moors, and we often got buzzed at really low level.

It was mostly Buccaneers back then.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

4 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

I grew up in a house on top of a hill at the edge of the North York Moors, and we often got buzzed at really low level.

It was mostly Buccaneers back then.

Have you been to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington?   It's a Bucc fest... lots of examples, including one which starred in an unexpected role in the Gulf War:

https://ibb.co/Zf1n6DG

[Futtocks]

25 minutes ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

Have you been to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington?   It's a Bucc fest... lots of examples, including one which starred in an unexpected role in the Gulf War:

https://ibb.co/Zf1n6DG

No. I was taken to Duxford a couple of times when I was young.

Right now, I'm living only a few miles from the RAF Museum at Colindale.

[Fly-By-TheWire]

As promised, here are some shots of the abandoned gun-running IL-76.   I apologise for the quality.   I also have some better pics somewhere taken with a SLR including the Navigator's station under the cockpit.   Will have to hunt them down.

IL-76

The other plane in there is an Antonov 2 which is a fascinating aircraft in itself.   I could bore you for hours talking about it's unique engine failure and emergency landing technique!

Edited December 9, 2024 by Fly-By-TheWire

[graveyard johnny]

spotted this little beauty today 

[Fly-By-TheWire]

47 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

spotted this little beauty today 

Ba-dum-tish 

[Yorks Tim]

12 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

 

Up in the islands of Scotland they use 19 seater DHC Twin Otters to get between the islands and the mainland a lot of the time but i havent had the pleasure of flying on one of those. The smallest plane I have personally been on is the Dash 8 on a flight from Leeds to Belfast. I certainly prefer a turboprop to a jet.

 

Had a holiday in Penzance a few years ago and took a day trip to the Isles of Scilly.

This company (click for link) do air and sea travel so flew there and sailed back.

The flight on the Twin Otter was awesome so I booked a return trip on the plane the next day. Had an hour turnaround time on the island but so what! Quite a thrill when the plane is revving the engines at full power while being held on the brakes at the start of the (short) runway.   

[Yorks Tim]

7 hours ago, CanaBull said:

Obviously there are a ton of DHC Otters and Twin Otters flying the lakes and the bush routes of Northern Canada, crucial to the small communities and wonderful aircraft still being produced. Occasionally you’ll see one of the older Noorduyn Norseman too, not many of those left now but they were one of the more successful cold weather bush planes in the 50’s and 60’s. 

I have a vague plan of flying from (say) Toronto to Vancouver in short hops on turboprops / similar and wonder if there is a website where someone has done it before and laid out the details of how to do it. Bit more exciting than a WestJet 737. 

Nobody needs to know how many hours I have spent on YouTube watching planes land and take off at Vancouver harbour.

[Yorks Tim]

1 hour ago, Fly-By-TheWire said:

As promised, here are some shots of the abandoned gun-running IL-76.   I apologise for the quality.   I also have some better pics somewhere taken with a SLR including the Navigator's station under the cockpit.   Will have to hunt them down.

IL-76

The other plane in there is an Antonov 2 which is a fascinating aircraft in itself.   I could bore you for hours talking about it's unique engine failure and emergency landing technique!

The IL-76 is maybe my favourite aircraft design. That or the 747.

[JohnM]

You can't beat a flight on an unpressurized Short 360 in a howling gale. Hence the name "Vomit Comet"

[CanaBull]

8 minutes ago, Yorks Tim said:

I have a vague plan of flying from (say) Toronto to Vancouver in short hops on turboprops / similar and wonder if there is a website where someone has done it before and laid out the details of how to do it. Bit more exciting than a WestJet 737. 

Nobody needs to know how many hours I have spent on YouTube watching planes land and take off at Vancouver harbour.

You’re into charter territory on that score, for a price they will fly you anywhere with anything . With a float plane you could get into some places few others do. That’s something me and the good lady were thinking about doing after the cross country rail trip (another thread lol), getting a cottage for a week where the only way in is by float plane. 

[Futtocks]

At this point I should recommend Graham Coster's book Corsairville.

A history of flying boats, based around the true story of the Empire class Corsair that crash-landed in the wilds of Africa and how it was brought back to operation and finally flown home.

Here's a review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/mar/04/historybooks.gilesfoden 

Edited December 9, 2024 by Futtocks