irrational fear of flying

[monadnocky]

Heard a plane pass over a few days ago (I'm in central New Hampshire). Quite loud. It was pretty low for some reason, so you could clearly see four underwing engines. I assumed it was a 747 cargo coming out of MHT (does that happen?) but it looked... well, odd. Stumpier than a 747. A quick check of Flight Aware revealed it to be one of these big guys. I've never seen an An-124 before. Apparently it was at Pease (used to be an air base, now a civilian airport at the NH seacoast). I wonder why it was there?

Антонов_Ан-124_9773054055093,_М&#108.jpg

Do current US-Russia tensions impact contracting these fellas?

[bigbill]

There are a handful of Anatovs in the world that belong to charter companies to deliver large items. Fun fact, their cargo holds aren't pressurized. A decade or so ago, the Army contracted an Anatov to move a bunch of helicopters across the Pacific. Helicopters don't fly at 35K+ altitudes but the Anatov does. Most of the helicopters had damaged instrumentation.

[monadnocky]

There are a handful of Anatovs in the world that belong to charter companies to deliver large items. Fun fact, their cargo holds aren't pressurized. A decade or so ago, the Army contracted an Anatov to move a bunch of helicopters across the Pacific. Helicopters don't fly at 35K+ altitudes but the Anatov does. Most of the helicopters had damaged instrumentation.

I know that they can be pretty instrumental in disaster relief and delivering very large cargoes (huge water pumps, crane assemblies, and so forth) in addition to military stuff. Love to know what it was delivering to a relatively small airfield in New Hampshire.

[72gmc]

I'm guessing an An-124 is pretty darn loud. Do they retrofit planes like this for noise and emissions? Or just grandfather them in and let 'em fly?

bigbill, I concur with other comments here, I'd ride around with you just to hear you say "I can't tell you that" repeatedly and then tell me again about the time you kicked a fish. Thanks for sharing what you do.

[gregl]

Snip:

I'm guessing an An-124 is pretty darn loud. Do they retrofit planes like this for noise and emissions? Or just grandfather them in and let 'em fly?

According to this air cargo charter site, the AN-124s were updated to meet current ICAO noise requirements. I have no idea how they currently operate outside of Russia with the sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine.

Greg

[BBB]

Good point about the sanctions. It appeared the Canadians seized a similar aircraft in 2022.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...a-volga-dnepr/