A few years back I lived in a large country city close to the airport and one night about 1am I heard a fixed wing aircraft operating in the area, so I went for a wander outside and sure enough I could see the aircraft against the background sky, but he showed no lights whatsoever... I checked to see if the runway lights were on and they were off. I got the handheld and gave a bcast on the local MBZ (as it was then) without reply. I activated the runway lights and made a call to centre as I thought the aircraft may have had an electrical failure. They new nothing of any operations in the area (no plan VFR or IFR) (no radar coverage) but followed it up. Seems it was the local Air Wing doing some night detective work. Our friendly FOI called me a day later to 'brief' me on what was going on etc. Fine I said, but if they are going to do that sort of stuff then at least someone in centre should know about it (to handle any calls etc) - he did not think so and said I had comprised their mission. Tough!! Given the same circumstances I would do the same again. No lights if the circumstances so demand, but someone has to know so that do-gooders like me on the night can go back to bed!!!
