3am private flight?

antodeco · 10-05-2017 03:05AM #1

Hi all, just had a plane fly over the house here in Dublin 10. It sounded like a small engine plane, flew over at 3, and then heard it again at 3:03. Had a look at flightradar and nothing. Definitely wasn't a helicopter. Any ideas what it could be? Seems strange at this hour if the night.

Edit: I can hear it going over again now at 3:06

Free-2-Flow · 10-05-2017 03:11AM

antodeco wrote:

Hi all, just had a plane fly over the house here in Dublin 10. It sounded like a small engine plane, flew over at 3, and then heard it again at 3:03. Had a look at flightradar and nothing. Definitely wasn't a helicopter. Any ideas what it could be? Seems strange at this hour if the night.

Could it be a Drone?

antodeco · 10-05-2017 03:29AM

Flying over again!

Be a very loud drone! It sounds like a normal 2 engine recon plane.

Free-2-Flow · 10-05-2017 03:34AM

antodeco wrote:

Be a very loud drone! It sounds like a normal 2 engine recon plane.

Military base anywhere near you?

antodeco · 10-05-2017 04:47AM

Baldonnell not too far, probably 15 minutes as the crow flies.

Free-2-Flow · 10-05-2017 04:52AM

antodeco wrote:

Baldonnell not too far, probably 15 minutes as the crow flies.

Possibly an exercise, and Weston is right beside it, that's a private plane airport

Victor · 10-05-2017 04:58AM

Possibly the Garda Pilatus Britten Norman Defender: http://www.military.ie/air-corps/fleet/

antodeco · 10-05-2017 05:07AM

Thanks folks. Just thought it was weird, as it seemed to be making a few runs. I thought it might've been a survey plane, but 3-3:30am just seemed like a weird time!

EchoIndia · 10-05-2017 06:55AM

It was probably calibrating navigation aids associated with Dublin Airport. http://www.flight-cal.com/our-services.html

faoiarvok · 10-05-2017 08:30AM

Calibration of navaids is likely, also could be a survey plane, judging by the number of sweeps.

Tabnabs · 10-05-2017 09:10AM

Heard it too and wondered what it was, definitely sounded small and low for that hour of the night.

10-05-2017 10:21AM

G-FCSL it was flight checking BAL VOR and it's approaches to Baldonnel

martinsvi · 10-05-2017 10:38AM

I heard it too, first thought was that it sounded much like a radial engine, definitely nothing like what Air Corps fly, definitely a larger-than-trainer piston machine, AN-2 came to mind.. lol.. I guess Navajo fits the bill

John_Mc · 10-05-2017 10:54AM

Free-2-Flow wrote: »

Possibly an exercise, and Weston is right beside it, that's a private plane airport

Weston is closed at night though - no runway lighting at the airport

ned14 · 10-05-2017 12:26PM

This seems to add up with the times you are referring to:
attachment.php?attachmentid=416967

antodeco · 11-05-2017 09:31AM

Thanks for that. Is that a private database you got that information from?

LXFlyer · 11-05-2017 09:38AM

That's simply off www.flightradar24.com

Gaoth Laidir · 11-05-2017 12:37PM

Question: at 20.36 yesterday evening a small jet (not sure what type) came in low over Celbridge on approach to Weston. I checked FR24 at the time but it wasn't on it. I thought that was strange as Weston's hours of op are 07.30-18.00Z Mon-Friday. So this was 1.5 hours after its closure.

Then later I was playing 5-a-side just down the road from Weston and I heard the roar of a jet which sounded on a take-off run on R07 (but my view of any possible climb out was obscured). This was at about 21.30.

Any idea what was going on there?

martinsvi · 11-05-2017 08:45PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Question: at 20.36 yesterday evening a small jet (not sure what type) came in low over Celbridge on approach to Weston. I checked FR24 at the time but it wasn't on it. I thought that was strange as Weston's hours of op are 07.30-18.00Z Mon-Friday. So this was 1.5 hours after its closure.

Then later I was playing 5-a-side just down the road from Weston and I heard the roar of a jet which sounded on a take-off run on R07 (but my view of any possible climb out was obscured). This was at about 21.30.

Any idea what was going on there?

You can request Weston to stay open a bit longer as long as it's daylight.. it will cost you though, and generally is open to IFR traffic

listermint · 11-05-2017 08:47PM

That plane was super low at 3am. I actually woke up from a deep sleep and thought something was coming down .

homerjay2005 · 14-05-2017 10:12PM

John_Mc wrote: »

Weston is closed at night though - no runway lighting at the airport

below is reference to a plane taking off at 21.30, so how can that be possible without lighting on the runway?

martinsvi · 14-05-2017 10:32PM

homerjay2005 wrote: »

below is reference to a plane taking off at 21.30, so how can that be possible without lighting on the runway?

technically civil twilight for 10th of May was at 21:57 (local), he didn't needed lights at least not for legal reasons.

3am private flight?

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