The plane enthusiasts thread

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Randomnerd

Bimbleur
Location
North Yorkshire
Often look at the sky before locking the back door for the night. Just watched at least 32 fast military jets ( presumably - only white lights ) very high all travelling east over the Vale of York, heading east, about mile between each plane. Wondering whats going on, since I’ve not spotted this before.
 

L Q

Über Member
Location
Woodhall Spa
Often look at the sky before locking the back door for the night. Just watched at least 32 fast military jets ( presumably - only white lights ) very high all travelling east over the Vale of York, heading east, about mile between each plane. Wondering whats going on, since I’ve not spotted this before.
Could you hear anything.

It may have been the satellites from starlink. Think they have 60 in a line now.
 

Randomnerd

Bimbleur
Location
North Yorkshire
Could you hear anything.

It may have been the satellites from starlink. Think they have 60 in a line now.
I couldn’t hear anything. I’ve had a look at Starlink. Very interesting, but they were so equally spaced out. Could have been. Not sure. Seems the only explanation. Don’t expect military planes move in such numbers?
 

wheresthetorch

Dreaming of Celeste
Location
West Sussex
I couldn’t hear anything. I’ve had a look at Starlink. Very interesting, but they were so equally spaced out. Could have been. Not sure. Seems the only explanation. Don’t expect military planes move in such numbers?

It was definitely Starlink - I've seen them a few times now (as an amateur astronomer I regularly see individual satellites pass over as well) and your description matches perfectly.
 

wheresthetorch

Dreaming of Celeste
Location
West Sussex
Thanks @wheresthetorch for confirming. Quite a sight to behold, Starlink. Perversely, however wonderful the tech, it makes the last bit of untouched nature seem cluttered by man’s hand.

Indeed - it's upset the astronomical community quite a bit, especially the astrophotographers. 6 hour exposure, carefully tracking against the rotation of the earth, and then a long streak through the middle thanks to Starlink!
 

wheresthetorch

Dreaming of Celeste
Location
West Sussex
Now there’s a community I hadn’t heard of. I can imagine they dislike that light train. Is it only going to get more cluttered up there? Who is in charge of space junk?

Some interesting stuff here:

https://aerospace.org/article/space-debris-101
 

Houthakker

A Happy Wanderer
Location
Lancashire coast
Wouldn't have liked to been in the shoes of a French Rafael pilot who gave a rather reluctant joyrider a very short, as it turned out, trip in southern France. The passenger got nervy and mistakenly pulled the ejection lever soon after take off:
https://mol.im/a/8205403

Could have been worse, at least he brought the jet back. If the ejection system had worked as designed then the pilot would have been ejected as well, but a fault meant he wasn't. Must have been a twitchy flight back with his canopy blown and waiting to see if the seat would fire.
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
It's hard to blame the poor passenger for grabbing the first thing that came to hand - when you're being subjected to negative G isn't the best time to find out that your shoulder straps aren't tight enough.
 
Top Bottom