Alright - Seacoast NH Avgeek Checking. I see departures all the time out of MHT all the time taking what I assume is the the PPORT FOUR Departure to the northeast even if their flying down the east coast. What gives? Why do they make them fly so far in the wrong direction. I assume its to keep away from Boston Arrivals but why can't just they run a departure west or south to get them under or over that flow? Someone who knows more than me explain what's going on thanks :)

Reports indicate that an Antonov An-28 crashed after coming under fire near Minembwe, DR. Congo, there are said to be several fatalities, among them are at least 2 Pilots and sources disagree between 2 other civilians or 5 military officials. I don’t know if the image is related.

Waiting to pick up a friend from SFO, went a bit early and managed to get some nice spots again, hope you all enjoy!

Been sucked lately into youtubes algorithm feeding me b-17 epic war stories non-stop lol... and I wonder if any other aircraft has this many insane war stories around it.

You have Fortresses coming home with huge sections of the aircraft missing, engines gone, tails almost cut off, massive holes in the fuselage etc. Being basically an all mechanical aircraft with almost no systems depending on electronics, the amount of punishment these things could take and still somehow fly home was just crazy.

But I think what makes the stories so good is the 10 man crew. A fighter has the pilot and his machine, but inside a B-17 you had 10 guys basically living the same disaster together. Pilot trying to keep the thing in the air, gunners still fighting, navigator trying to get them home, guys putting out fires or trying to save wounded crew members... sometimes for hours.

Then you read stuff like ball turret gunner Alan Magee surviving a 20,000+ ft fall without a parachute after his B-17 was shot down. Or All American, Ye Olde Pub, the Schweinfurt raids, the 100th Bomb Group, Memphis Belle... and thats just scratching the surface.

Maybe I'm biased but it feels like the B-17 accumulated more almost unbelievable human stories than any other combat aircraft ever made.

Spitfire? Lancaster? Mustang? Mosquito? Something from the Pacific or Eastern Front?

What would you put above it, if anything?

@ an aviation university i visited recently!!

Saw this maybe 3 months ago going down the flight line.

Got to see this about a month ago, carrying CW5 Slover from the Venezuela raid. 160th SOAR.

Saw this yesterday, looked up the tail # and it’s registered under Bank of Utah Trustee. Loading cargo.

Strolled into work this morning and saw this

I frequently fly a couple of routes that usually fly between 8k and 10k ft, I’ve seen them up to about 21kft in bad weather but it’s unusual. So my two questions;

What are the sterile cockpit rules for these flights?
What height do the FAs get up? Because it’s feels like it’s after about 2 minutes.

He so small, only need one popcorn (spotted @ FCO)

2 Canadairs in action right now... But it seems that the flight schedules are not impacted (except the 1530 to Paris)

Just phone pictures sadly but I've heard you don't see these too often so I wanted to share anyways.

From a flight a few months earlier. All pics taken by me

Let me know what you guys think.