3 May 2013

Three jets in parallel over Canberra?

| Rollersk8r
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three jets

Yesterday afternoon around 3:20pm I spotted 3 jets over Canberra, flying side by side, heading more or less North.

They were too high to see exactly what sort of planes they were – but I’m guessing they were quite large from the contrails.

Slightly random/odd post I suppose – but I’ve never seen anything like it.

Any ideas?

Military aircraft perhaps??

[Photo by Grump]

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Roundhead89 said :

This photo looks fake. The three trails have been drawn onto the pic and the pic scanned. Also such an effect is common with the light refractions from a Hoya UV filter as illustrated with the spots at the centre and bottom of the pic.

Next thing you will be saying is that Obama was born in Kenya.

Grumpy Old Fart11:08 pm 04 May 13

Roundhead89 said :

This photo looks fake. The three trails have been drawn onto the pic and the pic scanned. Also such an effect is common with the light refractions from a Hoya UV filter as illustrated with the spots at the centre and bottom of the pic.

Was bringing my daughter home from school that afternoon and we also both saw the three contrails heading northeast and commented that it was not something you often see. Like the others have said the planes were to high to make out what they were.

This photo looks fake. The three trails have been drawn onto the pic and the pic scanned. Also such an effect is common with the light refractions from a Hoya UV filter as illustrated with the spots at the centre and bottom of the pic.

johnboy said :

And the wiki page on the hornet is clear enough:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-18E/F_Super_Hornet

I’d reckon Boeing would get its knickers in a knot if media referred to the Super Hornets as McDonnell Douglas FA-18’s although it’s interesting that Wikipedia still has reference to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet(now Boeing)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet

Devil_n_Disquiz said :

BenMac said :

A C-130 and 2 jets (F/A 18’s?) landed at the airport yesterday. Maybe them?

C-17 perhaps?

Don’t know planes that well, but just looked at a picture.

Yep, it was a C-17.

dungfungus said :

Devil_n_Disquiz said :

Pork Hunt said :

troll-sniffer said :

Could’ve been any number of military jets, but the most likely would be 3 Boeing FA-18s, second most likely would be three BAE Hawks. Interesting is how far apart they are. Probably decided to sit that far apart as it would be much more relaxing for the pilots. Whatever the case, lucky bastards the lot of them I say.

They would be McDonnell Douglas F/A 18’s. If Ford bought out Holden it would not make all Holdens ever built Fords. Similarly, something built by Mc/D cannot be a Boeing…

I had to go look this one up. Its a fair call. The F/A-18 Hornets are indeed MD. But the Super Hornet is Boeing.

Videos of Super Hornets on TV last night had them showing the MD logo on the side. I think Boeing converts them to Growlers.

I meant to say LM logo (Lockheed Martin)

Devil_n_Disquiz said :

Pork Hunt said :

troll-sniffer said :

Could’ve been any number of military jets, but the most likely would be 3 Boeing FA-18s, second most likely would be three BAE Hawks. Interesting is how far apart they are. Probably decided to sit that far apart as it would be much more relaxing for the pilots. Whatever the case, lucky bastards the lot of them I say.

They would be McDonnell Douglas F/A 18’s. If Ford bought out Holden it would not make all Holdens ever built Fords. Similarly, something built by Mc/D cannot be a Boeing…

I had to go look this one up. Its a fair call. The F/A-18 Hornets are indeed MD. But the Super Hornet is Boeing.

Videos of Super Hornets on TV last night had them showing the MD logo on the side. I think Boeing converts them to Growlers.

McDonnel Douglas ceased to be in 1997 when Boeing took it over:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas

Devil_n_Disquiz8:35 am 04 May 13

Pork Hunt said :

troll-sniffer said :

Could’ve been any number of military jets, but the most likely would be 3 Boeing FA-18s, second most likely would be three BAE Hawks. Interesting is how far apart they are. Probably decided to sit that far apart as it would be much more relaxing for the pilots. Whatever the case, lucky bastards the lot of them I say.

They would be McDonnell Douglas F/A 18’s. If Ford bought out Holden it would not make all Holdens ever built Fords. Similarly, something built by Mc/D cannot be a Boeing…

I had to go look this one up. Its a fair call. The F/A-18 Hornets are indeed MD. But the Super Hornet is Boeing.

Very odd. I’ve never seen military aircraft fly that far apart, and civilian aircraft never fly that close together.

They’d have to be military, but I’ve no idea who they are. They weren’t the two FA-18’s at Fyshwick. I watched them take off this arvo at 1400 from my window, and this pic was taken yesterday.

Devil_n_Disquiz8:58 pm 03 May 13

BenMac said :

A C-130 and 2 jets (F/A 18’s?) landed at the airport yesterday. Maybe them?

C-17 perhaps?

troll-sniffer said :

Could’ve been any number of military jets, but the most likely would be 3 Boeing FA-18s, second most likely would be three BAE Hawks. Interesting is how far apart they are. Probably decided to sit that far apart as it would be much more relaxing for the pilots. Whatever the case, lucky bastards the lot of them I say.

They would be McDonnell Douglas F/A 18’s. If Ford bought out Holden it would not make all Holdens ever built Fords. Similarly, something built by Mc/D cannot be a Boeing…

troll-sniffer6:20 pm 03 May 13

Could’ve been any number of military jets, but the most likely would be 3 Boeing FA-18s, second most likely would be three BAE Hawks. Interesting is how far apart they are. Probably decided to sit that far apart as it would be much more relaxing for the pilots. Whatever the case, lucky bastards the lot of them I say.

Parallel Lines. Is Blondie touring again?

Obviously high-level Public Service drones

I wonder if Canberra has exhorbitant jetA1 prices too?

If so, I don’t blame them for flying in formation to save fuel!

It is a failed attempt to draw ‘a series of monoliths’ in the sky, to warn us all about the possibility of such development occurring in the inner north.

grump said :

agree, saw it and took a pic (copy just emailed to images at riotact) – always watch the sky late afternoon to see how many contrails I can see, best is 7 I think but never like this. Had to be military, commercial on same route always have a gap

I saw contrails from two aircraft apparently level at very high altitude earlier in the week. They were on the normal Sydney to Melbourne route.
Reminded me of the old Ansett/TAA days.

Hmm – assume it was those two FA-18s that just flew south over Tuggers at ~1400.

BenMac said :

A C-130 and 2 jets (F/A 18’s?) landed at the airport yesterday. Maybe them?

I am no expert but I would say they were way too high to be landing in Canberra.

this was about 3.20 and they were well west and kept tracking north til out of sight……

A C-130 and 2 jets (F/A 18’s?) landed at the airport yesterday. Maybe them?

Probably the Royal Brunei Air Force making sure the terrists don’t get His Majesty.

Saw that as well, seemed very odd to say the least.

Good work grump!

agree, saw it and took a pic (copy just emailed to images at riotact) – always watch the sky late afternoon to see how many contrails I can see, best is 7 I think but never like this. Had to be military, commercial on same route always have a gap

ah yeah – I spotted that too and thought it unusual. Unusual enough that I checked FlightRadar24 to see what they were. They weren’t showing up on there, so I figured military.
Its not unusual though to see three flights together, Jetstar, Virgin and QANTAS, but not that close.

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