Flying Complaints

[2brevets]

Please make them stop!:ugh:
Ministry of Defence | About Defence | What we do | Air Safety and Aviation | Low Flying | Low Flying Today (http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/AirSafetyandAviation/LowFlying/)

1. Yes we can low fly at 0330 in the morning.
2. We are not using your house as a waypoint or a 'target' unless you happen to live in the playboy mansion or a white house on top of a hill.
3. If you do have a horse(congratulations why do i care?) we cannot see you unless you wear day glo.
4. Please threaten to shot at one of our aircraft again just give me a second to record the call 'not only do I not mind because much meaner people than you have done it before with much bigger guns, but I PMSL when the police come round to tell us how scared you look when they knock on your door'.
5. 500' is not low flying in a helicopter.
6. Your mate who is a pilot who tells you stuff is an idiot.
7. see point 6, just because he can't fly within 500' of a building doesn't mean we can't.
8. If you live on the boundary of an airfield telling me you can hear an aircraft isn't going to get you much sympathy its been here 60 years longer than you.
9. Thank you for phoning me to tell me who you are friends with in the House of Commons or MOD.
10. HM the queen doesn't have an avoid around her stud farm so you are unlikely to get one around your field with your long legged cow.
11. You do not have to phone the number on the website just because it is there.

[Yellow Sun]

To which I might add one that I used on more than one occaision:

"The owner of the campsite did tell you that it was next to a busy military airfield when you made the booking?"

;)YS

[cornish-stormrider]

to which you can add - other members of society regard it as a right to be overflown by something loud and pointy, preferably at naff all height and approching Vne.

We like their views more than yours.....

[Wander00]

My wife says flying is more a disease than a complaint!

[ACW599]

To which you can add: other members of society positively enjoy the sights and sounds of military aviation close-up, deeply appreciate and value what military aviators do and encourage it.

[BEagle]

"I wish to make a complaint about aircraft noise!"
"Does your complaint refer to noise where you live?"
"Yes!"
"If you wish to make an official complaint, I should perhaps advise you that you will be obliged to declare this material fact should you decide to sell your property in the future. This might perhaps have a negative effect on the potential sale; however, should you fail to disclose this fact to the potential buyer, then you could face legal action. Now, are you really sure that you wish to make an official complaint?"
"Err, perhaps not."


:E

[Martin the Martian]

I have but one complaint about low flying.

I don't see enough of it.:(

Happy flying, guys.

[Pontius Navigator]

Received a call once about the Red Arrows disturbing her pedigree horse.

"Where exactly do you live?"
. . .

"Oh, I know it, your husband repaired my gates. Now . . . ?"

End of complaints as husband was on incapacity benefit :}

[Wholigan]

Please make them stop!:ugh:

2brevets

I have to ask as it isn't clear. Please make who stop? The complainers or the Low flyers?
;)

[Mr C Hinecap]

Are you pointing out to a military flying-focused community that there is a set of procedures for dealing with low flying complaints? Or is there a hidden meaning I'm not getting?

[DX Wombat]

Didn't your solicitor reveal the existence of the airfield when doing the search prior to your purchase?
Seriously, it makes me hopping mad that someone can move next to an airfield, allegedly not knowing of its existence, then proceed to cause mayhem by constantly complaining. The purpose of the pre-purchase search is to reveal such things which the purchaser may consider undesireable. (I would regard it as an attraction.) There should be no comeback at all, after all, the vast majority of airfields have been in existence for more than 60 years and appear on maps.
Now for my complaint. As I have said before, you do not fly over my house. Kindly amend this.

[cornish-stormrider]

ooh ooh ooh and mine too.

low flying - yes please. I'll award bonus points for a gratuitous beat up under the Tamar bridge - give me time to get there first mind.

500+ in full blower into Plymouth sound over the breakwater and pull up so you are vertical at Smeatons Tower :E

I'd pay good money to see that.

