Random aviation photos

originally posted by: waynos
I took a trip to Hawarden in North Wales yesterday to see one of the most remarkable sights in Aviation' the bizarre A300-600ST. Better known as the Beluga. Here's one of the shots. Please click on my Flickr below for more, if you can stand to, lol.

Nice catch Waynos!

Realizing I hadn't been fence checking in a while, I did a field trip to Marysville.

Beale AFB

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks for that. Wonder if I can get down there?

a reply to: gariac

Holy crap those U-2s look tired. I also love how no two are exactly alike in terms of nose cones, and I'd presume, internals. I wonder how they select specific ones for missions.

a reply to: Barnalby

The nose houses different sensor packages. They can be changed out in about an hour or so, depending on the mission.

They're selected the same way fighters are. They look at when they're due maintenance, when their last maintenence was, and when the aircraft last deployed.

a reply to: Barnalby

I think only the u2 with the fuel tanks is used on missions. My recollection is all the other U-2s were doing touch and goes. Certainly the two seater.

I spent a couple of hours out there, so I saw most of those U-2s many times.

Fence checking at Beale is just as hot as Nellis, but not a whole lot of variety. I got a visual on one of their tankers in the air, but not on approach.

At one time there was an abandoned mobile home park where you could park close to the fence. But a pile of dirt mysteriously got dumped on the road. From that location, you could see the chase car.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So they're modular enough that they can basically fly whatever sensor suite they want on whatever airframe they want on a few hours notice?

a reply to: gariac

Those aren't fuel tanks. The Super Pods usually carry the Senior Glass package, but they can carry other sensors and datalinks as well.

a reply to: Barnalby

Yes. They have four or five different sensor packages that are the most commonly used. It's not uncommon to see the same aircraft fly a mission one day with the SYERS nose, and the ASARS package the next day.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ok. I've seen some sensor package on top.

a reply to: gariac

They combined the Senior Spear and Senior Ruby SIGINT sensors into the pods. The dorsal payloads are the Senior Span/Senior Spur datalinks.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: verschickter

Dream Chaser. It was a captive carry test at Edwards. They made some design changes after the 2013 mishap and are doing recertification work before their drop test in October.

Ok that's pretty cool.

a reply to: Zaphod58

foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com...

"U-2S With SYERS" as shown in the link is photographed often at Beale, though not by me.

Digging through my website, I have one Beale Airshow:
www.lazygranch.com...

www.lazygranch.com...
The 2012 field trip was to log mode-s on the MC-12, which often flew loops around the bay area.

I was a bit bored the other day so rather than my usual bike loop around Mofett Field, I turned East off the Bay trail. Normally I ride by cause of the waste treatment plant and the marshes are part of the discharge area and usually quite pungent. However, with favorable winds I ventured forth and found this

originally posted by: gariac
www.lazygranch.com...
The 2012 field trip was to log mode-s on the MC-12, which often flew loops around the bay area.

The best part those pics is the note about the RECEE sensor in the window LOL

a reply to: gariac

The Syers-3 sensor is about to go live. It uses bits of the Syers-2A and DB-110 sensors.

DB-110:



Syers-2A:

a reply to: FredT

My brother in law worked a Recce group at Hickam when he and my sister first met. Once a year they had open house and let anyone in, with lots of covered areas. They had a red light that would flash if someone that wasn't cleared was in the room, and said that it wouldn't stop the entire time the open house was going on.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Nice pic of long beach and Queen mary

I was driving by GPI this evening headed south, when I happened to notice a stranger parked on the ramp. Not the best photo due to all the forest fire smoke in the air, and the fact that it was late evening but still fun. Pretty unusual to see one around these parts. Much more common to see P8s and even the occasional old P3 dropping by for the night.

a reply to: Montana

Nice catch!!!