FedEx Practice Approaches

[NC_BE300]

Driving home today- I noticed a FedEx A300 landing (road passes under approach path)....and i thought "cool". Next thing i noticed-it looks like he went missed. And they kept coming back around and made multiple patterns around the airport.

Pretty cool stuff. And since the airport is close to my house- i was able to stand outside and make these pictures-

So technically they were made "from the road"....in front of my house.

[coa787]

Nice! Let me guess, you're near MEM?

[NC_BE300]

Originally Posted by coa787

Nice! Let me guess, you're near MEM?

I'm actually near GSO.

And when the mid-atlanic hub construction is finished-i'm sure i'll be seeing more sights like this probably.

[coa787]

Yeah, GSO seems like a good airport to practice the approaches, fairly light volume of traffic. Whereas, MEM ,on the other hand, can see over one hundred departures and arrivals in an hour.

I guess I chose MEM because it is the FedEx capital of the world! Maybe it's not a good place to practice the approaches?

[NC_BE300]

Originally Posted by coa787

Yeah, GSO seems like a good airport to practice the approaches, fairly light volume of traffic. Whereas, MEM ,on the other hand, can see over one hundred departures and arrivals in an hour.

I guess I chose MEM because it is the FedEx capital of the world! Maybe it's not a good place to practice the approaches?

Ahh...MEM would be cool-there would be alot of FedEx pictures.
This was just something i found interesting that was in GSO-kinda rare that i see them flying-i only see the 1 A300 parked on the ramp often. So it was just cool to see not only movement, but pattern work.

[coa787]

Originally Posted by NC_BE300

Ahh...MEM would be cool-there would be alot of FedEx pictures.
This was just something i found interesting that was in GSO-kinda rare that i see them flying-i only see the 1 A300 parked on the ramp often. So it was just cool to see not only movement, but pattern work.

There are usually one or two A300's or A310's for FedEx here at CLE, but I've never seen any pattern-work. There's also a bunch of UPS aircraft here too. A few of those are A300's that arrive very early in the morning. The A300 is the largest aircraft to service CLE on a regular schedule, but it's only FedEx or UPS.

I'm guessing the A300 is also the largest aircraft to service GSO?

[coa787]

And I'm also guessing that this is the pattern-work that you saw:


FDX9036 (web site) (all flights) (alert me)
Federal Express Corporation "FedEx" (Memphis, TN)
Aircraft Airbus A300F4-600 (twin-jet) (H/A306/J)Origin Piedmont Triad Intl (KGSO)Destination Piedmont Triad Intl (KGSO) Other flights between these airportsRoute BOTTM VXV GZG BROOK2Date Thursday, Feb 28, 2008Duration 1 hour 19 minutesStatusArrived over 4 hours ago (track log) Proposed/AssignedActual/EstimatedDeparture12:15PM EST12:33PM ESTArrival01:42PM EST01:52PM ESTSpeed338 ktsAltitude18000 feet

[NC_BE300]

Wow.

Now thats interesting.
It really must have been a training flight then to have started and finished here.
Pretty cool.

The A300 for FedEx, A300 for Tradewinds, and the DC-8 for UPS are the biggest scheduled aircraft that i see here often. Of course Skybus operates A319's here, along with SHQ's E170's for Usairways. Besides those, this is mostly an RJ airport for the airlines.
Back in the day USAirways had 737's, F-100's, here all the time. And AirTran had the 717. COA had 737's coming here too a long time ago.
TIMCO MX though is across the field and i've seen 767's & 757's, MD-11's, DC-10's, and a some others over there.

[coa787]

Yeah, back in the day when CLE was a United Airlines hub and when it had scheduled international flights, I would see a lot of DC-10's, 767's, 747's, and all that stuff. Most of the United flights that operated the DC-10's and 767's to CLE were from ORD. Of course, I was very young at the time!

Now, the traffic here has dwindled down to, I would say, about seventy-five to eighty percent regional jets and turboprops (mostly XJT, UCA), ten to fifteen percent 737's (mostly COA), two to three percent 757's (COA), and the rest are miscellaneous flights that come through every now and then, including 767's and A330's for DAL and NWA as charter flights for the Cleveland Browns.

[JA Yawd Bwoy]

Nice Pics

[Cav]

If I had to guess it was a maintenance test flight for work done at Tempco. I doubt it was a training flight.

FedEx is building a large facility in GSO so you'll probably see a lot more of them soon.

[NC_BE300]

Thats the truth.

The new runway, and the Mid-Atlantic hub i'm sure will bring alot more to the area.

[UND_Flyer]

I was in GSO a few months back and saw a UAL B767 do a few practice approaches. Pretty cool sight.