C130 & DC6 over Barry (Vale of glam that is!)

[disco1]

Hi guys,
I live near Cardiff airport and for months have seen a C130 and what looks like a DC6 doing circuits, e.g take off, circle, land, take off.. over and over again.

Naturally it makes good viewing from my front room but why and who is doing this? If military then why aren't they using the runway at St Athan?

Can anyone confirm what the old retro airliner is?

thanks
D1

[Eric Mc]

Pictures?

Are you sure the aircraft you think is a DC-6 is actually piston engined?

[disco1]

I'll try to get pictures, the retro airliner has a silouette of a DC6 or similar, has 4 prop engines and appears to be red/white/silver.

Like the C130 is just goes around and around for hours. Would the MOD use one of these old airliners for air experience as similar to C130 in terms of size, prop engines?

[Eric Mc]

Sounds like the restored DC-6 based at Coventry - although I had heard that she wasn't being flown at the moment.

This is her at Farnborough in 2008. It is in the colours of the old Eagle Airways.

[disco1]

That Eagle airways plane looks pretty much exactly the same. B.A and St Athan have pretty large aircraft maintenance hangers so it may be going through flight testing/maintenance.

[DamienB]

That DC-6 hasn't flown for a long time. It won't have been that, and any DC-6 is a rare enough sight in UK skies that I would have expected it to have been noticed if one had been doing circuits at Cardiff.

[Eric Mc]

That's what I was wondering. There was a recent article on Flypast or Aeroplane Monthly which seemed to state that they had no immediate plans to get the DC-6 back into the air - even though it had been flying up until 2008 at least.

[DamienB]

On checking that one is indeed still sat at Coventry.

[Prawo Jazdy]

Is the quad-prop a Lockheed Electra? They occasionally do training at Cardiff.



The C130 will probably be using the ILS at Cardiff for training as St Athan doesn't have a serviceable ILS.

[Eric Mc]

An Electra did cross my mind. That's why I asked the OP if he thought the "DC-6" was really piston powered.