The 'issue' revolves around the exact MoD definition of 'low flying', versus the public perception of a plane that seems low.
The news item referred specifically to Typhoons from CBY. It mentioned Wokkas because of the unfortunate death of the lady on the horse a few years ago, but that wasn't really anything to do with Mr Atha's motivation for his press release today. It was specifically about Typhoons over Lincs and talked about how there is going to be more and more Typhoons.
It's no mistake that there's Typhoons dry bombing the Wash ranges 'til 22:30 (Wainfleet Mon & Weds, Donna Nook Tue & Thu) between September and April and there are 'low' planes over here in Tetney (just outside Grimsby, on the way to Donna) day and night recently, but they aren't what the MoD would describe as low flying.
The press release today was all about saying 'don't be surprised if you hear more jets in future', but he specifically said that low-flying hours are NOT increasing.
As for Afghanistan training - yes Lincs is the place 11 Sqn are doing a lot of prep, simply because it's where most of the bombing ranges are. It's not really about how much of a match the Lincs terrain is to Afghanistan. It's just about general surface weapons training - they train where the ranges are. I'm sure they're doing dry runs up in them thar hills too, but the Lincs ranges offer some nice airspace to play with and they're near base. Simple.
Whingers see a plane that's 'low' and they automatically whinge about low flying, mainly because they're bored and like to whinge. Nine times out of ten, it's not 'low' in the MoD sense of the word.
Last edited by harrogate; 29th Oct 2007 at 21:07.