Interesting sight this afternoon..

I was in the garden around 4.30 and a USAF C-5 went over heading for the Atlantic. Not that unusual round here, but I put Plane Finder on and saw it was on there. Location wasn't quite right (think it showed up in the Peterborough area), but these things don't broadcast ADS-B so I'm curious as to how it was on there.

Are you guys experimenting with some clever stuff to plot these? Earlier in the day I also saw an RAF king air plotting, but these are civilian owned so I didn't think too much of it but I don't think they normally plot either. Presumably they'll show up on the replay feature on the website, haven't checked yet.

Any thoughts on what was going on here?

Cheers,
Al

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Al Henderson on November 13, 2011 at 8:05

Alex,

The C-5 I saw didn't go over Manchester, he headed West from Northampton having cone from Norfolk. May well have been others, though.

Al

Permalink Reply by Jeff C on January 20, 2012 at 3:26

I am a C-5 pilot and we are finishing an avionics upgrade that makes us GATM compliant. We have ADS-C. I'm attempting to figure out if we have ADS-B and I'm not sure because our flight manual is unclear.

Permalink Reply by Jeff C on January 25, 2012 at 6:44

I'm trying to determine if we have ADS-B. And if we do, what parameters in the flight computer would be required to be loaded in order to trigger it properly providing a position. It's possible that some of the required items to be loaded are only loaded during oceanic crossings. But again, this is all speculation since the manual only refers to ADS in general and does not break down how each of the types of ADS is utilized.

Permalink Reply by Al Henderson on January 25, 2012 at 9:31

From what I have seen of various USAF transports coming over the UK (C-17s, C-5s, Hercs, KC-10s, KC-135s) none of them ever transmit ADS-B. Presumably the C-17s have all the gadgets etc to be GATM compliant, I think they just switch off ADS-B, after all its not required I don't think. USN E-6s seem to always have it on, and sometimes you'll get a USAF or USN Gulfstream that also has it on.

Even more confusing, the F-15 eagles at Lakenheath fly with 'tactical' hex codes, meaning they are changed around very frequently making it impossible to ID an a/c based on its hex code.

Al.

Permalink Reply by Jeff C on January 25, 2012 at 16:38

ADS-B is going to be a GATM requirement from what I understand. I flew legacy C-130s and we didn't have any of those capabilities. I'm told the J model requires some additional equipment to be so. I'm not sure what the C-17 has as I've never flown it but from what I've read they are not FANS/1A or CPDLC and don't have any ADS.

C-5s are getting a transponder upgrade and I wouldn't be surprised if it includes ADS-B but I haven't actually read anything to confirm that.

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