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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (2 Viewers)

Had one visually over the house about 3 months ago. A lot of the "flying" training is done by simulator at Marham though they were reported as an increase in general handling and systems hours before some airframes headed for Akrotiri. Notably louder than a Tornado. Some that dislike the plane have called it " The Flying Brick".

Aside, sad to read yesterday of a Luftwaffe pilot who lost their life after a collision between two Eurofighter Typhoons over Germany.
 
I'm sure I read that one of the reasons for increase in sound decibels is down to a single massive powerplant rather than two engines but yes, quite distinctive when it lights up the afterburner during a high G.
 
The sound from the F35 is not just about the titanic thrust of the single engine - though that does indeed rip the sky apart - but when the beast goes into the hover it engages a lift fan that makes this extraordinary screaming noise. When it first demonstrated this in the UK (at RIAT last year) it was immediately nicknamed the "squealing pig"! Taken together the two sounds at close range leave you pretty much deranged and concussed.

The first one seen in the UK arrived at RAF Fairford some time ago (29 June 2016) with a couple of USMC examples. I was there late on a gloomy afternoon to see it: the RAF moving into stealth was quite a historic moment.

This year a couple were active at RAF Marham for those of us that turned up for the last hurrah from the Tornado force, and for all the laments about boring grey airframes and lack of squadron markings, watching them in action is impressive stuff.

John

1. First down - RAF Fairford receives the first RAF Lockheed Martin F35B Lightning to visit the UK

2. 617 Squadron 75th anniversary commemorative flypast at RIAT 2018 - Tornado GR4, Lancaster BI and F35B Lightning

3. "Squealing Pig" hovering at RIAT: excruciating, bone-shattering noise!

4 and 5. F35Bs in normal service at RAF Marham on the day of the Tornado GR4 retirement flypast.
 

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Very cool thread !
It's funny..I do have a sort of thing I like to do once every few nights envolving my interest in airlines. I will go out in my back yard and spot an airplaine going across the sky and try and guess what airline it is and guess what it's destination might be. Then I refer to my flightradar24 app and see if I guessed right.
It's a little bit eccentric I know but I enjoy it...but not as much as watching and identifying birds.
I have a pretty good knowledge of the world's many airlines.
Also I enjoy sitting by my porch light late some night and try and identify the species of moths....I was actually a moth man before I became a bird man! Lol
 
Groovy Grackle said:
Very cool thread !
It's funny..I do have a sort of thing I like to do once every few nights envolving my interest in airlines. I will go out in my back yard and spot an airplaine going across the sky and try and guess what airline it is and guess what it's destination might be. Then I refer to my flightradar24 app and see if I guessed right.
Click to expand...

Its a good app so is Planes Live
 
Lancaster scorched over ystda afternoon low over the house in Stourbridge on its way to the Severn Valley WW2 re-enaction that takes place between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth over a couple of weekends each July:t:

Re: F35 ‘squealing Pig’ and first delivered to he RAF - shouldn’t that be ‘deliveranced’ to the RAF?;)

Haven’t been to RIAT for 10 years as sadly so many aircraft types have gone out of service it just doesn’t appeal anymore but went to sooo many airshows from 1990-2005 #halcyondays:t:

Laurie -
 
This must have been a very welcome sight for many downed Allied airmen in WW2 - a Consolidated Catalina. Photographed at Duxford yesterday. A good aircraft tick!
 

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South coast birding

While in Hampshire a few days ago, I saw this beast over Hayling Island (from Farlington, so too distant for pics) but a couple of days later I was at Titchfield Haven and it flew right over the reserve!

I think it is the one they intend to fly round the world later this year - not sure about this enterprise....
 

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A two-seater Spitfire is a familiar site to birders at Bockhill (east of Dover) as flying over the white cliffs there is a regular jaunt for those with a few thousand quid to spare.
 
Jon Turner said:
While in Hampshire a few days ago, I saw this beast over Hayling Island (from Farlington, so too distant for pics) but a couple of days later I was at Titchfield Haven and it flew right over the reserve!

