UA6866 SFO-SFO on 19 April - What is this UA 747 doing?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Premier Platinum (and falling fast)
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UA6866 SFO-SFO on 19 April - What is this UA 747 doing?
Just wondered if there was a way to find out which fleet number this plane is?
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...300Z/KSFO/KSFO
It's a 747 (operating as UA6866) doing a 5hr round trip from SFO around northern California and back this evening. Is this standard procedure for a plane post an mx issue or regular maintenance, for example?
Just curious more than anything else!
Thanks
GS
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...300Z/KSFO/KSFO
It's a 747 (operating as UA6866) doing a 5hr round trip from SFO around northern California and back this evening. Is this standard procedure for a plane post an mx issue or regular maintenance, for example?
Just curious more than anything else!
Thanks
GS
#2
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: MBS/FNT/LAN
Programs: UA 1K, HH Gold, Mariott Gold
Posts: 9,617
BTW, it indicated it is N128UA.
AFAIK, SFO-SFO would typically be MX.... But I don't ever recall one just flying around for that long. Maybe planemechanic can chime in?
#5
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K MM
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2 hrs into the flight and it hasn't been above 17,000 feet and speed is all over the place between 200 and 400 kts.
Seems if they were testing biofuel, they'd take it up to 38,000+ for a portion of the flight. Perhaps in a couple hours as they shed weight.
Seems if they were testing biofuel, they'd take it up to 38,000+ for a portion of the flight. Perhaps in a couple hours as they shed weight.
#9
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#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: SFO
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Biofuel testing - interesting thought.
If it is indeed N128UA then that plane is supposed to be flying SFO-SYD tonight as well! Busy night.
FWIW, when I first saw this as I was listening to Channel 9 sitting at the gate in SFO, the original flight plan was for a 3.5hr flight out over the Pacific and back. Obviously decided on an alternative routing.
Any other thoughts or theories much appreciated. Enquiring minds here.
GS
If it is indeed N128UA then that plane is supposed to be flying SFO-SYD tonight as well! Busy night.
FWIW, when I first saw this as I was listening to Channel 9 sitting at the gate in SFO, the original flight plan was for a 3.5hr flight out over the Pacific and back. Obviously decided on an alternative routing.
Any other thoughts or theories much appreciated. Enquiring minds here.
GS
#11
Arrived 8:40A from HKG out 10:48P to SYD. Not enough time to do any kind of major modification of course. Interesting to me they keep changing the speed quite a bit. Winds are fairly calm there right now, so the 158 knots measured at one point seems really slow for a 747 at 17,500ft, no?
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I saw this earlier this evening. With it not above 14,000 feet, and all along the CA coast, and the Tahoe and Yosemite areas late in the evening around sunset, I was thinking a photo shoot. Some kind of publicity thing.
#13
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#14
I looked at winds aloft at FL180 and it looked about 20 knots, which seems low to me. In thinking about it, low groundspeed in turn makes sense because of how the software would calculate the speed of the aircraft.
#15
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
Posts: 9,684
If I saw that, I would look to see if there was a space shuttle on top of it. Not fair that the east coast got to see that and the rest of the country didn't. I paid my tax dollars to, I want to see the coolness generated by them (and I don't count AF1 snarling up my ATC becuase someone has a home in Chicago as all that cool!)