Interesting Aircraft on Mode-S/Flight Tracking

[Jay911]

Figured I'd start a thread for unique, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy aircraft discovered through my PlanePlotter setup.

For anyone who is interested, I have got PP running for little more than the cost of an RTLSDR and a couple pieces of software (total price well below $100). This includes the ability to do multilateration, which locates aircraft which aren't sending position reports.

Anyway, here's some of the aircraft I've come across in the week or two since starting up PP:

ICAO24 (Mode-S code): 400680
Mark (tail number): G-WJAN
Flight: WJA3004
Type: Boeing 757-21K
Desc: One of the very few Boeing 757 aircraft WestJet flies (operated by Thomas Cook on their behalf).

ICAO24: 4007DF
Mark: G-FCLJ
Flight: WJA3009
Type: Boeing 757-2YO
Desc: Another WestJet 757. According to FlightAware, the 3xxx flight numbers are typically from/to Hawaii-Calgary.

ICAO24: 43E7AB
Mark: M-RBUS
Type: Airbus A319
Desc: Listed as being owned by "Global Jet Luxembourg" - comments on photos on airliners.net imply this is the personal corporate Airbus of one of Google's founders.

ICAO24: A00084
Mark: N1FE
Type: Bombardier BD-700 Global Express (executive jet)
Desc: Federal Express's executive transport. FlightAware says FedEx has blocked this aircraft from being publicly tracked on FlightAware's site.

ICAO24: AE04FD
Mark: 58-0095
Type: Boeing KC-135Q Stratotanker
Desc: USAF tanker, built in 1958, flying as REACH95

ICAO24: AE07B6
Mark: 62-3519
Type: Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker
Desc: USAF tanker, built in 1962, flying as RCH224

ICAO24: AE2FA5
Mark: 08-8193
Type: Boeing C-17A Globemaster III
Desc: USAF, virtually brand new compared to the others (2008), flying as RCH318

ICAO24: AE4DDD
Mark: 11-0550
Type: Gulfstream C-37B (G550)
Desc: USAF G550 not sending a callsign.

ICAO24: C006E0
Mark: C-FCPR
Type: Cessna 680 Citation Soveriegn
Desc: Canadian Pacific Railways' executive transport. Again, blocked from public tracking on FlightAware.

ICAO24: C0083E
Mark: C-FDDD
Type: British Aerospace Hawker 125-800A (H25B)
Desc: Owned by "Hawker West" out of Calgary, enjoying Palm Springs FL, Scottsdale AZ, and Bowen Field (Boise, ID) over the past few days.

ICAO24: C00D75
Mark: C-FFCM
Type: Cessna Citation 525B CJ3 twin-jet
Desc: Numbered Alberta company flying out of Springbank (they do jets now!).

ICAO24: C012C7
Mark: C-FHCW
Type: Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200
Desc: "Air Partners" from Calgary, seen in Calgary area on 2/26, as of 2/27 1700 MST is partway between Montreal and Keflavik, Iceland.

ICAO24: C2B1BB
Mark: Unknown
Type: Unknown
Desc: Some kind of Canadian Forces craft (all C2xxxx ICAO24s are Canforce)

Don't have any with particularly amusing/funny callsigns so far (I thought "MRBUS", see above, was one at first).

More to come as things develop.

 

[smason]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Isn't it amazing what you can do with a $25.00 USB dongle?
I have an RTL and a Funcube, pretty cool.

 

[kma371]

nice list. I like tracking the NHL charters as they come into town for games against San Jose Sharks.

N682RW is my fav - Detroit Red Wings

 

[mikewazowski]

C2AEFF
130319
Lockheed C130

Identified as Tiger 319. Was dropping troops over the local tank range and waited at the local airport while the troops were collected up and brought to the airport.

Part of the 424 Search and Rescue Squadron based in Trenton.

 

[robertmac]

Flightradar24

Have been looking at this for the past week. But only on their web site with no box. Have noted before that WestJet charters Thomas Cook aircraft for some flights to resort places. Was picking up my daughter from airport and I always get to the parking spot off of 32 to watch. Heard the WestJet flight but as they came in I noticed it was a Thomas Cook aircraft. Noticed this Monday night that a flight on Flightradar from Hawaii was a WestJet flight but Flightradar showed it as a Thomas Cook aircraft. Also tonight, I heard Calgary Tower comment that the flights into the airport today were just unreal. As well Monday night I was watching a British Airway coming in from Heathrow and a couple of hours later was flying back. As a matter of fact there is once showing up right now as BAW102 just north of Prince Albert which is showing now as heading 26 degrees. And watching a few flights to Heathrow, I noticed that their headings varied a lot. Not sure if that is a problem with Flightradar or not.