At the subsequent court martial tell em you were simulating a missile attack and testing HMS Daring

[Dysonsphere]

He He youre missing my house as well plz try harder dont get enough low flying over me .

[green granite]

Since RAE Bedford closed we don't see any low stuff at all, it's not fair. :(

[Sook]

Since RAE Bedford closed we don't see any low stuff at all, it's not fair. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/sowee.gif

You might now they're re-opening Bedford. I'm not sure it'll be interesting low stuff though!

[chevvron]

The airport manager at a certain civil airfield I have knowledge of simply wrote to the complainer and suggested they take it up with the estate agent who handled their house purchase.
But it's not only low flying that gets these imbecilic NIMBYs, there was one on the Fulham Football Club website about 2 years ago. A Fulham supporter living close to Craven Cottage answered a knock on his door one evening. A lady asked him to sign a petition to get the football club closed down due to its noise. He asked how long she had lived there - it transpired they'd viewed, bought and moved in during the closed season - and how much? They'd paid £1.25M and claimed they had been unaware of the existence of the football stadium (it's only been there since 1879 and it's hardly small enough not to see it).

[Gainesy]

Don't mind the Wokkas one bit, even chuntering about at 01.30 as per t'other week. Any would-be complainers in the village who ask, get Middle Wallop's number.:E

There's Jointery for you.:)

[Tankertrashnav]

I have but one complaint about low flying.

I don't see enough of it.http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/sowee.gif

You should have been down here near Culdrose this afternoon Martin and identified the 2 biggish helicopters circling over my house for me. Not Sea Kings, not Merlins, not Chinooks - that's about it as far as my helicopter recognition goes - maybe you could have helped.

Not sure about your wheeze Cornish-Stormrider, the Royal Albert Bridge (opened 1859) is the only rail link into Cornwall, and Railtrack, or whatever they're called these days would just love an excuse to close it down to save on the maintenance. Some t**t flying into the supports would give them just the excuse they need!

[johnfairr]

Hey, Gainesy, as the Wokkas go past my place to get to yours, should I give the complainants the Yeovilton number, just to even things up?? :E:E

[wrecker]

Just think of it as "The Sound of Freedom

[Tashengurt]

The only low flying I see is the Police EC135 over my house at least once a week and the odd troop carrier returning from Otterburn.
Now, question. My house looks over the Tyne and I see helipcopters apparently following it. Seems reasonable but why do the Navy seem to be the only ones who feel the need to strictly follow the tight dog leg rather than just cut the corner?

[Aquatone1]

I recall being informed by the CRO at a large USAF base near Huntingdon that their most vociferous complainent was a former RAF chappie! Obviously he did not appreciate the finer points of B66s and F4s. I often wonder if he was a happier man after the TR1s arrived?:ok:

I have been known to give my address to aircrew with an invite for a low pass, so far without success, but don't tell my wife!

[ShyTorque]

why do the Navy seem to be the only ones who feel the need to strictly follow the tight dog leg rather than just cut the corner?

Because if they lose sight of the water, they get lost. ;)

[Double Zero]

I spend time at my girlfriend's place, between Petworth & Midhurst West Sussex, where a lot of residents apart from us are very well heeled NIMBYS, and a quite a few of them foreign.

We had Chinooks going over unlit at night quite a lot, which frankly I enjoyed, though said girlfriend got a bit upset when one came over very low & slow.

Sure enough the next issue of the Parish Magazine had people carping about 'being menaced by Chinooks ' ( I suppose at least they recognised the sound ).

I got on to Odiham and explained, and rather than the few handouts or posters I'd hoped for, they were all for sending a team to do a serious talk in the village hall to show what it's all about !

I thought they might have a tiny audience, so put them onto the much larger nearby town of Midhurst; the woman I spoke to at Midhurst Council also seemed a touch negative, saying she'd had a lot of complaints, but was willing re. the talk.

In a perfect world I suppose it would be nice to take these NIMBY's out to the front lines ( Which I'm first to say I haven't been to ) but as that's deemed rude somehow a good presentation seems a great idea.

