UKC

The Crowded Skies

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 FesteringSore 17 Nov 2016

I often look at Flightradar24 and am often amazed at how crowded many areas of air space appear to be and, of course, you only see the traffic that has compliant transponders. Then, of course, stand near an airport and see how many are taking off or landing.

Conversely, when I fly any where I often look out of the window and, with a few exceptions, it looks as though the skies are totally devoid of aircraft except the one you are in. Just occasionally I have seen a distant contrail or an aircraft passing by at a(thankfully safe) distance.

Quite deceptive at times
Post edited at 14:54
 aln 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

I live in C Scotland, planes everywhere. I'm often around Edinburgh airport with work. Aircraft in and out constantly, regularly see planes looking like they're about to collide, but of course they're nowhere near each other.
1
Bellie 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

Once whilst coming into land at San Francisco, with wheels down and on final approach, I looked left to see a plane at the side of us coming in only a few hundred yards apart. I didn't seem right, and the next moment the pilot had aborted the landing and climbed off for another circuit. She told us it was because they had been following a heavy slow 747 into land and so went round again. The plane to the left of us may have been landing on a parallel runway - but I'm not sure we should have been side by side with it.
 jkarran 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

Aircraft, even big ones are surprisingly hard to spot in flight, partly because the sky is very very big, partly because our vision system is really poorly adapted to the task. Spotting them from an airliner is even harder, generally given the way airways work aircraft end up line astern traveling at similar speeds yet you only ever see out of the side windows, you miss those ahead and behind. Oncoming aircraft above and below are closing at c1000mph, blink and you miss them.

jk
 jkarran 17 Nov 2016
In reply to Bellie:

> The plane to the left of us may have been landing on a parallel runway - but I'm not sure we should have been side by side with it.

That's normal. Still, makes for a rather unusual view
jk
 toad 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

It was really noticeable just how clear the skies were during the Iceland volcano shutdown. Maybe it's because I live near an airport, but it was suddenly clear - no contrails, no aircraft noise.
 petellis 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

> Conversely, when I fly any where I often look out of the window and, with a few exceptions, it looks as though the skies are totally devoid of aircraft except the one you are in. Just occasionally I have seen a distant contrail or an aircraft passing by at a(thankfully safe) distance.

Thats not my experience - I seem to see loads of other planes when I am flying. Particularly when queuing to go into big airports, once you are on the stack for Heathrow for example you can see all the other aircraft going round the racetrack descending slowly until you go in to land. But on flights to the states I've seen a lot of other planes, some overtaking.

The ones you don't tend to see as well are the ones going in the opposite direction but you can spot them with patience, even at significant height differences they are really shifting. Back before going to see the pilot was forbidden I was on the flight deck of a 777 when a small jet came the other way just 1000 ft above, that was eye-opening.

In reply to petellis:

> Thats not my experience - I seem to see loads of other planes when I am flying.

That's my experience too. You won't see planes ahead and behind in your flight corridor (due to the simple geometry), but you see them above, below and to the side, going in both directions. Sometimes easier at night, due to the lights, but also in daylight due to reflections of the sun.
 Timmd 17 Nov 2016
In reply to toad:

> It was really noticeable just how clear the skies were during the Iceland volcano shutdown. Maybe it's because I live near an airport, but it was suddenly clear - no contrails, no aircraft noise.

Like an insight into how the skies were before air-travel I thought, a small step back in time almost.
 Tim Davies 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

They're quite hard to see beyond about 5 miles, and also the eye struggles to focus far away on nothing (especially if the cabin window is dirty)
Andy Gamisou 17 Nov 2016
In reply to Bellie:

> Once whilst coming into land at San Francisco, with wheels down and on final approach

Similarly at SFO on a 747 experienced a last minute abort due to unexpected aircraft on runway. Pilot sounded a bit miffed to say the least.

 ianstevens 17 Nov 2016
In reply to Scotch Bingington:

> Similarly at SFO on a 747 experienced a last minute abort due to unexpected aircraft on runway. Pilot sounded a bit miffed to say the least.

Cheers for this chaps - I'm heading there in a month!
1
 daWalt 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

it really depends a lot on where you're flying; had a fun flight on one of the E-W motorways that seem to cross germany.
regular aircraft coming the other way passing on the left (ok... port) side; some even close enough that you would have been able to recognize the tail insignia if they didn't zip past so quick......

in comparison to mainland eurovile, the skies over the UK don't seem so bad (excep Ldn).

 Robert Durran 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

It's a small scale map with rather outsize planes.......
 Jim Fraser 17 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

Near miss on a winters day in Strath Brahan some years ago. Heard "Eagle!" over the intercom and looked out the rear bubble window to see that the helicopter was overtaking a golden eagle that was flying at the same height and direction.

The Eagle turned its head toward us as we passed and judging by the look on its face I'm surprised it never filed an Airprox.
1
In reply to FesteringSore:

I am usually surprised by how many other aircraft I see!
 JCurrie 18 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

vimeo.com/132804154

This is a good illustration of flights into London.
J
J1234 18 Nov 2016
In reply to FesteringSore:

I was belaying at the top of Multiple Pillars of Pleasure in Morrocco and gazing around, and all of a sudden, I realised that as far as the eye could see, no contrails, not one. After that I started taking note, pondering that this would be the Flight Path between Europe and a lot of Africa,m never saw a one.
When I got home I looked on one of these Flight Radar things and the contrast between Europe and Africa is stunning. South of Europe you will see some planes heading for The Cape Verde and The Canaries and SA, and some heading to the Tourist airports at agadair, marakesh and tunisia. But very very few others.
To me it was a graphic reprsentation of the inequality in wealth between Europe and much of Africa. Also the lack of connection.
 jkarran 18 Nov 2016
In reply to Lenin:

> To me it was a graphic reprsentation of the inequality in wealth between Europe and much of Africa. Also the lack of connection.

And the distribution of ADSB relays.
jk

 Tim Davies 18 Nov 2016
In reply to Lenin:
Or a lack of vapour trails that day....
 Lemony 18 Nov 2016
In reply to Tim Davies:

or lower population density...

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...