FighterControl

I've always wanted to spot the U-2, and looking through recent Heads Up notices, I've see mentions lf em heading over Manchester and North Wales at high altitude from RAF Fairford. Is this a frequent occurence, and is there any typical route the Dragon Ladies take over the area?

If you have a Scanner listen out for the Dragon Callsigns, pray for clear skies.. and best of luck.. Black Callsigns take a different routing so will avoid the Manchester North Wales areas.

JaiAviation wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 20, 2023 9:24 pm

I've always wanted to spot the U-2, and looking through recent Heads Up notices, I've see mentions lf em heading over Manchester and North Wales at high altitude from RAF Fairford. Is this a frequent occurence, and is there any typical route the Dragon Ladies take over the area?

Hi

If you check my posts over the last three years regarding the U2 flights you'll see many images of the tracks.
Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war I have reeled back more pertinent info , but still give basic tracking data whilst inside UK airspace.
Listening alone will not reveal the exact route taken and often can be misleading as U2 pilots , in the main , are rather brief with their transmissions.

There are four main mission tracks , three for Baltic flights and one for the NOROPS ones.
There used to be a fifth route out to the Black Sea area but we have not seen that one used for some time.

ZG