I have seen this Beechcraft Super King Air coming from France near Valenciennes and flying in circular patterns over a zone of Belgium for 2 days in a row now.
What is it doing, some kind of aerial survey ?
Asked
Active
Viewed 8,777 times
89
-
4Maybe he/she is just building hours, and while doing it, having a nap... – Jpe61 Aug 18 '20 at 15:45
-
4Aerial survey usually looks like this: Why did this aircraft fly in this pattern over Southern Italy? This looks different. – Bianfable Aug 18 '20 at 15:46
-
...and more seriously, the pattern is very unefficient for aerial survey. If it was that, the pattern would be regular. – Jpe61 Aug 18 '20 at 15:46
-
It looks like a glider in a thermal – Manu H Aug 18 '20 at 15:47
-
9I would've guessed filming a cycling tournament if it wasn't for the altitude. – Sanchises Aug 18 '20 at 16:37
-
1Wow, maybe you are right, it corresponds to a cycling race "Tour de Wallonie": Stage 2 and Stage 3. Could it be filming from so high ? Or maybe another purpose... – DistractedAvFan Aug 18 '20 at 16:47
-
6Geez that's me on a typical cross country! – John K Aug 18 '20 at 16:55
-
20My guess is if it was circling a major cycle race, it would have equipment on board to serve a a relay station for a TV channel. I've come across this several times in my contry, South Africa. – Raffles Aug 18 '20 at 17:20
-
2Meanwhile, in the USA... – Harper - Reinstate Monica Aug 19 '20 at 17:50
-
1How did you get the flight track? (sorry, I realise this is probably common knowledge on here) – Greg Woods Aug 20 '20 at 08:59
-
@GregWoods See Flightradar24. – Andrew Morton Aug 20 '20 at 11:24
-
1They probably turned in the other direction too often, and now they're unwinding the compass. – Sneftel Aug 21 '20 at 12:13
1 Answers
139
It's acting as a television broadcast relay for the 2020 Tour de Wallonie cycling race, taking place in Belgium from August 16 through August 19.
The flight paths you posted correspond roughly to the race routes for stage 2 (August 17, Frasnes-lez-Anvaing to Wavre) and stage 3 (August 18, Montzen to Visé).
Here you can see a photo of what one of these broadcast planes looks like, with retractable underbelly antenna:
TypeIA
- 14,382
- 5
- 76
- 89
-
15Thank you - I've come from the bicycles.SE side and had never thought about how those high bandwidth video signals come from the motorbikes to the viewer. – Criggie Aug 19 '20 at 04:51
-
4I always assumed they used some short-range radio signals to a stationary TV truck with satellite dishes (or cable internet connection). – Michael Aug 19 '20 at 06:45
-
@Michael The problem is that the transmitter and receiver would both be at ground level in sometimes hilly terrain, possibly 50 km or more apart, and mobile high-bandwidth links without line-of-sight aren't really possible. But an aerial receiver will have no problem picking up the transmitter. – TypeIA Aug 19 '20 at 07:14
-
6@TypeIA: Yes, I’m just surprised they are using aerial relays instead of ground relays. I guess it’s just more reliable since you can pretty much always guarantee line of sight. – Michael Aug 19 '20 at 07:17
-
4@Michael Exactly. This race is run in an area with a lot of hills, making ground relays less reliable. – Mast Aug 19 '20 at 08:11
-
18
-
2To me the surprising thing is the double- (or even triple-) relay shown from some of the motorbikes to helicopters, then planes then trucks (which presumably run the satellite uplinks) – Chris H Aug 19 '20 at 10:53
-
7@ChrisH The trucks act as field-studios with operators and a director. Various feeds from the mobile units are combined and only a few choice feeds go on the (usually bandwidth limited) satellite uplink. The finish line truck usually handles finish-line interviews, the award ceremony and the live commentary for the various TV stations that will further distribute the live (or recorded) broadcast. The trucks also can process feeds of fixed camera's nearby. That's why you often have them located at summits in mountain races. – Tonny Aug 19 '20 at 13:19
-
2@Tonny, yes, the trucks themselves surprise me much less than the illustrated use of (expensive to run) helicopters as intermediate relays (the 2 marked "RELAY" are drawn without the nose-mounted camera of those marked "WESCAM"). Presumably there's a need for them (that can't be met by the helicopters with cameras, and presumably it's something to do with lines of sight and the fact that the race twists and turns though mountainous terrain and gets quite spread out – Chris H Aug 19 '20 at 14:30
-
-
3@fraxinus Depends on what's needed for things like endurance, altitude, etc. Airplanes fly much more efficiently than helos, so endurance is usually better. Airplanes (except fighters and VTOL) only require thrust equal to a relatively small percentage of weight, while helos need installed thrust > weight. – reirab Aug 19 '20 at 16:25
-
4@reirab I see. An airplane that carries the same payload as a helicopter is cheaper per unit of time and the excess speed is mitigated by more circling. – fraxinus Aug 19 '20 at 16:35
-
2@ChrisH My guess for the multiple relays is to deal with obstacle clearance for the signal, especially if it's a particularly hilly or mountainous area. Different helos can hover over individual spots (like valleys) that would be prone to signal blockage even from the airplane and then the airplane can loiter high enough to have LOS to all of those helos and also to ground stations that are in areas not obscured by high nearby terrain. RF is hard. And also finicky. - haha – reirab Aug 19 '20 at 16:45
-
3@reirab, yes, I think you're right. For the fixed-wing(s) to get LoS to all the ground vehicles would be tricky even at that altitude. They may also want some redundancy in case of unforeseen events (ground or air) and of course as suggested by your comments to fraxinus, endurance - they can hand-off to a new link that's got plenty of fuel. I suspect the picture illustrates the broad range of possibilities, and there are some that aren't shown, though maybe the camera helicopters really can't relay – Chris H Aug 19 '20 at 17:06
-
3... I've ridden the route of a Tour de France Alpine stage - lines of sight are definitely going to be tricky – Chris H Aug 19 '20 at 17:08
-
2@fraxinus: The most efficient way for a helicopter to remain aloft would be to fly in circles. If one is using an aircraft as a camera platform, hovering in place may sometimes yield better camera footage than flying forward, and that may be worth the extra fuel required to hover, but otherwise flying--whether in an airplane or helicopter--is more efficient. – supercat Aug 19 '20 at 22:50
-
1
-
1Wooo! That's the first time I see so many upvotes in less than a week on aviation.SE. Congratulation (I think you deserve it) – Manu H Aug 21 '20 at 20:24
-
@ManuH Surprised the heck out of me too. It's been on the HNQ for a few days now. I think it's a (completely innocently) click-baity question title combined with a surprising and fun explanation. If it gets people excited about aviation in any form then I think that's fantastic! – TypeIA Aug 21 '20 at 21:07