 

[kma371]

nice list. I like tracking the NHL charters as they come into town for games against San Jose Sharks.

N682RW is my fav - Detroit Red Wings

dang didn't realize this was Canada forum so you were probably looking for Canadian aircraft.

but my post was partially relevant because you canuks love your hockey too

 

[Jay911]

dang didn't realize this was Canada forum so you were probably looking for Canadian aircraft.

but my post was partially relevant because you canuks love your hockey too

If memory serves, Detroit won't be visiting Calgary this year (unless either/both manage to hit the playoffs, which might take divine intervention here in Cowtown) so I won't be seeing that plane, but you did make me think of other craft to watch for.

Also, the unid Canforce craft I posted about earlier - checked my old AirNav logs tonight and it's an Aurora.

 

[kma371]

If memory serves, Detroit won't be visiting Calgary this year (unless either/both manage to hit the playoffs, which might take divine intervention here in Cowtown) so I won't be seeing that plane, but you did make me think of other craft to watch for.

Also, the unid Canforce craft I posted about earlier - checked my old AirNav logs tonight and it's an Aurora.

yeah no conference mingling this year due to the short season

but anyway I have a good list of NHL aircraft somewhere. I'll post the Canadian ones.

 

[Jay911]

Some stuff from today:

ICAO: AAB2C0
Mark: N789JC
Type: Dassault Falcon 50
- flew from Boeing Field (KBFI) to CFB Goose Bay (CYYR) and on to LFSB which is on the border between France, Switzerland, and Germany. Delivery flight?

ICAO: C06627
Mark: C-GMRU
Type: Cessna 172R Skyhawk
- Owned by Calgary's Mount Royal University. Mode-S callsign was set to 'N' - no thanks? Flew down to Cut Bank from YBW.

ICAO: C2B52B
Mark: 130601
Type: CC-130J Hercules
Callsign: CFC2575
- Canforce C130 out of Comox, going places unknown as usual (no position).

Got in touch with another PP user in the area who is going to try to get mlat going, if so - maybe we will have locations for these "hidden" craft soon.

 

[Jay911]

Here's a few neat ones.

ICAO: AE08D6
Mark: 61-2672
Type: Boeing OC-135W
Callsign: COBRA56
- "Open Skies" aircraft on patrol (see Boeing OC-135B Open Skies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). As an aside, may I point out that my setup does NOT reach the US - flights detected on my setup are in Canada.

ICAO24: C2B05D
Mark: 156115
Type: Beech CT-156 Harvard 2
- Canadian Forces Harvard going somewhere.

ICAO: C053B1
Mark: C-GFSA
Type: Beech B300 King Air 350
- Government of Alberta aircraft. (also saw C053B5, C-GFSE.)

Being that "fire season" has started, hopefully I'll track some air tankers, bird-dogs, and helos soon.

 

[Jay911]

From the past couple days....

ICAO: A781A4
Mark: HZ-MS5B
Type: Gulfstream G5
- owned by "Saudi Medevac" (!)

ICAO: A9FBED
Mark: N742WA
Type: Boeing 747-412 Cargo
Callsign: WOA9881
- World Airways Cargo flying from Leipzig to Travis AFB. Wonder what was in that cargo hold?

ICAO: A020A1
Mark: N107VS
Type: Gulfstream G5-SP
- This is Visa America's corporate jet. Who owns it? "Wilmington Trust Co Trustee" - in other words, "the bank", but not Visa.

For anyone interested in getting involved in this, here's my cost breakdown:

Cost for the DVB-T (RTL dongle): $39.95 USD on eBay from "nooelec"
PlanePlotter registration: 25 Euros (~$33.50 Cdn)

That's literally it. $75 gets you online.

 

[Jay911]

I was looking for amusing callsigns when I started this thread and started logging my data, and now I have them.

