As something of a birdwatcher, I’ve always had an interest in anything airborne and this includes a passing interest in aircraft. With my official concerns for tranquillity and my amateur photographer’s interest in the Peak District sky, planes and their intrusion into the national park is something I’ve thought about a lot since coming to live and work in the Peak District.
During the emergency grounding of all flights in Europe following the volcanic ash cloud in April 2010 I took this great sunset at Hartington - no contrails!
This interest has been given greater impetus recently as I’ve downloaded a new ‘App’ that allows me to track civil aircraft from my phone, PlaneFinder. Other web-based versions of these can be looked at on your computer, such as Flightradar24.com. These work by picking up and plotting the ‘squawks’ from civil aircraft, identifying their type, speed, altitude, direction and route. So, stood on a Peak District hill I can find out the details of the planes flying over.
The airspace above the UK is pretty busy with air-traffic controllers directing over 6000 flights a day. Many of these are in the crowded skies around London. But we get more than our fair share in the Peak District. UK airspace is made up of 10mile wide and 5000ft high skyroads and very detailed controlled spaces near to the main airports. The following seem to be the main routes here.
Many of the big transatlantic midday flights to Western US from the London airports climb out over the Chilterns and Midlands transiting the Peak District at 25-30 000 feet. These big, fuel and passenger-laden planes are generally still climbing as they pass over us so they are often the noisiest planes in our skies. They’re also the big culprits in generating contrails, icy trails of vapour in the upper airspace that can wreck sunsets and bright sunny days in all seasons.
In contrast to the first picture, this is something of a normal summer evening sky looking west from the Peak District towards Manchester
On the return journey these flights come in over the south of Britain so we don’t see them in the Peak District. But we do get a lot of upper airspace transatlantic flights heading east to continental Europe. And there are a surprisingly large number of Ireland to central Europe flights and we seem to be in a key corridor for these routes both east and westwards.
A large number of domestic flights pass over at high altitude too, especially north and southbound London to Scotland and Ireland routes and these smaller planes seem generally to be cruising in the 25-35 000 foot range by the time they hit us, so they’re a lot quieter. I once sat in the jumpseat of a commuter flight from Stansted to Edinburgh and on a clear morning the views of England coast to coast were impressive.
Natural cirrus cloud in mid summer - before the transatlantic flights have started leaving London
Our two big local airports, Manchester and East Midlands account for a lot of traffic too, with a small number of planes destined for Leeds Bradford.
If the prevailing westerly winds mean planes are landing at Manchester from the north west a huge number of planes from the southern European destinations pass over the Peak District between 10 000 and 5000ft on their descent. I find these pretty intrusive in the Staffordshire Moorlands part of the national park and also in the Buxton to Longdendale area, where the flights turn from the north to pass over Manchester city centre before landing .
When the flights are landing from the southwest some of the European flights will descend over the southern Peak District before turning towards the runway and some European flights will take off over the moors. I understand too that some of the larger transcontinental flights from Manchester heading east will occasionally circle to gain height and these seem to be a midwinter phenomenon. Someone might be able to explain why?
Contrails - they add character to the sky but can dominate - here looking south near Elton
Where I live in the Peak District I’m also aware of the flights to and from East Midlands Airport. When they’re landing from the east the Scotland and Ireland routes will descend over the Peak District towards Nottingham and some larger transatlantic cargo planes come over here on their descent too.
In the past when air traffic control and navigation was more rudimentary, the Peak District built something of a reputation as an aircraft graveyard, with over 60 crashes mainly in the 1940s and 50s.
Two of these were civil aircraft, including an Icelandic Air flight which killed the two crew and one passenger at Crow Stones Edge above the Derwent dams on 12 April 1951 and a Dragon Rapide which crashed in fog on Kinder in the winter of 1963. Happily the two crew members survived that crash.
I’m told too that the PanAm flight that so tragically crashed at Lockerbie passed over the Peak District minutes before the explosion which led to so many deaths.
A more natural sky
There’s a huge debate going on about whether there should be more aircraft capacity, more airports and also whether a better rail network would reduce the need for domestic flights. And when very detailed changes to flightpaths and controlled airspace are made, special attention is paid to national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
A better high speed train service to Manchester and Scotland would potentially save some of the aircraft travelling over the Peak District, especially if people chose to travel from Northern England destinations to Europe by train. But for the foreseeable future planes will lbe a part of the Peak District experience.
Living at the bottom of the Peak District the noise is even worse as I am closer to the East Midlands Airport. I have also heard that planes may jettison spare fuel when they are cimming into land
Excellent, interesting and informative!
I’ve had a look at Flightradar24.com. Whether at home or out and about, I’ve often wondered where that silver speck in the sky is going, where they’re from – now I can find out. We live within sight of the eastern approach to Ringway – just watched the Icelandair 757 from Reykyavik come in. Must be careful though, or it might become addictive!
We’re also near the airfield at Woodford, now sadly closed, with it’s AVRO Lancaster history and thus the link to the Dambusters and Derwent Reservoir. I have many of the Peak air wreck sites waymarked in my GPS and have visited quite a few. A poignant and permanent reminder of different times and always worth pausing at for a few quiet moments!
I can’t claim to be a great birdwatcher but it’s always good to see them, large or small, and especially when out on or in the hills. My interest exceeds my current recognition abilities, though, so scope for progress.
I guess what I could really do with is a parallel website to FlightRadar24.com (perhaps BirdRadar24.com?) to help me identify all those UFOs – Unidentified Feathered Objects.
As a resident and local builder, also speleologist, road cyclist, birdwatcher and amatuer astronomer I greatly value the park from many angles and the work of the park authority. On the subject of aicraft though I would like to know who gives permission – if any other than CAA flight approval is required, for leisure/sightseeing flights. Pricipally helicopters, these seem to be on the increase and as they fly over the more ‘inaccessible’ remote areas the noise intrusion into these special places is unwarranted. They seem to be every hour or so over derwent dam/kinder etc in summer, and really as I see it just to make some money for whomever runs them. Not a very sustainable activity, and from some points of view quite superfluous.