6 September 2012

Low flying plane

| THEDOS
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hey all,

I Was driving south on Athllon drive about 3:30 this afternoon, just alongside the suburb of Torrens. I had a quick look in my side mirror to see how heavy the traffic was behind me, and noticed in the same mirror, a fairly large (4 engines), grey, unmarked plane flying no more than 60 metres above the cars in my mirror.

It then flew over Torrens banking from side to side (what almost looked like out of control) at about 50 metres above the houses, then climbed up with the grade of the hill until getting to the top and then climbing to a decent height and continuing toward the brindabellas’.

Just wanted to know if anyone else saw this and could shed some light on why it was down that low?

Cheers

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Yes – definitely Hercules – flew straight through Civic – on its way towards Mt Taylor. Have never seen a plane so low and so close to my building before.

I work in Fyshwick, and I saw one of the new RAAF C-130J Hercs heading towards the airport today. Cant remember exactly when it was. Anyway, it’s a large grey 4-engined transport, and there aren’t too many aircraft like that around, so I imagine it was the same one.

Coincidentally, I noticed one of the RAAF Wedgetail AWACS aircraft flying fairly low over Fyshwick this afternoon as well. They’re certainly interesting looking machines.

Yeah I definitely say that plane. I was running up mount Taylor from the Kambah side (don’t ask me why I do it). I was just approaching the saddle when out of nowhere the plane came flying over. Honestly it was so low it was hard to believe. It was so low that it scared the Kangaroos out of the paddock! It appeared to be struggling as it flew by. From my vantage point it seemed no lower than double the power line height (not reliable I know). It was definitely lower than the top of Mount Taylor, I spoke to someone else later who confirmed that it was lower than the top of the mountain! It was traveling really slow and made its way across the Tuggeranong Valley and over the Brindies (this also appeared close) It seemed to be getting smashed by the wind and pointing more upwind then the way it was traveling. Awesome you don’t see that everyday!

Yeah my first thought was a hercules but I’ve never seen one in that situation haha. But yes I will agree 50 metres was probably an overreaction, but the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that the thing was swerving all over the place right above houses. Also it’s nice to know other people saw it and that I’m not crazy. lol

Flew straight over my house, freaked the crap out of me and my neighbour and it was about 60 metres above my house flying towards the brindies. I was waiting for it to crash into the ground it seemed to be getting lower!

The other possible aircraft is a P3 Orion. If that was what it was, it would have had a fairly long boom sticking out of the back, ie http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Orion.usnavy.750pix.jpg/300px-Orion.usnavy.750pix.jpg

More likely a Hercules out here though – either way, I’d be more inclined to believe 200 metres than 60!

I saw it from my window here in Chifley & thought it was so weird. It seemd ridiculously low for such a big plane but the weird thing was there wasn’t much noise. Would have thought a plane so low would have been far louder.

It was flying over Dickson around 3:15ish. It sure did appear low, didnt take much notice of it apart from that!

I saw it outside my window at work and NOONE believed me!! Because of the way i look out the window, i look through a set of fire exit stairs (and don’t see much sky). The plane filled the gap between the stairs so i am sure it was very very low.

I have seen other planes go at that height before around Mt Taylor. I guess they are flying at around 2500 to 3000 feet or so then.

I’m fairly sure I saw the same plane fly over ANU. I only caught the tail disappearing over the law building, but it certainly looked really low.

If it was a prop, then sounds like a Hercules. Not sure if its still the case, but for a time QANTAS did have an agreement to work on the planes, so you’d often see them parked outside the former Impulse Airlines hanger at Canberra Airport, or over near the VIP hanger. Could get a pretty awesome view of them from the top level corner of the multi-carpark.

yes but doesn’t the sticker on car mirrors say objects in these mirrors appear closer than they really are – or something like that?
🙂

i honestly don’t think they would’ve been anywhere near that low.

I saw it come over Phillip (same time) heading south. Looked to be a 4 engined propeller plane, large and grey and most likely a RAAF C-130 Hercules ( http://www.airforce.gov.au/Technology/Aircraft/C-130_Hercules/?RAAF-EPzAnXmgjWuyTq8XSZbcAUaUIYIcntiB )

It wasn’t 50 metres up – more like 200, but still very low.

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