Civilian Aviation

I spent most of today at Stansted attending the annual police planewatch day (http://www.essex.police.uk/about/plane_watch.aspx ). The morning was spent at the Hilton with various presentations and then in the afternoon we were taken to a restricted area on the south side for a spotting / photographing session and were rewarded with some nice visitors and the sun played ball at just the right time!

Highlight of the day was this Ethiopian Dash 8 ET-ARN which passed through on it’s delivery flight and was on the ground for about 90 minutes, a bit longer than planned because of the storm that hit during the afternoon (there was another in the morning equally violent but at least we were all inside the Hilton at the meeting at the time)

1198 ET-ARN Dash 8 Ethiopian by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

1260 ET-ARN Dash 8 Ethiopian by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

B.767 N767KS arrived just after a bit of a deluge and threw up plenty of spray;

1345 N767KS B767, spray by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

1388 N767KS B767, spray by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Another arrival throwing up lots of spray, Ryanair B737 EI-EBT
0940 EI-EBT Ryanair spray by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Darwin Saab 2000 HB-IZZ departing
0944 HB-IZZ Saab 2000 Darwin by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

A Cargolux B747-8F LX-VCC departed (I've seen plenty of their 747-400s but this was my first sighting of an 8-F:
1024 LX-VCC B747-8 Cargolux by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

1046 LX-VCC B747-8 Cargolux by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

And another 747 departure was this Silkway aircraft 4K-SW800:
1104 4K-SW800 B747 Silkway by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

1121 4K-SW800 B747 Silkway by sickbag_andy, on Flickr
Thomson 737 G-TAWN departing:
1057 G-TAWN B737 Thomson by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Thomas Cook have 2 A321s based at the airport this summer, both arrived during the afternoon
9800 G-DHJH A321 Thomas cook by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

9837 G-TCDA A321 Thomas cook by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

This UAE B737 was parked on the north side (I think it was A6-HEH looking at arrival logs but I couldn’t see the reg):
1134 B737 UAE A6-HEH by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Also parked on the north side was this State of Kuwait A.340, 9K-GBB:
1156 9K-GBB A340 State of Kuwait by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Pegaus B737 TC-IZG arrived just as the storm was approaching:
1165 TC-IZG B737 Pegasus by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Global 5000 M-AJWA departed, the lady on the tail appears to have been re-dressed in another new outfit!
1419 M-AJWA Global 5000 by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

1424 M-AJWA Global 5000 by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

And another Global (VP-CAK) taxiing out to depart
0930 VP-CAK Global 5000 by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

Andfinally, I mentioned the storm – which was the remnants of Hurricane Bertha passed through during the afternoon, this was the storm about to reach us with a Pegasus 737 taxiing back to the terminal

9824 pegasus b737 & storm by sickbag_andy, on Flickr

hope you enjoy them C&C most welcome

That is a great set mate

Brilliant timing with the wx and interesting a/c while you were outside! Ethiopian and the freighters are fantastic, as are the a/c using reverse thrust on wet runway.

Thanks guys.

I missed the arrival of the Asiana 747 while sheltering from the rain, but another guy stuck it out under his brolly and got a super shot of it landing with masses of spray. Apart from the rain it was a good afternoon for Stansted

Lovely set Andy.

Looks like you were very lucky with the rain, although it did give you some very nice spray shots!

Really must get round to joining the Plane Watch scheme at some point...

Dan

Excellent shots Andy. Goes without saying that it's a great location but luckily coupled with some interesting movements on the day.

Denis.

Nice set there Andy, very nice indeed.

I've always meant to ask - what's the "sickbag_andy" name all about?

I collect them!!!!!

I started collecting them in the late 1980s a bit by accident. I used to write the Heathrow movements for the Stansted Aviation News magazine, there might even be one or two on here who used to read it - certainly PorkScratching (Nick Challoner) did as he used to do the military section. it had quite a large circulation at the time.
One of my regular correspondents, a guy called Mick Coad (I would love to know what he's up to these days) collected them and I mentioned it in my column and asked for donations for his collection. I got innundated with them and everyone thought he was the 'make believe' friend who I said i was collecting for and it was actually me. so I took the attitude, 'if I'm getting stick for this, I might as well collect them' and Mick gave me a lot of his duplicates to get me started.

I've not sorted through them for ages but I think I've got about 450 different ones from all over the world. Plus lots of duplicates in case somebody else wants to start collecting them!

now Mike, are you glad you asked?

And there's me thinking that you got airsick every time you flew !

Are they empty or full?

strictly empty.