Low Flying P3 - Camden NSW

[roundsounds]

Anyone else see / hear the P3 at very low level fly over Camden just before 9:00pm 17/7? It sounded like it was flying through the house not over it. Spoke to a couple of local aviators who also heard it, one happened to be outside and was able to identify it as a P3 heading north. Unusual for military aircraft to fly that low over populous areas and at night too - anyone know why it was up to?

[Jack Ranga]

C130 they do lots of low level navs at night.

[Jabawocky]

And up here they do it in C17's, well below our LSALT almost down in the weeds!

NVG must be fun!

How's the footy JR:}

[Jack Ranga]

GFY Jab :ugh: you don't talk about footy til this time of year! (lol, you know I'm taking the piss)

[roundsounds]

I found it odd they flew directly over a built up area that late at night, through a CTAF and no RT?

[Jack Ranga]

Who cares? They know what they are doing, they've got all the gear on board. You don't think they know what's out there?

[alphacentauri]

Pretty sure there was a clip on the news about C130's dropping stuff at what looked like Londonderry last night. They might be doing a tactical airdrop/nav course in the area. Hats off to em, I would have loved the chance to do it.


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[Trojan1981]

Low level, night, formation, tac flying and airdrop - the sport of Kings!
Although the memory of mid-winter nights spent at Londonderry DZ sends chills down my spine!

The USAF guys would often track direct from Richmond to Nowra, over Penrith, Camden an past Wilton at 240KIAS/500' AGL in the middle of the day and without a single call!

The RAAF guys, operating a tac cse in the Sydney basin, would have ATC providing information and separation for them, so no real dramas. :ok:

[Howard Hughes]

No wonder they can't find the boats! ;)

[roundsounds]

I care, cause we've got enough locals complaining about aircraft noise without unnecessary very low/noisy aircraft flying directly over the Camden suburbs at any time of day let alone 9:00pm. A simple 3 mile left track offset would have them tracking clear of the built up areas. We fly neighbourly and I'm sure the military usually do. I've lived in/flown from Camden for 30 years and not witnessed this type of activity before and thought there might have be some good reason for it.

[Cleared Visual]

The RAAF train for operations under tactical conditions. I don't think 'flying neighbourly' is a consideration during tactical operations... I grew up in Katherine under the flight path for RAAF Tindal, and I can remember when a visiting 3 squadron Hornet overflew the town at 300' at 2300 one night. Boy did that get the heart racing! I also recall a formation of 6 Blackhawks overhead my house at 0600 at the beginning of ops in East Timor (contarary to an official statement that there were 'no Blackhawk helicopters operating out of Tindal'). Actually I loved it and just accepted it was a part of life in our little town that relied heavily on the base to support the local economy... And most locals understood they had to train for real world operations which sometimes meant flying low over urban areas. A 3 mile offset was not a consideration!

[Stikybeke]

That's it...

I'm moving to Camden....

Stiky
:ok:

[Jack Ranga]

I wouldn't care in the least if there were 8 of them in formation over my suburb at 300ft at 2am. They know what they doing, are pretty good at it and are practicing it in the defence of us and the country :ok:

[Flying Binghi]

Most of those livin in the burbs wouldn't hear anything over the sound of their TV sets and barking dogs..:hmm:

[Avgas172]

Or barking neighbours ? :cool:

[KRUSTY 34]

Slight thread drift, but back around '85, whilst practicing forced landings out in the BK training area, I suddenly had the feeling I was being watched. Off on the right wing of my trusty C152 was a very big F111, wings spread, and 2 white helmeted boggies staring straight at me.

Heading north and going a little faster than me for sure, but at around 200 feet AGL, and what appeared to be no further away than 200 metres!

Awesome sight, but Ballsy. The training area was a pretty busy place back then! :ooh:

[Captain Nomad]

I was over bush in Western NSW once heading for Newcastle on a charter in a piston twin once. I spotted a F111 heading North to South and descending in the distance. It camouflaged into the green but I started becoming a little concerned as the flashing beacon no longer was moving left to right but became stationary in the window as the beast made a bee-line straight for us, rearing up from below. I put my landing lights on in a feeble useless attempt and started rolling away in case he hadn't seen us... He rolled on his side and gave us a beautiful plan view of his belly as he roared past. I pointed it out to my front seat pax who was totally enthralled at a F111 as big as your hand zooming past. You could hear him over the noise of the eight pistons banging away on our wings.

I miss F111s... Keep up the good work boys and you can fly over my neighbourhood any day. :ok:

[morno]

I remember back in my high school days, there was an ex student who went on to fly F-111's. Normally a couple of times a year, you'd be sitting there in class bored out of your brain, then with no notice would be treated to an F-111 over the school at some ungodly speed and not much higher than the roof! :} :}

Ahhh yes, thems were the good days. I also remember them doing TFR runs down the valley that I lived in and watching as an F-111 would appear to be level with you as he came over a ridge lower than the house.

Fly neighbourly for the RAAF during tactical training? You're kidding right......?

morno

[VH-XXX]

Years back I had just landed in the paddock next to my house when the RAAF 707 flew past at about 400 ft. Maybe it was 500ft but an aircraft that big is always going to look low! The same aircraft ended its' service life not long after; we all know about that one.

[Capt Fathom]

Make up your mind! Was it 400ft or 500ft? Maybe it was a 1000ft? How would you know?

[VH-XXX]

How would you know?

My point exactly!