UKH

A Stratofortress from Fairford has been circling over Cheltenham all morning. What's that all about?

They've found out where you live, Nick!

lost?

Co-pilot: Why don't you just stop and ask someone?

Pilot: No. I'll keep driving around until I recognise something. We'll be there soon.

So it has... still at it, doing fairly regular loops at 10000ft.

No sign of any IFR tanker, or other (visible) military aircraft with it. I'm going to guess some equipment test.

Maybe some reason why they either can't or no longer want to continue the original mission and want to land at Fairford again but need to reduce fuel weight before they can land. In one of those things that could take a while...

Hopefully, they're preparing to carpet bomb Diddly Squat Farm.

Shh... !

The noisy blighter has gone now. I was a bit worried it'd disturb me afternoon nap!

Reported it had an engine failure (luckily has a few to spare) so must have been circling to burn off fuel before landing.

Makes sense..

If it had Engine failure right after it took off, it would probably have to burn over 100,000lbs of fuel. Max take off weight is 488,000lbs and max landing weight is 325,000lbs. But still a bit dangerous at that weight so more likely needs to drop to 290,000lbs. The newer wings are susceptible to fatigue due to the way they store fuel in them so less fuel in the wings the longer they will last. 

Watch out, Nick; there's another one heading your way. "Bandit at eleven o'clock!"

Thanks, how did you find that out? 

"Taps side of nose."

I could tell you but...

Just googled it with a date restriction to today.

You might think they'd circle over the sea, rather than keep passing over populated area, and a particularly sensitive piece of Critical National Security Infrastructure...

I think it would be pretty low risk considering how many other engines it has.

There is a joke/alledged incident:

A reader wrote us, retelling the story about the military pilot calling ATC for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked." ATC told the fighter jock that he was number two behind a B-52 that had one shut down.

"Ah," the pilot remarked, "the dreaded seven-engine approach!"

Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that!

Or just dump the fuel, or is that frowned upon these days?

probably CRM114 discriminator problems

Call sign: “Haggis” - one wing longer than the other?

Callsign 'SPICY22' ADS ident AE5870

Must be why it only flies in circles? If the Russians jump out and surprise it and make it turn round - it flips upside down

One of them flew from heaven-knows-where to do a flypast at Farnborough airshow once - unfortunately it went unnoticed as it did its flypast at Blackbushe, 4.5 miles away.  Still, at the tolerances they work at, anything in the same county is a hit......

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/b-52-bomber-raf-...

Is a squawk better or worse than a quack?

T.

Depends on whether you are trying win a prize imitating a seagull or a duck.

And do we *really* believe BUFF stands for Big Ugly Fat Fella? Yeah right….

b

What a waste of fuel, though!

We live in Yateley, our house backs on to Yateley Common part of which includes Blackbushe Airfield, home to mostly single engined private planes, some small helicopters and a few executive jets

I remember well the peace and quiet being shattered  one afternoon many years ago, I went out to have a look, the B52 was low over the rooftops steaming trails of thick black smoke rattling windows and setting off alarms. I assumed  they were making an extended approach to Farnborough.

I a similar vein years prior to that when we lived in Poynton in north Cheshire next door to one end of the runway for the old AV Roe works at Woodford ( think Lancaster, Vulcan and Nimrod ). Every year they had a big air display,One year the public address announced there would be a low level flypast of a squadron of F111s diverting on their way from the US to a new base in Germany, they handed over to the lead pilot, "Good afternoon ladies, gentlemen and children, we're lining up  5 mins away to the west.........seeyall and goodbye" But nothing happened. Manchester Evening News that evening carried a headline saying there had been consternation at nearby Ringway(now Manchester International Airport) when a  squadron of american fighter bombers had overflown the airport.

We lived for a while 2 miles away in a direct line with the runway at Fairford. When the second Gulf War occurred, the noise of the B52s taking off was immense! on a brighter note, we were able to sit in the garden and watch the rehearsals for the Air Tattoo and then watch the real thing on the Saturday, including the stealth bomber and fighter...

Ye for sure, those engines are well old as well. Real smokey murder machine.