A little help identifying a flight?

[M Bornong]

This morning 1/29/14, I was watching the sky and saw this contrail,

He made 3 passes,

Due to the haze I was not able to get a decent photo of the plane,

It was fairly simple to identify the flight pattern on Flightradar24

I was disappointed that there wasn't a call sign, and hoped I could identify the actual flight by where it landed. At about 17:15 UTC am, it passed between Huntington Beach and John Wayne Airport and continued over the ocean. I thought it might be heading towards San Diego and started checking arrivals. When I returned to Flightradar, the flight had simply vanished. I went back through the playback and saw that it went off the radar at approximately 17:26 UTC it disappears off the coast of Oceanside. Knowing it had to be a glitch, I checked back at John Wayne Airport and found,

http://www.ocair.com/flightinformation/arrivals/

I didn't find any other corresponding arrivals at the other LA area airports.

Do you think it's a fairly safe assumption that I was most likely watching Alaska Airlines Flight AS 582? I haven't spent too much time playing with flightradar, yet.


(Note: The exe on my photos will be one hour off. I never adjusted my camera for the fall time change.)

 

[Mick West]

I don't think it was AS 582, the FlightAware track for 1/29 does not show this:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA582/history/20140129/1500Z/KPDX/KSNA

 

[Mick West]

It's ASA 572
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA572/history/20140129/1440Z/KPDX/KSAN

The plane you had clicked on was an ADS-B plane (yellow), real-time, but different data to the FAA planes. I looked around in the same region for a similar orange plane:

 

[Mick West]

Here's the view from ground level in Bakersfield, just to the North of the holding pattern.

KMZ Attached, open it in Google Earth.

 

[M Bornong]

Here's the view from ground level in Bakersfield, just to the North of the holding pattern.

KMZ Attached, open it in Google Earth.

Thanks Mick. I'll keep practicing. I live about 4 miles SW of the intersection you show, that would put it in the exact perspective I was seeing. Do you find it easier to use Flight Aware, Flight Radar 24, or use both for double checking?

 

[M Bornong]

I wonder if we are looking at the same contrails from the opposite sides of the Grapevine?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalskywatch/permalink/10153753122870302/?stream_ref=2

 

[Mick West]

Thanks Mick. I'll keep practicing. I live about 4 miles SW of the intersection you show, that would put it in the exact perspective I was seeing. Do you find it easier to use Flight Aware, Flight Radar 24, or use both for double checking?

FR24 is best for looking at an area at a particular time. FA is best for looking up the details of individual flights. So I use both.

 

[Mick West]

I wonder if we are looking at the same contrails from the opposite sides of the Grapevine?View attachment 5820
https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalskywatch/permalink/10153753122870302/?stream_ref=2

Probably tha same contrail. But viewed from the side. Edwards AFB is more or less east of Bakersfield, same side of the grapevine

 

[M Bornong]

Probably tha same contrail. But viewed from the side. Edwards AFB is more or less east of Bakersfield, same side of the grapevine

Typical morning at the ranch. 8 am, 1-29-14 Santa Clarita, CA

In the full post (http://www.facebook.com/groups/globalskywatch/permalink/10153753122870302/?stream_ref=2) she said Santa Clarita, either way we were 70-80 miles apart, a good example of how far away things in the sky can be.

 

[Mick West]

Typical morning at the ranch. 8 am, 1-29-14 Santa Clarita, CA

In the full post (http://www.facebook.com/groups/globalskywatch/permalink/10153753122870302/?stream_ref=2) she said Santa Clarita, either way we were 70-80 miles apart, a good example of how far away things in the sky can be.

Ah right, so maybe she was just saying she thought the holding pattern was near Edwards.

 

[M Bornong]

Possibly implying it was an unmarked military plane. We'll probably never know her thoughts for sure.

 

[Bruno D.]

Quick question from a layman:
- Why does a plane go on a path like that (3 circles) before going on to a far airport? I though that they did it only very close to airports in order to wait for their time to land.

 

[Mick West]

Quick question from a layman:
- Why does a plane go on a path like that (3 circles) before going on to a far airport? I though that they did it only very close to airports in order to wait for their time to land.

Sometimes it's just because the ATC region can't take them for some reason. The landing sequence is scheduled well ahead of time, so they can re-order the planes quite a distance away (and it's not that long really in terms of time, 150 miles is just 20 minutes). See this video, which shows lots of holds hundreds of miles from the airport.