By virtue of living way off base in the Dales, I did once meet a guy down the pub who'd fallen off a rock face when scared ****less by a low-flying jet that morning. And we worked out that it was in fact me who had been the pilot. I'd been pulling a tight turn round a valley corner, approx. level with him, 250' MSD, so he could see the aircrew. He'd been roped up (obviously
), and I bought him a pint, so we had a laugh about it.
It was quite a revelation because of course we are used to looking for jets, and Joe Public isn't, so I didn't realise just how shocking it could be. Equally, living in the country, I could see how horses especially could be bothered, but also saw and was told that sheep aren't bothered a bit. Big Noise, they look up, they can't see anything 'cos the jets already gone, back to grass-munching (exception - Falklands; remember SheepTAMs?). Sheep get bothered by hot-air balloons, because there's the burner noise and there
is a big ball in the sky when they look up.