I think it is the one they intend to fly round the world later this year - not sure about this enterprise....
Click to expand...

The round-the-world venture is a normal single-seat Spitfire Mk IX polished silver. It was at Duxford yesterday parked outside so we could photograph it but not taking part in the festivities. I am also unsure this idea is a good one - the Spitfire has been many things but long range is not really one of them: even the PR versions were comfortably out-ranged by Mosquitos. It's rather like deciding to twitch Orkney from Hampshire in a Nissan Leaf.

I've just finished first cut on the back of the camera for Flying Legends: 3300 down to 1100.... thee will be pictures eventually, maybe even before RIAT next weekend, which invariably generates even more pictures!

Apart from the Red Arrows opening the show an hour before the main flying programme, the real starter was twelve Spitfires in formation. To do this the organisers didn't need the Silver Spitfire, or one of the Biggin Hill Mk IXs parked outside ARCo, or for that matter the three Mk I Spits that went up later as a Battle of Britain commemoration.... Flying Legends is warbird heaven.

John
 
We had the Red Arrows over the house the other day, 40th anniversary of the Nottingham business school, why the RA for this I wonder?
 
I saw a Cat at the Fairford Air Tattoo a few years ago:t:

Little known fact re the RAF PR (Photo Recon) Spitfires:
Obviously in order to get to the height required to overfly and image enemy territory without fighter interception a number of modifications had to be made. Tweaking the engine, internal fuel increase and no guns or ammo were the main ways of saving weight and increasing range.

But in order to really streamline the drag factor they tested frames both in wind-tunnels (innovative at the time) and in the field high over friendly skies by.....glueing, wait for it, a half Lentil over each rivet to see which areas had the most drag when ensuing erosion had taken place.

If only the RAF kept stuff as simple and cheap as this:-O

Laurie:t:
 
Lost my Mach Loop cherry today - spent much of the day on the top shelf at the Bwlch - well worth it! Limited trade (a couple of Hawk T2s, C-130J RAF and MC-130J USAF, two F-15C including the Squadron's heritage jet from Lakenheath) but fantastic views and some nice pix which I will share as soon as I can given last weekend was Flying Legends and this weekend will be RIAT.

John
 
Nice one:t:

I have mooched around the area taking in both birding and fast jets but never actually been on the site itself so still a ‘bucket’ job...

Laurie -
 
rollingthunder said:
Little known fact re the RAF PR (Photo Recon) Spitfires: Obviously in order to get to the height required to overfly and image enemy territory without fighter interception a number of modifications had to be made. Tweaking the engine, internal fuel increase and no guns or ammo were the main ways of saving weight and increasing range.

But in order to really streamline the drag factor they tested frames both in wind-tunnels (innovative at the time) and in the field high over friendly skies by.....glueing, wait for it, a half Lentil over each rivet to see which areas had the most drag when ensuing erosion had taken place. If only the RAF kept stuff as simple and cheap as this:-O
Laurie:t:
Click to expand...

The PRMkIV Spitfire could reach Stettin (Szczecin) in the Baltic. Although this is about 600km in a straight line, direct routes, having the disadvantage to the enemy of predictability, seldom were chosen. Routes were chosen to keep the opposition guessing for as long as possible, especially for a single aircraft at high altitude in daylight! The flight planning also had to take in the most economical height outbound to minimise fuel consumption, cross into detection range at an altitude that would permit a fuel-efficient climb to photo altitude while being fast enough to make interception difficult, and to allow the pilot when in the danger zone to weave continuously to monitor the blind spots behind and below if he maintained only straight-line flight.

The outbound route to Stettin probably covered at least 900km. The return route continued in constant weaving flight, often with course changes when in the danger zone, and then, once over the North Sea, a speedy shallow low-consumption descent, preferably into cloud, or down to low level in clear air was the main option. In my early days in the RAF, there were still many serving pilots who had flown PR Spitfires operationally. In one of may later jobs, I was responsible for the entire wartime air film archive...
MJB
 

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