When ATC asks “what is aircraft type?” and you take that seriously !
Peter wrote:
How is this done? Can you load a very long route (hundreds of waypoints) into the 747 FMS, by a data transfer?
Assuming the FMS can do RTF (radius to fix) on an arbitrary point (latlong, not a named point in the database), this requires on the order of magnitude of 30 waypoints, maybe even less (if some curves are just a “natural” turn and not a RTF). Not that I think of it, if one calibrates the size of the figure and speed of the aircraft so that all curves are natural turns, this can be done without RTF.
172driver wrote:
There must have been some very steep turns in this, I guess the guys and gals at the pointy end had great fun!
The pointy end (nose) is done by intersection of the entry vector and the exit vector of the drawing.
Here is the route string for the El Al flight for those that are interested:
N0483F390 PEPIX8A PEPIX L50 UNIXO DCT ENSOT DCT BELIX/N0519F370 DCT PLH DCT SIT DCT KAVOS OAT DCT N3400E03007 DCT N3402E03010 DCT N3405E03014 DCT N3405E03016 DCT N3405E03040 DCT N3406E03042/N0371F100 DCT N3407E03043 DCT N3416E03050 DCT N3418E03050 DCT N3417E03051 DCT N3418E03049 DCT N3418E03048 DCT N3418E03046 DCT N3418E03044 DCT N3420E03044 DCT N3421E03045 DCT N3422E03046 DCT N3422E03053 DCT N3422E03056 DCT N3422E03055 DCT N3426E03058 DCT N3428E03058 DCT N3427E03058 DCT N3429E03058 DCT N3428E03057 DCT N3428E03055 DCT N3428E03053 DCT N3429E03052 DCT N3430E03052 DCT N3431E03052 DCT N3432E03053 DCT N3432E03054 DCT N3432E03102 DCT N3433E03103 DCT N3444E03113 DCT N3444E03116 DCT N3408E03107 DCT N3406E03108 DCT N3405E03144 DCT N3406E03146 DCT N3400E03007 DCT ABILO DCT PEDER DCT TOBAL UM978 LUBES/N0463F310 UM978 LCA GAT UB17 VELOX/N0436F230 W13 SOLIN GEFEN1A
Amazing! They aren’t especially sharp turns; the 747 pic is about half the width of the Med at that point.
I dont know about ATC having a laugh, but this ba***ard was flying around last night from 02:20 to 03:20 keeping everyone awake
…and it looks nothing like a P68 neither !
quatrelle wrote:
I dont know about ATC having a laugh, but this ba***ard was flying around last night from 02:20 to 03:20 keeping everyone awake
Surely some propeller-based chemtrails while we sleep or a full-moon weirdo flyer with no daylight life 
(I know a weirdo flyer who regularly fly his C172N few times EGTR to EGMC and back via city transit at 1am)
Surveillance?
Already a week old and nobody has posted this:
I wonder if he programmed the autopilot for it?
