Queens visit late October

[Matt_L]

It's been widely reported the queen has snubbed Sydney as part of her 10 day tour here I'n late oct-24th onwards I think.

But- for those spotters I'n Mel/CBR/Bne- will she likely be using a chartered BA 744 or something else?

[Mick F]

She will also be visiting Perth as part of CHOGM.

Mick

[Jack B]

She usually uses a 772

[Mal Sleight]

Matt,

I'm not sure that she snubbed Sydney, I suspect she had no choice. They may use a 774 but Long haul Royal Flights r normally done with 772.

Mal

[Michael P]

Once in Australia the RAAF is responsible for Transporting the Royal Family I do believe.

[Michael Mak]

It would be nice to see the 77W, doubt it though :(

[Shayne G]

As many others have mentioned very likely to be BA 777-200 and will be transported by RAAF in Australia so sadly this event will not be very big for special movements.

[Radi K]

Currently enroute EGLL-WSSS BAW9101 - ETA WSSS 2110Z

Looks like thats her.

[Darryl Schlodder]

ETA YSCB 0700Z, according to the Today Show

[Zac M]

Will anyone be at Canberra airport when she arrives? I know I will be!

[Rowan McKeever]

According to www.thebasource.com...

BA Flight Tracker October 2011.



Please enter Flight Number.

Date Flight No From Via To Registration Type Configuration Notes
18/10/2011 BA9101 London Heathrow AKL G-YMMP B772 12F/48J/32W/127Y

... although with a reference to AKL who would really know!?

[Benny Zheng]

Yup it's G-YMMP. Flight number BA9101C. Departed Singapore at 0716LT.

[Darryl Schlodder]

BA9101 on flightradar24 at FL410 tracking for Canberra ATT.

[Trevor Sinclair]

Not sure why it disappeared off the radar around Wagga Wagga. Security perhaps?

[Jason H]

Listening to Canberra tower, the controller is audible but the pilot is not....odd.

[A McLaughlin]

Landed at 1752 local -
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Australian-Aviation/152590017537

[Rowan McKeever]

Silly question... does G-YMMP remain in CBR now until it picks the Queen up to go home, or does it go home to LHR with another aircraft coming out in time for the return? And if it's the latter, does this happen with empty ferry flights or through normal SYD ops?

Thanks!

[Brenden S]

I would say that the aircraft will stay in CBR while the Queen will fly on 34SQN aircraft, until she fly's to Perth in the B777, then once she is finished in Perth she will fly direct Perth to England.

[chrisb]

I know there's politics involved but wouldn't it just be easier to use the 777?

[Zac M]

G-YMMP is no longer in Canberra. The Queen is still here though

[Brad Myer]

Doesn't QF usually fly the Queen home?

[Rowan McKeever]

What time was that, do you know?

[Kieran Wells]

It was over KL around 7.30ish... Was trying to track another flight and saw it. My guess is it would have left around 11am/midday out of CBR..

[Shayne G]

British Airways 777 G-YMMP operating BAW9102 departed at 9:47am.

[Michael Mak]

I heard it today on Melbourne Centre, after departing Canberra, it tracked direct to Sydney, climbing to FL340 I think.

[Rowan McKeever]

I thought I read somewhere last night that YMMP overflew SIN without refueling... even empty, would a 77E be able to make CBR-LHR non-stop? Or does anyone know if it landed SIN/somewhere?

[Paul Hunter]

It landed Singapore for refuelling.

Regards.

[Duncan W]

Royal flight detail leaked on internet

GEOFFREY THOMAS AVIATION EDITOR, The West Australian
October 24, 2011, 6:08 am


Highly sensitive information relating to the departure of the Queen on Saturday has been posted on a Sydney aviation enthusiasts' website, calling into question the shroud of security over the visits of heads of State.

The Notice to Airmen from Oxford Aviation Group, a global pilot training organisation, revealed details of the aircraft type, departure time, cruising altitude, call sign and routing.

What it revealed is that the Queen's British Airways 777-200ER will set a record, being the first plane to fly from Perth to London non-stop.

The flight, with little payload, will take 18 hours.

CHOGM officials have declined to reveal any details of special plane movements for heads of government and Federal authorities have shut down various air traffic feeds to plane tracking sites to eliminate the ability of the public to monitor flights.

The NOTAM was posted on two websites by "Kirk C", understood to be an airline engineer at Perth Airport.

When questioned on the websites by other concerned enthusiasts who threatened to report him to police, he dismissed the comments and said "go ahead, report me".

A NOTAM is usually filed with an aviation authority to alert pilots of hazards en route or at specific locations. According to a Perth airline executive, NOTAMs are not intended for the public but for pilots and airline operations only.

"This is a serious breach of security and grossly irresponsible," he said.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is investigating the breach.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said "the palace does not comment on details of internal or external flights during a royal visit".

Oxford Aviation Group was not able to respond yesterday.

Tomorrow the Royal Australian Air Force will start exercises for CHOGM with its $600 million Boeing Wedgetail spy-plane and six F/A-18 Hornets

The Wedgetail is the world's most sophisticated surveillance and control plane, and will provide blanket radar coverage for CHOGM.

It can track airborne targets up to 400km away while monitoring ground threats up to 100km away.

[Owen H]

Interesting.

I thought you were taking the mickey until I saw it on the West Australians site...

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/full-coverage/chogm-2011/a/-/article/10788633/royal-flight-detail-leaked-on-internet/

[Adam J]

Kirk C might soon be looking for another job.

[Dave Dale]

Wow, this is probably the wrong sort of publicity this board needs. Goes to show though, everyone is reading everything we write.

Dave

[Mick F]

I can't stress enough, the need for people to stop, think, think again, leave it 24hrs, then think again about what you're about to post.

