Private Jets

[Altitude]

There are a number of private jet flights out of my nearest airport (London-Luton) every day. I enjoy tracking the flights for a time. Sometimes I Google their registration to see if it's anyone I recognise. Just prior to the 2012 Olympics I noticed one of these flights which appeared to be circling London. With a little investigation I discovered that the plane was owned by a founder of PayPal! Anyone else have similar experiences? Got any tips?

 

[Richard Lee]

A few days ago, I tracked a small jet out of the local military-shared field and got curious because it quickly zoomed up to 40,000+..

Why so high? Maybe it's a long-haul? So I looked it up. It was going to Canyonlands Field Moab, UT 84532.
So, I found out where it had been recently. Just up to another military-shared field up in NH.
Not very far away. Actually, just a short trip by car. Why would anyone fly to NH from here?

I looked at Canyonlands Field on Google-Earth.. WOW! Isolated area!
Who owns this tail number? Some Maryland front corporation? Not a lot of info available..

Then, I started having this paranoid delusion about small jets being used by some USgov subcontractor,
(like in the movie 'Shooter') and decided, that kind of stuff only happens in the movies..
Right?

Cheers,
Rich

 

[Altitude]

There is a great deal to be paranoid about in the world today ... Could it have been something as inert as equipment transfer? Anything too clandestine wouldn't have been visible ... surely. Interesting point; practically all the private flights I've seen, zoom to 40,000 as soon as possible. Routine for such flights?

 

[Richard Lee]

I'm new to this new type of plane spotting, so my experience is very limited.
But, in this area there is a lot of short-haul traffic (Like Boston to NYC), that doesn't need to climb too high.
So, when I see one zoom up there, it can catch my eye.

In my spare time, I like watching jets that are at 39,000 and above, because they tend
to expand the Max Range lines around my coverage area, which isn't that large, yet..

I have l0oked up a few smaller jets passing over the area,
and was little surprised to see big name bankers mixed in with the large corporations.
Made me wonder what they were hauling.. Gold bars?

 

[Altitude]

Could be! Currency, perhaps. Just tracked a Gulfstream from a Utah bank fly out of Heathrow, I think. Climbed, then disappeared.

 

[ChrsDS]

This was a Google mapping trip over the South of England

 

[Richard Lee]

That is really strange.. Almost like a crop duster. Maybe it was just some pilot training?

I wonder what this one was.. At 15.4nm high.. I checked my rtl1090 decoder, and error-correction was turned on..
Still, it seems like it's a data error..

 

[ChrsDS]

• Challenger 605 (OE-INH)
  Registration number:
  OE-INH
  Year of manufacture:
  2011
  Passengers:
  10
  Homebase:
  Zurich
  Operator:
  VistaJet
• She left Farnbrough headed up to Glasgow then turned and headed south over the English Channel and into France at Carville-sur-Mare then over Le Havre and on South.

 

[Teecee]

Hi
Not sure if it's rules or accepted practice, but mil & bizjets are 'recommended' to fly 40k +, airliners at 30/40k, hence some of the fuss about MH 17 , 33k straight & level was no military machine and they knew it.

I would assume most bizjets are registered to banks (after all they have all the money) presumably the users haven't finished the payments yet ;-) ( lay away, but you get the goods after the first payment , and get title after the last payment)