One of the USAF tankers flying about southern AB/southern BC yesterday was running a callsign of MOLSN02. Bartending to the Canadian Forces aircrafts? Another came up as TURBO98 (KC135 tanker group out of KS). (I see that Molson in an older callsign document implies that's a Canadian Aurora doing "drug interdiction activities" - maybe I mixed the callsign and the aircraft up.)

I also found several of the air ambulances (fixed wing) for Alberta, SK, and BC.

 

[Jay911]

Does it not seem odd that Boeing executives would retain at least two Bombardier CRJs for their corporate travel? (N548BA, N549BA)

Picked up N44EV (A548BC) the other evening. LearJet 35 air ambulance that originated in Cancun, stopped in Denver and again in Great Falls, and was flying over on its way to Anchorage; after that, it flew to Yelizovo, Russia. Vacationing Russkie fell ill perhaps?

Saw a USAF WC-135C sporting "TORA82". Not sure if that's a legit callsign that happens to not being in any of the online callsign lookup pages (including the one on the RR wiki) or if it's a made-up term.

Heard a buzzing overhead just a half-hour or so ago, and checked PP to see what the strongest signal was. Turned out to be a CT-156 Harvard II from Canforce. No position of course, but the sound mimicked traffic inbound to YYC coming to the ALBRO intersection (which is almost exactly over my house).

 

[kma371]

Saw a USAF WC-135C sporting "TORA82". Not sure if that's a legit callsign that happens to not being in any of the online callsign lookup pages (including the one on the RR wiki) or if it's a made-up term.

TORA RC-135, 55th WG Offutt AFB NE

 

[kma371]

one of the usaf tankers flying about southern ab/southern bc yesterday was running a callsign of molsn02. Bartending to the canadian forces aircrafts?.

molson kc-135r tn ang | 134arw | 151ars

 

[Jay911]

Thanks much.

 

[kma371]

Thanks much.

your welcome!

this is where I go
http://www.henney.com/chm/callsign.htm

pretty accurate.

 

[Jay911]

Nothing major picked up in the last day or so.. though I did look up some sports teams and found that the plane the San Jose Sharks are shown to use was indeed in town on the day they played the Flames. Several of the aircraft from the charter company the Canucks reportedly use have been through town too, though I couldn't pin it down to an exact date.

KMA - looks like the Wings are coming on Wednesday so I have an alert set up for their jet. And one for Nashville's Predators for Friday

Like I said, nothing truly special over the past day, except a brand new B738 (737-8K5) being delivered from Boeing to Thomson Airways in the UK, flew over Calgary a couple hours ago.

Also keeping my eyes open for new WestJet craft, specifically the Q400s they are going to use for Encore. Nothing in the Canadian civil aircraft registry yet, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled, especially since they'll be based in Calgary.

 

[kma371]

Nothing major picked up in the last day or so.. though I did look up some sports teams and found that the plane the San Jose Sharks are shown to use was indeed in town on the day they played the Flames. Several of the aircraft from the charter company the Canucks reportedly use have been through town too, though I couldn't pin it down to an exact date.

KMA - looks like the Wings are coming on Wednesday so I have an alert set up for their jet. And one for Nashville's Predators for Friday

Like I said, nothing truly special over the past day, except a brand new B738 (737-8K5) being delivered from Boeing to Thomson Airways in the UK, flew over Calgary a couple hours ago.

Also keeping my eyes open for new WestJet craft, specifically the Q400s they are going to use for Encore. Nothing in the Canadian civil aircraft registry yet, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled, especially since they'll be based in Calgary.

Yup, good old N724YS for the Sharks

N682RW also doubles for the Detroit Tigers BTW.

 

[searingxheretic]

I started mode-s tracking a few days ago, but tracked a quite rare and huge plane today. I wish I wasn't at work to run outside and try to see it!
RA-8204515407D
Volga-Dnepr AirlinesVDA
Antonov AN124-100A124
Mode-S Country:Russia
Military:No
Engines:4 jet
Weight:Heavy (over 135 tons)
Species:Landplane
Serial:9773052255113
First :: Prev :: 1 :: Next :: Last
Monday 11 March 201318:21:18
Altitude:24650 to 27450
Squawk:5624
Duration:6 minutes

Exciting hobby, thank you all for your posts getting me into it!

Sent from my cm_tenderloin