Tour of Britain - 'copter + Beechcraft?

[martine]

So the 'Tour of Britain' cycle race went near my house in Bristol today. Quite interested to see the TV helicopter following closely - so I logged onto FlightRadar24 website thinking it might show up there (it didn't) but what did was a Beechcraft King Air circling continuously over the race all the way from Worcester to the outskirts of Bristol...at 22,000'!

I'm guessing this was to relay the live TV pics from the 'copter and motorcyclists?

Anyone know?

[A and C]

I am left speechless by this, cyclists can shut the roads at the drop of a hat, disrupting the lives of thousands of people and yet any attempt to shut the roads for any sort of competitive Motorsport is imposable.

While not wanting to stop the fun of the cyclists in any way I just want a little fair play for those interested in Motorsport.

[ShyTorque]

While not wanting to stop the fun of the cyclists in any way I just want a little fair play for those interested in Motorsport.

I read very recently that the government agree and there may be the possibility of this happening soon.

Yes, here you are:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/local-authorities-to-be-given-powers-to-close-public-roads-for-motor-sports-events

[phiggsbroadband]

.
Qoute... I am left speechless by this, cyclists can shut the roads at the drop of a hat, disrupting the lives of thousands of people and yet any attempt to shut the roads for any sort of competitive Motorsport is imposable.




Well there is a vast difference between two riders crashing into a house, and two motor-cars doing the same thing.


I marshalled at the F3000 event in Birmingham, the place was wall to wall ArmCo Barriers and netting up to ten feet high.
.

[Jan Olieslagers]

@Martine: yes you must basically have it right. A similar arrangement, that went wrong in a not very impressive manner, is described in the below reference, though here the "relay" was to be a helicopter too.

http://mobilit.belgium.be/nl/binaries/AA-6-2_tcm466-209194.pdf


And no, I think few helicopters carry ADS-B so you wouldn't see them on flightradar24 et al. As they generally fly quite low they wouldn't be very visible anyway.

[Fostex]

I am left speechless by this, cyclists can shut the roads at the drop of a hat, disrupting the lives of thousands of people and yet any attempt to shut the roads for any sort of competitive Motorsport is imposable.As others have pointed out road cycling races and motorsport are two totally different things. For a start road closures for road cycling are very rare and many domestic events are run on open roads with careful police marshaling. When road closures do occur they are usually rolling road closures moving with the event. Even then the safety management required for a cycling race is many many magnitudes lower than a motorsport event. Even then, here in Ireland ( North and South ) motorsport events on the roads are much more ubiquitous that cycling races.

For those interested what the backseat video gear looks like inside the AS355. I took this photo during the Giro d'Italia in Ireland this year for which PDG has the contract ( 2x AS355 and Beechcraft relay ).

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/NoMapNoCompass/pdg_zpsd8d201d5.jpg


Fostex, pilot who is also a racing road cyclist and who also attends the occasional F1 and Rally.