Originally Posted by
BEagle
Mind you, some people really don't help themselves.
I did a brief spell as an assistant Ops Off at pre-pongo Wattisham in the summer of 1983. One evening a lady rang us to complain about the noise of our F-4s. Which surprised me somewhat, given that the locals were normally very friendly and tolerant.
But she had a point. It seems that some utter d*ckhe*d had decided to return from a PI session over the North Sea by leading a pair at low level across most of Norfolk and a bit of Suffolk at high speed. At 20:00! Whatever for? That fell into the category of unnecessary low flying and she had every right to complain. When I rang the squadron to speak with the leader, he didn't give a toss...
Another bit of unnecessary low flying happened a little later - this time some idiot went over Beccles heliport below a hovering helicopter. Which just happened to have a CAA test pilot on board....
There was something about low fly in the vicinity of base in the book. If I remember correctly stating that there was little value over familiar terrain (near base) andno point in p*ssing off the locals.
There again there was something about not going over the same location twice - which gets ignored these days on the Mach Loop - No wonder the locals get upset when low level just becomes a jolly