Movements 19/10/2021

[zero_gravity]

This morning's climb out track

[DarkSky]

DARK01 AR complete Squawk 6040 - working Swanwick 277.775 - will route direct VALBO

[DarkSky]

Squawk 7660 once with Copenhagen

[DarkSky]

Squawk now 7660 - continue with Copenhagen 119.425

[zero_gravity]

Great call on the squawk DarkSky , thanks for that
ZG

[BAVC10]

Heard but not seen (low cloud base) this morning at 7:28 west of Cheltenham as they did the left hand 270 turn to the north east (which Zero_Gravity's image clearly shows. They did the same last week on their first mission which I don't recall seeing the B52s or B2s doing - anyone able to shed any light on why they seem to have adopted this manoeuvre please?

[nitro999]

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's the first one doing the 270 turn to allow time for the second one to catch up after take-off, and then they fly the rest of the route together in close formation.

[POL]

Or giving them chance to get up to altitude for the corridor?

[Ollie]

I'd be more inclined to say it was gaining altitude for the Dav, as seeing some videos of last weeks departures, they looked like MITO departures to me.

[tim_raper]

DC is about FL100-110 minimum i think

[zero_gravity]

Unfortunately their mode C [altitude] readout was beyond my coverage so I can't comment on the climb during the orbit , but I would certainly agree with the theory of gaining height for the corridor.

[Blackcat1]

DC is about FL100-110 minimum i think

Yep FL100-110.

[Stroudy]

I'd be more inclined to say it was gaining altitude for the Dav, as seeing some videos of last weeks departures, they looked like MITO departures to me.

They departed very close together this morning so i'd say its the gaining altitude option.

[page_verify]

They may well have asked to do something to avoid a particular weather cell or get above the low cloud while still in the Brize zone, or to just gain height and speed as quickly as possible to reduce the effect of this morning’s storm on them. I don’t know if anyone heard them asking for a deconfliction service on take off for example. MITOs were prohibited for B-1s a couple of years ago, not sure about now.

[BAVC10]

Thanks very much to all who replied with the thoughts as to the B1s left-hand orbit this morning and last week - much appreciated and very insightful.

[page_verify]

(American pilots at Fairford find it much easier asking Brize to do ‘positioning’ on departure or on arrival than when they’re with Swanwick, Swanwick they say prefer pilots that just want to fly straight and level.)

[wessexspotter]

Are we sure they'll be returning to FFD today? Proper breeze here ATM.

[POL]

METAR showing 220@18 gusting 22. Doesn't seem too bad really.

[dragonhunter20]

Should be due back around 1800

[luxto]

Separation was about 30 seconds - No2 waits for the one ahead to lift then it starts its take off roll. A MITO, as performed by Buffs in practise alerts in the US for example, are about half of that and they are not conducted in the UK. Vectoring by Brize was probably to allow them to rejoin as a flight and to position them to enter the Daventry corridor at the correct Flight Levels.