I've had a moment or two over the years where I didn't do that and it has come back and bitten me on the ***!

As a result, I dare say the person in question is probably out of a job and will find it difficult to get another in the industry.

THINK BEFORE YOU POST! This board is read by a lot more people than you might think and some of those are in very high places.

Mick

[Duncan W]

Let me just say, the person in question was told repeatedly on 'Jetspotter' Forum that his post was of great concern to a lot of the spotting community and his response was exactly as reported - 'I don't care', 'Report me' etc etc...

[Adam J]

Apart from being incredibly stupid and surely breaking company rules is he likely to face charges of any kind.

Strange attitude to have if he was given a heads up by other members and chose to ignore the advice.

[Rod Sloan]

I just want to reiterate what Mick F has said and have a good think about things before you post. If in doubt, don't. Or ask a mod for advice.

I am one who has lost his job for posting on an aviation forum in the past and Mick is right, this board IS read by people in very powerful and influential positions.

All that said. Can someone tell me what security clearance airline pilots and management are at ? If the information is 'highly sensitive' and reporting of such was a 'security risk' I am assuming that they would have some level of security clearance ?

[Andrew P]

what total [....] some people are

the Queens flight is currently on flightradar24.com as REGL1 (woh such an original name)

so let me think, who gave them this info,

Ps was last week tracking her BA 777 thru central NSW down to Canberra, but did not get a screen dump, as only using my tablet!!!!!!

against security is more about bull**** that reality, keep the masses dumb

[Rod Sloan]

Like her BA flight, though, went off radar on decent in YSCB.

[James S.]

Look if he made an honest accident by posting it without understanding the consequences he would face so be it, but his arrogant 'I don't care' attitude after being repeatedly warned is pretty shameful in my opinion.

Oh well.

[Kieran Wells]

Found that Channel 7 were reporting this morning that the Queen would be flying to BNE on "That British Airways 777".. Had to have a laugh... Someone didn't do their research properly.....

[Rowan McKeever]

I think probably the issue is not so much aboout the availability of tracking, information, etc of special flights once they are in the air (or with discussion between aviation enthusiasts like us about when a flight departed/arrived, altitude, flight track, etc after the event)... once an aircraft is up, it's a little hard to plan an attack on it. Also, the tracking websites have a time delay regardless of whether the flight is RPT, charter or the Queen's flight.

I suspect that the issue is more about the specific timing of an obviously sensitive aircraft movement over a week before it happens, thereby giving plenty of opportunity for an attack to be planned, should someone choose to do so.

The fact that the information posted clearly referred to "classified" airspace, and the attitude of ther person who posted it, is why people are so surprised and reacting the way they are.

[Stephen Brown]

I'm also advocating a sensible approach to this that looks at all the sources where the same information could be reasonably gathered.

Where any media outlet can smell blood in the water and beat up a story with a fair dose of uninformed rhetoric and naivety so that the pure facts get distorted then a sensible approach probably won't be forthcoming.

[A McLaughlin]

Chris is right that most of the informtion can be found if someone is willing to do their homework, but I guess the policy is not one of prevention but one of mitigation, i.e. to make it as hard as possible...

For example, at the Super Hornet arrival at Amberley last week, all media and photographers were told to put down their cameras when the aircraft were taxiing straight towards us because of "security", i.e. they don't want pics taken of the radar blockers (or 'devices') deep inside the aircraft's intakes.

But when the VIP crowd and guests came up to the fence, they were filming with cameras, phones, videos etc, some of which was pretty good quality gear.

Also, three years ago when I visited the US Navy base at Lemoore in California, there were no restrictions on what I could photograph, and a US Navy guy actually pointed the radar blocker out to me!
:rolleyes:

Re the Queen's arrival in CBR on the 777, it was well known days before that she would be arriving at 1750. We were outside on our office roof camera in hand ready, and she came in about four minutes early. It wouldn't have been hard for someone with less honourable intentions to have done the same with something else that shoots...

[Rowan McKeever]

Ahh OK... I didn't realise it was so well 'published' (and obviously I'm not that great at finding these things!). :D

There's an interesting article in the West Australian today by Geoff Thomas (who else!) about the flying arrangements for the Queen... the configuration of the 777, etc. Geoff talks about 30 of the Queen's staff arriving in PER 90 minutes ahead of the BBJ she will travel on. Would they be on another 34SQN aircraft or something chartered?

[chrisb]

It's nice to see the Media telling us the queen's exact departure and arrival times for this afternoon. Didn't they declare this a security risk a few days ago?

[Andrew P]

Note flightradar24 is currently not covering any flights in WA at present,and has been like that for a few hours

[JamesW]

Flightradar 24 has always had bad/un-reliable coverage for Perth.

Planefinder.net has had all ADS-B a/c operating around Perth displayed, include EVY32 and REGL1 today, aswell as a DNGO King-Air yesterday.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Plenty of Perth aircraft on Planeplotter at present.

[Brenden S]

FL24 Perth has been down for the duration of CHOGM

[David Z]

Time to go home...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30534061/baw9104.JPG

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

Was the Queen flying Direct to LHR or was that just a cover?

If so, does the B772ER have the range of is it just pushing it a little.
and what route would be the best for her return home?

Stuart

[Kirk C]

G-YMMP Arrived in Perth this morning DCT from LHR

[J Brown]

Under normal operating circumstances the 777-200ER wouldn't, however you must bear in mind it isn't carrying 300 people and 20 tonnes of freight.

Cast your mind back to April 1997, when 9M-MRA flew BFI-KUL eastbound non-stop (some 20,044km) in a little over 21 hours. This is about 5,500km further than PER-LHR, but of course it is flying west so would be fighting a headwind most of the way reducing the range but certainly not by 5,500km.