The A/c flew in from the Barrow In Furnace direction, passed over the Swan at roughly 80/100 ft then had to climb to miss the trees at the rivers edge, after the trees, it then came down to around 30/40ft from the lakes surface.
As part of my job, I sometimes have to estimate aircraft height and distance to a fairly accurate degree, which can sometimes result in embarrassment for the people involved.....It is very difficult to do it, even as a professional pilot. If I could estimate to within 10ft (30/40ft), from a moving helicopter not knowing what was happening, then I'd be Mr Fantastic! Aviation witnesses are a notoriously unreliable source of information, because they see what they perceive to be the truth. Which is why I question.....Let's hear both sides of the story before condemning the other pilot.
Maybe the fixed wing pilot was scared shi
less at seeing a Gazelle appear from nowhere but doesn't have a PC to vent his fury at the rotary pilot. Or, he just got on with things....
Threatening a pilot online, as the original poster seems to do, is not acceptable and I just wonder if he would be so big if he met the F/W pilot in reality?
I agree, if a risk of collision occurred, then zero points to the F/W pilot - he should have looked very closely if he was low flying, and/or made sure the area was suitable first. Impromptu low-flying is a killer..
Sometimes, threads like these remind me of the 'Self-Righteous Brothers' out of the Fast Show! A panel of armchair ‘experts’ possibly made up of plane-spotters, ATC cadets and journalists sitting in judgement on something that they never even saw. Within 20 or so posts, it all descends into a slanging match....
Last July, I nearly had a head-on collision with an Agusta 109 West of Reading. Good VFR, 30k+ vis. In my opinion, the pilot never even saw me, judging by the lack of avoidance action (maybe this was to avoid spilling the G&Ts?). Did I whinge on Prune??? Nah, just got on with things and took it as part of the very real risks of flying in crowded skies.
Ho hum, it's a lovely day, just off to exercise the privilege to fly low legally, completely within the provisions of Rule 5! I'll make sure I look out for any sensitive pilots within a 50nm radius of where I'm going, for fear of appearing as the accused man in a Pprune trial just in case I scare them unintentionally.
Shakes head and wanders off down the aerodrome to get back to reality and have some fun...........takes flak jacket with him just in case..