When Dunsfold was alive the Airfield Manager always kept a record of noise complaints, and as I was sometimes involved in low level A-G photography, the pilot would ask me to confirm the cattle were not being bothered ( otherwise a source of easy income for farmers claiming their animals had been stressed ).

Any local who did complain was given free tickets for the annual 'Field Day' show, and all the local farmers were invited to a cricket match with the Test Pilots & managers, - somehow the farmers won then got drunk for free every time I saw...

10 out of 10 for Odiham PR anyway, great response & attitude.

DZ

[Wwyvern]

When I moved to Berkshire as a civvy, I used to attend the SH Reunion bashes at Odiham.
One year I met one of our ex junior pilots, then OC Ops. I jokingly complained about his helicopters flying over my house on the way to NI. He said, "Just mark your house on this map, and we'll put a red ring around it." I said, "Does that mean you'll keep off me?" He replied, "No, we'll make you into our waypoint."

Worked for me.

[clareprop]

Living in a village almost bang-on 10 miles NE of the extended centreline for 05/23 at Wattisham, I and my neighbours have been quite disappointed with the excessive altitude flown by Apaches based there. Fortunately, there have been two encouraging instances recently. A late evening high-speed, low track down 23 (by the poplar trees which border the western edge of the village - just so you know) by an AH-1 and a very low, pass at speed by what appeared to be a CH-47 (rare visitor here) heading west across the village (by the Church;)).
Do carry on...

[Double Zero]

One more story re. 'low flying', the official Gypsy camp outside Dunsfold gave constant hassle, I need not go into details but I was sometimes on the receiving end and they didn't mess about !

Aerial photography keeping out of shotgun range ( might have been awkward if any could use a rifle ) is a tiny example; you might guess I'm not a fan, though that's entirely by experience, I'm quite 'green'and originally thought them close to the earth types - how stupid I was.

One of them tried claiming a 'very valuable vase' had been shattered by a Hawk going over in the circuit, which I'm glad to say was not taken seriously by anyone, but may be a warning if stuck with an idiot council...

When I worked at Blackbushe after leaving BAe, a fellow photographer had a serious beef with another lot of them, again just off the end of the runway.

He had an 'interesting' background and was much more wordly wise than me, but still managed to get abducted by gypsies and driven to their camp ( he had a side-line delivering exotic cars, and they wanted his 'trade plates' ) - he was surrounded by a gang with baseball bats, and only got away by luck.

When he mentioned he fancied " dropping something on them " I said " What, like a hydraulic leak ? " His reply was "Molotov" and knowing just a little of his background I don't think he was entirely joking !

Also when being a wally paint-balling at Lasham, to my concern the other berks stopped playing and fired at gliders when they passed over low, so it's not just idiots with l@sers to watch out for, and of course anyone can get a cheap 1st or 2nd generation night-sight nowadays...

On the bright side there is the tale that when Bill Bedford ejected from the second P1127 prototype ( XP836 ) at low level near Yeovilton, the aircraft took out a large barn near the threshold.

He was congratulated in the Mess, " We've wanted that building gone for ages ! "

[Zoom]

There is a small grass strip about half a mile from my village and during the summer weekends we get some interesting little prop-jobs pottering about, doing aeros, etc. My neighbour's wife, plastered again, was moaning to me recently: 'I'm going to start a campaign to stop those noisy aeroplanes buzzing around and disturbing my Sunday afternoon. Don't you agree, Zoom?' I replied,' I'm going to start a campaign to stop some selfish prat from lighting a bonfire to burn waste every day of the summer that the sun shines. (Pause) Was that your husband's bonfire this afternoon?'

Cue silence.

[Pete268]

Having only recently moved to a smallish village in North Yorkshire, we do get the odd Tonka, Eurofighter, Chinook etc coming over pretty low. One of the locals in the village pub had a moan about it a couple of weeks ago, but I amd a few other locals soon put him straight.

My only complaint is that once the aircraft pass ovehead, thay don't make a second pass (giving me time to get the camera out and ready).

