Low flying Hercules Sussex

[vctenderness]

Today 23rd September around 16.30 walking the dog along the East Sussex coast cliff tops I saw two very low flying military aircraft that, to my non military aviation eye, looked like Hercules.

They made a turn out to sea around Peacehaven and headed South West towards France.

As there are no displays on at the moment anyone any idea what they would be doing?

[pax britanica]

On Tuesday Isaw the Airbus Mil Prop hurtle low over the A 303 in East Devon-looked impressive but I wondered where it was going or coming from, heading South to North

[kharmael]

The aircraft you saw were a two-ship of C-130s, callsign Jigsaw, from 24 Squadron based at RAF Brize Norton. They were on a routine low-level training sortie of which around 5 are launched per day.

Since almost the whole of the UK is used for low-flying training you are quite likely to see C-130s in the South East if the weather is poor in the rest of the country. They do their best to avoid annoying the locals and will refrain from repeatedly flying over the same areas. The reason the South East isn't normally used is that the airspace around London is quite restrictive, and the number of large towns in close proximity to eachother is quite high. It's much better to go elsewhere with more space :)

Here's a map of their route around your neck of the woods.

http://i.imgur.com/1oIIAy6h.png

Hope that clears things up for you!

[vctenderness]

KHARMAEL Thank you for that very informative reply. They made a change from the usual low flying helicopters that we get along this stretch of coast.

[Council Van]

I was once going up the Derwent Valley north of Matlock, in a Turbine Islander, at 500 ft on the rad alt and had a two ship formation of Herc' s pass below me going the opposite direction.

A very impressive sight.