3 USAF C-17's at Richmond today..

[Russell D]

Was on my way to church in St Clair yesterday evening about 5.55PM, and I caught sight of a low flying plane (mum spotted it first).

It was a bit dark so I could barely make out the silhouette of the plane, plus I was in the car at the time.

It had bright wingtip lights, and the red rotating beacons above and below the fuselage seem to flash very slowly (kind of like a long exposure time on a camera). It had very bright landing lights too.

Aircraft in question was tracking roughly south-east, and was fairly low. Webtrack doesn't show any such plane in the vicinity at the time. It looked to come from the general RAAF Richmond vicinity.

Therefore I assume it was one of the USAF C-17s?

[Jaryd stock]

Another 4 C-17's were in Richmond today, 3 USAF machines and one RAAF bird they did the same as last week arrived and departed within a couple hours...

[Jeff N]

Another three were sighted heading south from Richmond last Saturday night.

Departures, from memory, were approx 1730, 1930.. and around 2300.

[Jaryd stock]

Another 2 USAF machines in today as well as the regular Hickham-Richmond in yesterday...

[Jeff N]

Two more flew south over Mt Druitt around 6pm last night.

Of interest, one was reasonably low, but on par with previous ones, however the second one, a few minutes later, was much higher up for some reason.?.

[Jaryd stock]

One was a RAAF machine and other a USAF Jeff wether this makes a difference to the flight levels I dunno...

[Peter Agatsiotis]

They were both USAF, I too watched the first one which flew towards Mt Druitt (00-0182) then did a tight right hand turn climbing at the same time, headed back towards Richmond and headed towards Wollongong at about FL160. I thought the second one (07-7189) would do the same but obviously had 'room' to fly direct south-east. My SBS tracked them both to FL320.
I noticed that on climb they have very bright red strobes until they reach a certain height then they revert to normal strength.

[Shayne G]

I saw an aircraft last night over my house around 11:03pm, the path it used indicated it was likely from Richmond, and nothing on any radar showed it. I think it may of been on it's way out, I assume it was a C-17 can anyone confirm?

[Jaryd stock]

Sorry Peter I stand corrected..

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Looks like they're back again today. Just happened to be out in the garden checking out an aircraft heading out of SYD when I noticed this C-17 (08-8192) approaching the house. Managed a few shots but it was at FL140 and climbing so only managed overhead shots. Not the best quality!