Mystery airplane
Posted: 07-25-2013 12:13 AM
For the past six months, I've noticed the same airplane flies over my house every night between 8:30 and 8:45pm. It's flying low and slow with wing lights on. I've been trying to identify this mystery airplane ever since the third time I saw it and realized how regular it was.
Most jets that fly low, and south to north, over my house are business jets going to land at McClellan Palomar airport. I combed the flight aware stats for days trying to find the plane, but no luck.
Several times I sat outside with my binoculars at the ready, but then got distracted and did not catch it until it was passed and I was looking at it from behind.
Finally, this week, I took my binoculars with my while I walked the dog, and I caught the mystery airplane. It was too dark to see the livery, but it definitely had wing mounted engines.
Hmm. A clue. Definately NOT a biz-jet. I've never seen a plane with wing mounted engines land at Palomar, except the new Cal Pacific Airlines plane, but they're not operational yet, so it couldn't be them going over EVERY night.
I expanded my search. I decided to check flightaware for flight going short distances from San Diego, Brown Field, and Miramar. After just a few minutes, I FOUND IT!!
It's a nightly 8:30pm FedEx A300 flight from San Diego to Ontario (California, not Canada). The flight is only 95 miles, so they stay at 10,000 feet and just over 300 knots. Hence the unusual "low and slow" over my house.
Now I can sleep at night.
Most jets that fly low, and south to north, over my house are business jets going to land at McClellan Palomar airport. I combed the flight aware stats for days trying to find the plane, but no luck.
Several times I sat outside with my binoculars at the ready, but then got distracted and did not catch it until it was passed and I was looking at it from behind.
Finally, this week, I took my binoculars with my while I walked the dog, and I caught the mystery airplane. It was too dark to see the livery, but it definitely had wing mounted engines.
Hmm. A clue. Definately NOT a biz-jet. I've never seen a plane with wing mounted engines land at Palomar, except the new Cal Pacific Airlines plane, but they're not operational yet, so it couldn't be them going over EVERY night.
I expanded my search. I decided to check flightaware for flight going short distances from San Diego, Brown Field, and Miramar. After just a few minutes, I FOUND IT!!
It's a nightly 8:30pm FedEx A300 flight from San Diego to Ontario (California, not Canada). The flight is only 95 miles, so they stay at 10,000 feet and just over 300 knots. Hence the unusual "low and slow" over my house.
Now I can sleep at night.
