Dare I ask..... Are they in twubble for something not already discussed in here ?
Friday, I heard the reds go past our abode, on their way to Clacton. I was curious about their return routing from Clacton and looked up the NOTAM...
They had been on route as per the NOTAM when they went past us. Their return route was to be overhead Woodbridge, Framlingham and Harleston and then across Norfolk around the Marham area.
There was only one aircraft transponding, I assume that would make sense for a formation..
They returned via a differentt route to that in the NOTAM, up the coast and then turned West just short of Beccles, (meat bomber was active) then thru the overhead of Shipdham at circa 1200' and appeared to go thru a NOTAM warning area for paragliding around the Marham MATZ stub.
So, they transit an area where there is considerable GA activity, at a level where many light aircraft are likely to be operating, pass directly overhead Shipdham whereas their NOTAM route avoided their overhead and then went thru an area where paragliding activity had been warned.
If it is considered sensible to publish a NOTAM for a low level formation of fast jets, surely the alternative routing should have been flown at a higher level away from the clutter of GA traffic.
I appreciate that the online data can be errant at times, but I believe there's enough meat on the bone here to be concerned.
This begs the question, what's the point in publishing a route and not keeping to it, while other pilots read the NOTAM and plan around it for the common goal of flight safety ?