Unusual Sightings

[Dave Hayfield]

There I was, driving past Manston airfield to the shops when I noticed something in the sky approaching the airfield. It looked a bit like a Chinook but not quite and as it got closer I could see wings......and then the twin rotors on the wing tips became visible. It was an Osprey, never seen one at Manston before and I think this was the first visit of one of these. I don't know what it was doing here except to show off, he did a bit of hovering above the runway, then went into forward flight mode to rotors fully forward and circled the airfield at high speed, came into the hover again above the runway and then flew away. Very exciting, I was amazed how slowly those rotors turned in the hover.

[Matt Harrowven]

I too have spotted the osprey numerous times over the last couple of weeks, the latest was yesterday afternoon around 16:30 always flying around RAF Wattisham and RAF Woodbridge area, quite a machine!

Matt

[James Ladell]

Where I live in Suffolk we regularly have the ospreys flying past as the flight path for the base where they are based is to the south of us. A night you should see them when they have the lights on at the tips of the rotors. Two big blue/ green rings in the sky.
I do not really take any notice any more as they are an every day thing now. But I can understand what it is like to see one for the first time as they are impressive machines.
James

[Dave Hayfield]

We should start a thread for 'unusual sightings' here, it's quite interesting to know what is around especially if living near airports. We have recently had training flights for A380 and Boeing787 and the very first 747/8 Cargolux freighter uses Manston along with some odd cargoes which look a bit Russian. Terrible news recently though that Manston is likely to close very soon. Pity, it is often used as a diversion field for planes not able to land at Gatwick and Heathrow, someone should use some common sense and use it to ease the pressure on air traffic in the SouthEast to a greater extent!