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Prestwick and the C17

by | Jul 11, 2022 | Airport News, Aviation News, Database, Online Logging, Spotting, Spotting Locations

Prestwick, long used as the jumping off point or arrival point for transports crossing the Pond. The main recognition started during the second world war, when it’s excellent fog free record was pointed out by Captain Duncan Macintosh. During the war years, there were huge numbers of Lend Lease aircraft transiting through Prestwick.

Still used as a stopover location for trans-atlantic traffic, now experiencing a revival for military traffic especially given the situation in Ukraine. It is unlikely to see the kinds of volumes of visitors it attracted in the 1960’s and 70’s, but there has been more traffic about that is obvious.

Conveniently placed, Prestwick has over the years seen it’s fair share of traffic – both East and West bound. The table below is the C17 traffic for the past few years and is an extract from my Prestwick historical log going back to 2016, there have been a lot through over that time. As to searching the table, by default any search string will be automatically search any field, however there is a drop down at the right side of the search box – this can be used to filter searches.

 

The C-17 at Prestwick

Testing a bigger Log

by | Jun 17, 2022 | Airport News, Database, Spotting, Spotting Locations

So again some testing of a log file, this one is for Prestwick, for January and February 2021. This doesn’t include based stuff, that would make the file pretty large and to be honest a registration search would return 365 hits – so not practical.

The data has been sourced from a number of places, it is somewhat limited and would be the type of data that a spotter with a radio and a pen and notebook would typically collect on a visit to the Airport – so does kind of reflect a personal log.

 

Putting the data together was a little time consuming, however I will automate that as much as I can and should be able to speed the process up significantly. The sample data set was created manually, so there may be some typo’s in it – anyway here is the first largeish table with a little guidance as well.

The table can be sorted on a column, by clicking on the heading – obviously the usual constraints apply for date formats. You can sort by date, but the first of January will be followed by the first of February – so please bear that in mind.

There is a free text search, this will return matching values as a guide – searching for “135” will return all matching rows and as an example 12-135(Serial), KC135(Model), AFR1135(Callsign) and ERJ135(Model) would all be returned. It is possible to combine search terms, these should be separated by a space as an example “Boeing 747” without the quote marks.

Prestwick Log January and February 2021

 

Totterdown Hill

by | Mar 12, 2021 | Aviation News, Spotting Locations

Viewing the Fairford Air Show from Totterdown Hill is a first class experience, you are effectively in the center of the flying display area. There are excellent photographic options, no mater the direction of the Sun.

The facilities provided by the site are very good when all things are considered, there are hot drinks and hot food available all reasonable priced. The cost of entry into Totterdown Hill is very reasonable, but is based on the car and its ocupants.

It is possible to camp on the site, there are ample toilet facilities and there are a number of shower facilities.