Late night strange flight West Yorks

[lbiaer]

Morning All

Not sure i'm posting this in the right place but seemed best place given the misc nature of my query. During the last couple of nights there has been what sounds like a single engine light aircraft flying in a consistent pattern in and around the Bradford/Halifax area. I'm in Norwood Green Halifax and spoke to a friend in Bradford who has also heard it.

Last night it was up there for at least a couple of hours from around 10pm until after midnight when i turned in. This is definitely not a mail flight as it is just flying in a consistent pattern for this lengthy period over a limited distance over the areas mentioned.

Anyone any idea what this is - some sort of training flight or surveying (seems strange to do it in the dark if so!!)?

Thanks in advance for any answers, i'm intrigued.

[Mooncrest]

I couldn't say for certain but my guess is either an RAF or Army Air Corps Pilatus Islander, on a surveillance mission.

[lbiaer]

Thanks for that Mooncrest; interesting and not something i'd considered but certainly they spent a good period of time in the area so something like surveillance a definite possibility.

[DaveReidUK]

Could be a survey flight, if it was surveillance we would not want to talk about that would we.

Quite so.

I recall suggesting to Heathrow a couple of years ago that it might not be such a good idea to plot those flights on their WebTrak system:

http://www.avgen.co.uk/Surveillance%20Islander%20on%20WebTrak.jpg

I didn't get any response ... :ugh: