Lovely Discovery.

[Isac]

I saw this plane flying overhead blowing a lot of smoke and as I sometimes do, grabbed a quick snap. Little did I know after checking my photos, that it was not a common site in our western skies. It was a fair distance away so this is a heavy crop.

It's a Volga Dnepr Airlines Russian Antonov An-124:100 Ruslan RA-82044.
Came from Malaysia (20th November) as flight VDA2401 after a flight time of 5 hours.36 minutes.
Departed for South Sulawesi, Indonesia (21st November) as flight VDA2088.

Canon EOS 7D Mark II | 1/1000 sec | f:8 | ISO 100 | 400 mm | Aperture priority | Multi-segment | TAMRON 18-400mm F/3.5-6.3

[Grumpy John]

Pretty good image considering it is a heavy crop. Do you do work part time for ASIO?

[Isac]

Thanks GJ. ASIO? Thinkin' about it

[Ozzie_Traveller]

Hmmmmm - Malaysia to Perth to Indonesia??? - hardly a short detour for coffee & donuts

ps- yep- the pic is good too
Phil

[Isac]

Cheers Phil. These planes are for charter and cart heavy machinery etc and large cargo that won't fit on commercial planes.
The plane has an onboard overhead crane capable of lifting up to 30 tonnes of cargo, and items up to 120 tonnes can be winched on board.
It carries up to 150 tonnes of cargo can be carried and can also carry 88 passengers in an upper deck behind the wing centre section.The cargo compartment of An-124 is over 1000 cubic metres!

Pilots have stated that the An-124 is light on the controls and easy to handle for an aircraft of its size.