Helicopter gunship hovering round Schipol Tower today

[Bumblebee]

As above....

On the crew transport arriving at Schipol today, saw an Apache or Tiger hovering around the tower for about five minutes...

What was that all about?

[flyburg]

Most likely,

The Apache crew and the tower crew having some fun!!!

Schiphol is very restricted for VFR traffic. Even for apache crew it's pretty cool to make a pass over SPL. Probably, guys came back from a mission and requested a flyby ( as long as the pattern wasn't full, guys in the tower don't like to spill their coffee as everybody that saw the movie knows)

Got approved and decided to entertain the tower crew a little bit.

Heard it looked pretty impressive though

[A-FLOOR]

I have seen it myself once before... an RNLAF AH-64D Apache circling the tower. Got a picture to prove it, too... :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/Tsuru543/Apache.jpg

Sorry for the bad quality as I didn't have my real camera with me at the time. Ground radar on the top of the tower clearly visible to the left, and the silhouette looks pretty clear to me.

[WHBM]

Well according to THIS photo's caption

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/661601/M

the photographer says they were happily allowed to orbit Schipol tower in a Cessna 172 to take the picture of the terminal !

Can't see it happening at Heathrow.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

The tower controllers at EHAM are quite flexible if you have an interesting aircraft to do a low flyby with.

We have been given the O.K three times since last summer to do low flyby's with the PBY....

..The first time we did both towers at about two hundred feet, its fun to watch all the heavy drivers looking up at us while they are taixing out for another exciting long haul..:ok:

Chuck E.

[Piltdown Man]

It was a superb peice of flying, twice round with nose to the tower and once round "normally" before nipping off in the direction of Utrecht etc..

Impressed? Very!

[slam_dunk]

its fun to watch all the heavy drivers looking up at us while they are taixing out for another exciting long haul..

Bye the way,
We also do SHORThaul :O

Exciting ? sometimes

Oh, and i'm still enjoying it.:cool:

[ginjockey]

I'm sure one of you apache dudes can help answer this.

I noticed on the newer model, there is a pair of vanes(?) mounted on the end of horizontal bars attached to the engine cowls below the rotor disk. They seem to swivel about like the AoA vanes on fixed wing aircraft.

Anyone know what they measure exactly?

cheers

Gin.

[Jonp]

Gin:

I might be able to help. Last year we were very priverlaged to go Shawbury to see the Apaches there. I even flew my R44 in (seemed insignificant there). The vanes I think you are talking about are Pitot's, whic swivel, so that the ASI can measure sideways and backwards.

I have to say the guys there were fantastic - we were alowed to sit in the machines. The only controls I recognised were pedals, Collective and Cyclic - everything else was alien and glass cockpit. Hats off to the guys that fly them, especially having to look into the eyepiece and fly !!!

Finally, did Schiphol earlier this year (in the R44) VFR and it was an amazing place to fly into. One thing, I came out with a £250 handling fee, landing and 1 overnight parking - not cheap

JonP

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

It doesn't sound quite as exicting as a fly by but its quite posible they were told to hold between runways when crossing EHAM, If you cross from west to east (heading toward Utrecht or victor)there is a strong chance of this, Typical altitude for helis VFR in the EHAM CTR is below 500ft.

[wishtobflying]

The vanes feed airflow direction data back into the weapons system so it can compensate for downwash in the hover or airflow in sideways flight when firing at a target.

[ginjockey]

Thanks for those replies. I would not have guessed it was weapons related. I thought it was more like some super high tech "yaw string" type of gadget. Much like the old piece if wool taped to the windscreen.

cheers

gin.