Plane spotters....

[Peter Ward]

I was looking for distant objects to test some new Canon glass...(500mm F4 )

Singair obliged by flying just north of my house....This was hand-held (no trivial task), yet the stabilization worked well in this pretty amazing piece of glass :)

The result is here
(http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/galleyOS18.html)

[DavidU]

Great for hand held ! Have you had your planes windscreen blasted by volcanic ash yet?

[stephenb]

Nice work, Peter. :thumbsup:

I've done a bit of aircraft spotting in Melbourne. I have a small collection of images over a couple of years and set up a blog/photo site but I just didn't have the time to keep it updated.

[jenchris]

what height was that at?

[multiweb]

Hand held at 33000 feet? Nerves of steel! :P Very nice lens indeed.

[Peter Ward]

I'm about 6 foot 2 inches. :D

ATC tends to keep the traffic up at about 6000 feet before the right hand turn toward the national park ;)

[jenchris]

so 6000 minus about 5'10"? Say 5904' 2" ?
Cool

[RobF]

Wonderful demo shot and thanks for the pilots eye naration. Beautiful aircraft.

I expect the approach was originally programmed in all the way back before take-off, or do you only get this info when eventually making contact with the destination ATC?

[von Tom]

Hi Rob,

I can answer that question : ). The standard arrival route (STAR clearance) is issued by the enroute controller when the aircraft is still 100-200 nautical miles out. Sydney has a handful of them, depending upon the direction you are flying in from. At about 45nm from Sydney the aircraft is then handed off to the Sydney approach controller. I am an ATC based in Brisbane and I issue the STARs for arrivals into Sydney from the north and east.

That is a nice photo Peter - handheld at such a focal length (and weight) it is even more impressive!

Tom

[Peter Ward]

This is correct.

In practice for MEL-SYD flight crew often load the expected arrival to into the flight management systems prior to departure (time permitting), but that said, Sydney has penchant for changing runways at seemingly random and rather odd times...shall we say for noise mittigation...to the point it's now a Forrest-Gump-like cliche':

"Sydney ( ATC ) is like a box 'o choco-lates..you never know what you're going to get" :)

[RobF]

Thanks Tom and Peter.

Don't laugh, but I've "flown" quite a few of them (STARs and approach plates) through Flight Sim's various incarnations over the years, but wonderful to hear what's really going on while you're daydreaming out the windows down the back. About as close as I'm ever likely to get to the real thing.

[DavidTrap]

Impressive shot Peter.

I remember about 25yrs ago being on a plane in the USA where they made communications between the cockpit and tower audible on the entertainment system - was really interesting to hear. I've never heard this on any other flights. Is there any reason why this doesn't occur today?

DT

[Peter Ward]

Can't speak for US operators, but to my knowledge QF have never done this ( ABC radio however, was available via the inflight entertainment system on some flights...many, many moons ago...)

.... as for the USA, I'd speculate a "Mayday" call would not go down well on the entertainment system ;)

[Ric]

Fantastic shot Peter, so crisp and clear.

Your new lens sure is the bee's knees's

[DavidTrap]

I suppose if the faeces is hitting the oscillating air distributor up the pointy end, you don't want the pilots to be having to think about turning off the feed to the entertainment system...

DT

[hotspur]

Lovely image-well done-hand held! That's a serious piece of glass-congrats.

I used a 500L yesterday at football,attached to a 1D.Just an amazing piece of glass.