Seriously though, you are welcome to fly over my house at any height, any time (just come back again a couple of minutes later!!).

Peter

[green granite]

Seriously though, you are welcome to fly over my house at any height, any time (just come back again a couple of minutes later!!).

That's easily sorted, just write "Piss off Biggles" or something similar on the roof. :E

[CathayBrat]

piss off biggles (http://www.triumphrat.net/photogallery/v/member/album793/album831/abr.jpg.html)

Like so

[Wander00]

I recall a complaint one night received in the Valley tower from the local hospital about a Gnat circling overhead and disturbing the patients. Response was "If he does not get his undercarriage down soon he may be your next patient"

[its the bish]

Approx 22.40 hrs last friday,the unmistakable sound of an 'albert' over the village of Dunster in W.Somerset at what i can only think of as being close to MSD ! Presumably the Lyneham chaps/chapesses, though could have been our American friends. Dashed out just in time to see you heading away, thank you so much, well impressed, but be nice to have a bit of warning next time! Perhaps you might use the tower on Conygar hill as a waypoint in future, its 200yds from the top of my garden! If any of you find yourselves in our lovely village early evening, make for the Stags Head and seek me out, there will be a beer waiting for you. Cheers, 'Bish':ok:

[tmmorris]

Is there any truth in the allegation that most of the noise complaints at Kemble come from a former RAF officer who knew the base was closing, bought a house by the airfield at a knock-down price expecting to make a killing, then was highly p1ss3d off when he discovered it was carrying on as a civvy airfield?

Tim

[Phill]

Yer big bunch of girly pansy's, none of yer know how to handle an aircraft enough to fly low level!

'specially the bunch of muppets from Lossie, my 4 year old daughter can fly better than you lot!

(N58:19:13 W3:14:39)
:}

[cornish-stormrider]

Yeah, and where is my beat up of the Tamar?

No jockey would be foolish enough to hit the Albert Bridge - doncha know anything that IKB built was built to last? being hit by a jet would be like being rubbed with 200 grit sandpaper.

Now give me some reheat

[StbdD]

A classic from the GW1 era

San Diego News (letters Feb 4th)

Reply to "Is harassment of residents the role of the military?"

Response by reader Capt John F Peterson USMC, Pacific Beach

Responding to Maura Harvey's letter wondering if the Marine helicopter training flights that passed above her Del Mar home were simply to harass residents. I can say that, yes, our mission is to harass residents, specifically Mrs Harvey.

We do not train 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide freedom and security to all residents of the United States. We exist only to annoy the very people we are sworn to protect, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We spend months and years overseas, away from our families and loved ones, in some cases making less than minimum wage, choosing to live a life in which many qualify for food stamps, just to have the chance, one day, to annoy people like Mrs Harvey.

There is no more sought after position in the military than the Maura Harvey Annoyance Task Force. As a matter of fact, the Marines who spent christmas dug into fighting positions in Northern Kuwait and their brothers in the sky, braving anti-aircraft missiles and artillery, were just training to come back to the States and fly missions over Mrs Harvey's house. It has nothing to do with the security of the nation. It has no impact on our ability to carry out missions in Africa, The Middle east and Eastern Europe, and it has no bearing on Mrs Harvey's ability to enjoy "nature and peaceful quiet living". The "strange almost scientific war scene" she described was put on solely to make noise and to destroy her "scenic view corridors" in Del Mar Terrace.

It certainly was not valuable and necessary training to help sustain the lives of those who assure the nation's freedom, should they ever be sent into harms way just to do that. Next time Mrs Harvey may want to look upon those loud machines and think about the men and women who fly, ride in, and maintain them. Ponder the sacrifices they make in providing this nation with the warm blanket of freedom we all enjoy. Maybe she might even imagine how much more disturbing it would be if she were not sure what country the helicopters were from, or whether they were going to attack her beautiful neighborhood. But she shouldn't worry too much about that, because we will not let it happen.




More found here:
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