Aerobatics over Oakham

[staplefordheli]

Just got back from a business trip to find the wife and 10yr old lad very stressed and frightened out after some cowboy in a pitts type biplane performed dangerous aerobatics and loops directly above the house in the town of oakham. They are used to mil displays and harriers and Wokkas out of Cottesmore at low level but they said this was so scary that they actually left the house and walked up the road in case it crashed
Without a positive ID , there does not appear much that can be done. I have a fairly good idea who it is as there is one that does do aerobatics on a regular basis but usually out over the hills or Rutland water.
Anyone else experienced this type of flying or reported to the CAA,
their website has no online or email reporting, only snail mail

[TheGorrilla]

Dangerous aeros eh? Can you prove this? If not I suspect you won't get anywhere even if you do get in contact with the CAA this century.

Have you asked your wife and son how they thought this Pitts was being flown dangerously? What sort of technical assessment did they make? Slanderous accusations like "some cowboy" won't do you any favours either.

[proplover]

Isnt Oakham in the Cottesmore Matz? If he was doing aeros there I would of thought Cottesmore or Wittering radar would have seen him. As its also in the Pan Handle section of the Matz he will of been in direct line of the runway as well - now thats scarry!

[ShyTorque]

CAP393 states:
Aerobatic manoeuvres
15. An aircraft shall not carry out any aerobatic manoeuvre—
(a) over the congested area of any city, town or settlement

[Zulu Alpha]

If you think you know who it is then I suggest speaking to him to see if it might have been him and if he agrees with your wifes assessment.

Most aerobatic pilots are aware of the
An aircraft shall not carry out any aerobatic manoeuvre—
(a) over the congested area of any city, town or settlement

But most people on the ground are not good at judging whether aircraft are overhead or just nearly overhead.

The CAA can hardly be expected to do anything on the basis of the information you have given.

ZA

[staplefordheli]

I believe that quite a few witnessed this and whilst i agree it is hard to judge an ac position relative to ground, performing loops directly over a town is not the smartest move and is an infringement
Not sure re Cottesmore as they are not active on a friday evening although it is well inside the matz being directly on the approach at 4 miles out but will contact the station
I do not believe anything posted is slanderous at this stage
Thanks

[lc_aerobatics]

Sorry to say that but I also fly aeros and reading that is really annoying!!!

Most of us know what they're doing and wouldn't want to endanger ourselves or anyone else for that matter.

Show us unpopulated areas in UK where one can fly as much as they like and we'll go there.

We usually have hundreds of people enjoying watching aircraft and two complainers who are trying to ground us (and they're heard), so hearing it from another pilot is really.........:mad::{

Once again sorry, but get a life and let others do what they love!:ok:

[TheGorrilla]

Well, my opinion (and yes opinions are like @ssh0les - we all have them), is that there are far to many NIMBYs around, who are are all too willing to turn a blind eye when it suits them.

I personally don't like helicopters much, if staplefordheli were to fly one low over my house I wouldn't consider it a nuisance. No more than the local teenager revving his scooter as he goes by. I wouldn't even bother to put my newspaper down.

However, if someone flew a Pitts over my house I'd go out and watch.

[Echo Romeo]

Staplefordheli, for the record, i live in Oakham and saw the aerobatics you refer to and in my opinion the pitts was just to the north east of the town and i would assess his base altitude to have been no lower than 500ft agl.

[englishal]

I'd have been pulling out a deck chair, sitting back with a beer, watching the pitts rather than whinging about about it....

But anyway, it is difficult to tell when an aeroplane is "right over you". Stand on the side of the runway at Yeovilton on Air Day when the Reds pull up into a loop and "they are right over you"....except that are not.

[tmmorris]

We are plagued with helicopters from Benson over our house - all the time, buzzing us really, really low.* If I were minded to I could whinge about it.

But I love it! Livens up the gardening, anyway.

Tim

*not really, by their standards - 400ft or so I would estimate.

[Pitts2112]

When flying near a town or village, it's usually pretty easy to find a field or open area that borders the town and do a display over that particular bit of earth. From the ground it may look directly overhead but actually isn't. Aerobatics are best seen from the side, not directly underneath anyway, and most aeros pilots know this. There's not much to be gained from flying "directly overhead" so few people are actually likely to do that. "Very nearly overhead" may actually be over a nearby open field.

[rodthesod]

500ft agl is 'high level' in a Pitts. In the Rothman's we did a full looping display including 3-ship vic bunt if we had an 1100ft cloudbase. If the base was 500ft I can't imagine the wuss who'd describe Pitts aeros as 'dangerous'.

[VFE]

The most amusing part about this thread is that the poster never even witnessed the "dangerous aerobatics"!!

I beg to point out that fighting a fight based on a third party account is likely to lead you to, at best, making a complete fool of yourself. We all love our family but unless they are well trained and fully conversant with (in this example) aerobatics I'd most likely smile and shrug it off should mine ever come to me with such tales.....

VFE.

[yakker]

staplefordheli, I suggest you talk to your son and explain aeros are not dangerous, and when he grows up he could get his pilots licence and join in the fun. As for the missus buy her a flight in a Pitts (there is one at Sibson) for her birthday, and make sure a few rolls and loops are included. Then you can go away on business safe in the knowledge those pesky Pitts will not scare them again, and they will actually enjoy watching the display. Job Done.

[Solar]

I would suggest that the name Staplefordheli might be a clue to this thread. Possibility is that he is a helicopter pilot/fan and may be one of those people who are of the opinion that the air is for fling wings only. Only speculation on my part mind you.
I know that at ten years old I would have been mesmerised as opposed to terrified by someone "overhead" doing aerobatics. Not only at ten, a few years ago while working in Loughborough I returned to the hotel in the afternoon and as I parked the car I noticed someone close to the overhead performing aeros and I stood so long watching that some of the hotel staff came out to see if I had found something wrong on the roof. Can't help it.