Odd Icelandair in KTUL - L25

This is L25 and the odd part is if you look at the history of this aircraft it can’t seem to fly direct, seems to do circles in the sky on the way.

This is today’s http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ICE9/history/20100201/0126Z/KTUL/KBJC
another sample http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ICE9/history/20100201/0126Z/KTUL/KBJC

I’m not an expert or even an amateur, but from looking briefly at the track log it looks like they did a climbing circle from FL250 to FL370. For what reason? I don’t know. I’m just saying it almost looks like a tactical climbout.

It’s not an Icelandair flight. Rather, it’s a flight that has a code that is the same as Icelandair.

Research indicates that its flights operated by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. It’s mission is to conduct atmospheric sciences research.

cira.colostate.edu/

Makes a lot of sense now.

I wish I could book a seat on my next trip to Colorado :slight_smile: I could put up with the circles in the sky.

I saw this airplane when I was departing BJC the other day on a Hawker… its got all kinds of cameras and sensors hanging off the bottom of the airplane. I should have snapped a few pictures but I didn’t get to it.

The aircraft has been parked here at KBJC for a couple months now, and are expected to continue to do so till late March. The plane is packed with computers, and numerous sensors mounted on the fuselage, wing tips, etc. Interesting group of people operating it might I add… No regard to the operations of an FBO on a busy day, however. The plane leaks, pilots are super demanding, and are in such a rush to cloud chase, they attempt to taxi out with the GPU still plugged in.

Another example…

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ICE9/history/20100205/2042Z/KBJC/KBJC