Coningsby on Look North lunch-time news...

[harrogate]

Mr Atha defending low flying in Lincolnshire as 'more Typhoons take to the skies, ahead of operations in Afghanistan'.

Coningsby's been a jet base for years and you know what you're getting in Lincolnshire, in terms of military activity. Low flying hours AREN't going up, with the advent of more Typhoons. They're staying pretty much exactly the same. Atha's words.

They day the RAF yields to noise complaints on a county-wide basis is the day we might as well pack it all up and let the public defend themselves.

Is the general public just completely, totally and utterly unreal sometimes?

Discuss.

[londonmet]

Is the general public just completely, totally and utterly unreal sometimes?

Yes.

[OCCWMF]

No.

Not sometimes.:E

[vecvechookattack]

Too true.....absolutely correct....



............. Hang on a moment....the Typhoon is soon to deploy to Afghanistan and in order to practice for this high profile operation they are using Lincolnshire as a training ground.....hmmmmmm... I think that the only thing Lincolnshire and Afghanistan have in common is.... err.... must be something....... anything? So, why Low Fly in Lincolnshire then?

[dave_perry]

Yeah, I saw it in the local paper. Sadly a lady died; fell off her horse, a few years ago from a low flying chinook. It said low flying hours will increase.
Wouldn't it be a good idea for the RAF to just state every fortnight or so when the low flying will take place. Online somewhere, so that these people who don't like the aircraft noise, to plan around it. Makes sense.:hmm:

[HEDP]

Trg to low fly, what for?

That I am sure is not a requirement for theatre..........

[TurbineTooHot]

8/8 cloud 300 feet off the deck, troops in contact and no way to PID other than to Low Fly under it in order to put weapons on target and, hopefully do a good job of supporting our cousins on the ground.

Or in-fil in a Chinook as low as poss and using the terrain to avoid getting spotted and blasted out of the sky by RPG rounds.

All of which you can't do without a sh;t load of training.

Points/questions.....:=

[PPRuNe Radar]

All of which you can't do without a sh;t load of training.

Points/questions.....

But over Lincolnshire ?? Better come up here to Jockistan. At least we have terrain and lots of rain :)

[HEDP]

Chinook, yes!

Typhoon ?????

[vecvechookattack]

Pprune radar is exactly coorect....there is little or no tactical training value with Low flying in Lincolnshire..... Lets ban all low flying south of Jockland and conduct all of our LF training north of the wall.

[harrogate]

The 'issue' revolves around the exact MoD definition of 'low flying', versus the public perception of a plane that seems low.

The news item referred specifically to Typhoons from CBY. It mentioned Wokkas because of the unfortunate death of the lady on the horse a few years ago, but that wasn't really anything to do with Mr Atha's motivation for his press release today. It was specifically about Typhoons over Lincs and talked about how there is going to be more and more Typhoons.

It's no mistake that there's Typhoons dry bombing the Wash ranges 'til 22:30 (Wainfleet Mon & Weds, Donna Nook Tue & Thu) between September and April and there are 'low' planes over here in Tetney (just outside Grimsby, on the way to Donna) day and night recently, but they aren't what the MoD would describe as low flying.

The press release today was all about saying 'don't be surprised if you hear more jets in future', but he specifically said that low-flying hours are NOT increasing.

As for Afghanistan training - yes Lincs is the place 11 Sqn are doing a lot of prep, simply because it's where most of the bombing ranges are. It's not really about how much of a match the Lincs terrain is to Afghanistan. It's just about general surface weapons training - they train where the ranges are. I'm sure they're doing dry runs up in them thar hills too, but the Lincs ranges offer some nice airspace to play with and they're near base. Simple.

Whingers see a plane that's 'low' and they automatically whinge about low flying, mainly because they're bored and like to whinge. Nine times out of ten, it's not 'low' in the MoD sense of the word.

[TurbineTooHot]

HEDP: "Tyhpoon???" Dude, I refer you to my first para. They'll be doing CAS too (eventially).

PPrune Radar& VecVec: Low flying is magic up here, but if we all come it'll get mighty crowded. And if the weather is cleet then you'll need somewhere else to go, sometimes even Lincolnshire.:ugh:

Also see Harrogate's post. Spot on.:D

[splitbrain]

Is the general public just completely, totally and utterly unreal sometimes?

Unreasonable would be a better way of putting it. All fine and dandy until you invade their little world at the wrong time or in the wrong place.

[Lamenting Navigator]

Oh grief, another low flying story. I was on approach for a range when I was growing up and boy, did some of the locals whinge that the A-10s were cracking up their houses. You know, I have police helos flying lower than the jets ever did and that's annoying.

Perception is everything, though. 100 feet may as well be 'scraping the chimney pot' so far as some people are concerned. Hateful. And an uninformed media doesn't help.

[LateArmLive]

FJ ops in Afghanistan are not only conducted at ML, I can assure you of that.
It doesn't matter what county you are flying over at the time - it's what you're doing that matters. If all our AWRs are in East Lincs then, guess what, that's where we'll be flying.

[TEEEJ]

Well said, Harrogate. Spot on! :D

[Marly Lite]

Vecvechookattack

Believe me, low flying over lincolnshire could have every tactical training value, take it from someone with VERY recent experience on ops, not everywhere we are operating is hilly/mountainous.

leave the tactics to those that actually have to DO it.

[Busta]

I still have my TLP keyring fob circa 1986, it says "Tactics not Politics"; I read it every day.

Nothing matters very much, most things don't matter at all.