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Saw this plane circling around Lucknow airport (LKO).
This is happening every day. Any idea what is happening? Flight path

Richard
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Saurabh Kala
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2 Answers2

39

That is a plane being used to train/practice landings.

It is without passengers and one of the pilots is training. There will also be another pilot on board, possibly two, providing support and checking that the trainee is performing their duties according to the manual.

Federico
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  • Or maybe a test flight? – DeepSpace Mar 12 '19 at 10:54
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    @DeepSpace being an airline, not a manufacturer, I see that as unlikely – Federico Mar 12 '19 at 11:06
  • I would guess that if someone were to look up the approach plates for LKO, they'd find that the flight path follows a standard approach, too. – FreeMan Mar 12 '19 at 12:00
  • @Federico I'm pretty sure that airlines do test flights a lot of times. After C-Checks/D-checks for examples. – DeepSpace Mar 12 '19 at 12:53
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    @DeepSpace personally, I never heard of such a test flight having the pattern shown in the question. – Federico Mar 12 '19 at 12:57
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    If it is indeed a new pilot, when coming in for a landing, he'll hopefully be in luck now. – Baldrickk Mar 12 '19 at 14:26
  • @Baldrickk Haha, wow, it took too long for me to see that. :) – pipe Mar 12 '19 at 16:16
  • @Baldrickk Landing isn't the problem. It's leaving when you're out of... (oh, dear...) – J... Mar 12 '19 at 19:15
  • @Federico, What does the track of a post-maintenance checkflight look like? – Michael Hall Mar 12 '19 at 19:21
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    @MichaelHall: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/making-sure-an-aircraft-is-ready-to-fly/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email and for normal testing: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/interesting-patterns-on-flightradar24/?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email – Giacomo Catenazzi Mar 12 '19 at 20:03
  • @GiacomoCatenazzi, Thanks, but I was being a little bit facetious with Federico... Your links make the point that you can't really say that the track in the original question does, or does not, resemble a PMCF. – Michael Hall Mar 12 '19 at 20:30
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    @MichaelHall I think that the second link makes exactly that point. "Other pattern work" is exactly what we have in the question vs "flight test" (post maintenance or not) – Federico Mar 12 '19 at 20:41
  • I don't understand your point. And the second link looks more like a search grid than anything else. – Michael Hall Mar 12 '19 at 20:47
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    @MichaelHall scroll down the page – Federico Mar 12 '19 at 20:51
  • Ah yes, I didn't scroll. So, I think we agree... right? – Michael Hall Mar 12 '19 at 21:57
  • @DeepSpace according to Wikipedia, aeronautics is a major industry in Lucknow. So maybe it is some sort of test flight. – RonJohn Mar 13 '19 at 06:33
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I asked Lucknow Airport via their official twitter. Their response was, erm, terse.

Q: Why does Indigo flight 6E8002 circle Lucknow Airport every single day for an hour?

@aailkoapt (LUCKNOW AIRPORT): Training Flight.

Per Twitter - Mar 16

Community
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Richard
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