Low Flying
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/4696056.stm

More headlines from BBC News today.

Well done southside I bet you feel really important now.................

Whoops....................:ok:

And I'm sure said horsey person knows exactly what 100' msd looks like... >insert own scathing comments<... g'day vp, get your flip cards?

Serious and silly responses by a journo:

Villager Rodney Dolby said: "I could see the eyes of the pilot plainly. The noise was horrendous when it came over.

Dark visors obviously need to be down to avoid this....

An MoD statement said it has increased the height at which helicopters fly to a minimum of 100ft.

If this is true, having had a cack-handed go flying the Puma in Belize and elsewhere, as well as the Scout, the Gazelle and the Lynx, and having flown in other r/w types, I'd need an awful lot of convincing that 100 ft was reasonable for realistic training, and for rotary winged blokes to maintain proper operational competence. It sounds like the ludicrous 1,000 ft limit imposed on FJs in Germany a few years ago.

It added that the Ministry takes all complaints of alleged low flying extremely seriously and would investigate formal complaints.

What a pity there's no formal channel to make complaints about unreasonable limits imposed for political reasons....

Low flying is essential for pilots to retain the skills necessary to be able to operate safely in operational and potentially hostile theatres, it said.

What is low level for an Apache?

Apache can come and train in my garden whenever they want!:suspect:

Jackonicko,

I reported one civvie for low flying only a couple of years before he had a mid-air with a Jaguar when he was doing the same thing, speculative home photography.

He was wearing dark raybans, a white shirt, epaulettes and had dark hair and a suntan. He was well fleshed and probably slightly overweight.

He was also well below 150 feet. We know this 'cause the 32ft 11in long aircraft was only 200 feet from the camera.

OTOH he did make 3 passes which made observation and assessment dead easy.

Seriously though what is the height from the bottom of the rear fuselage to the top of the rear rotors? How many Chinooks can you get under the 'low flying' one?

There is a girl in my home village who thinks she has the god given right to ride her race horse, (which she is unable to control) when ever and where ever she wants and this includes other peoples land with out their permission.

She rides close to a farm strip and complains that the pilot of a light twin, always flies at her, deliberately so she sits at the end of the runway to prevent him landing because it is her right to do this.

She complains about the RAF Army Navy a/c whether fixed wing or rotary every day of the week because fly too low and that they should know that her horse, is in a field, in the middle of the country. (which incidentally has recently escaped from its field on more than one occasion and other villagers have had to usher it back inside its field because she was too busy to come over).

What are other Ppruners views on this type of person who seems intent of complaining about a/c at every possible oportunity??

I would love to know and maybe print it off to show her....

Rodney Dolby - theres a good Lincolnshire name for you.

Chaps/Ladies

As the Chinook mates know all too well, we need to give these civ's a wide berth when "merely" training or else.

As to habitual complainers - I seriously doubt they've sat down and given some serious thought as to why we need to train thus/what it achieves. Despite the fact that the Red menace is unlikely to come over the hill any more, no training = no skill = increased fatality, whenever we go and put the fires out wherever we're required.

I'm utterly against the use of spurs whilst driving a chopper, previous posts would confirm this, but - when it's required it's required. Joe public should be sleeping easier knowing the boys can deal with the bad guys.

SB

Strange that he's complaining about noise. Why doesn't he just use his Dolby Noise Reduction? :}

:cool:

TOG

BBC Look North did a phone-in poll this evening on whether helicopters should continue to fly below 100 feet. 68% of the phone in said YES.

Mind you the interviewer of the Army LTC at Wattisham was a prat. The Colonel said something. The interviewer then repeated it as a question. Poor colonel simply repeated his previous answer.

My pet horsey hate is the 'riding instructor' that rides a bike behind the young rider and shakes his fist at me as I shoot past at 60. Why? Becasue there is no need for him to be on the road, the horse is dark brown, and he wears a 'hi-visibility' dirty brown barbour style. The rider's clothes might be clean but I have seen two of his riders with ONE yellow reflective arm band between them and often on the wrong side.

EUREKA let's do all the low flying after dark. No horse riders, windows closed and they won't be able to see what it was:}

"My horse and the coloured one in the stable were kicking up a right old shindig," he said."

Are they allowed to say that? And what were they up to anyway? :uhoh:

I was wondering when the national equine organisation is going to establish its free phone number that all horse riders are required to register their riding routes upon. Registration must take place at least 2 days in advance of a ride and no deviation is permitted from the published route. This is to enable all pilots to be aware of horse movements in sufficient time to plan their own routes to avoid all known horse riding routes at the time of thier flight.

The costs for this valuable safety promoting scheme will of course be born by the riding community as a whole.

HEDP,

They must also agree to keep any part of their head or anatomy below a height of 10 feet so that a helicopter flying at 110 feet AGL will achieve 100 feet MSD.

I spoke to one of our horsey complainers the other day. She was comlaining about a low flying Chinook that might have scared her horse if she had been riding it. I asked if she had tried the freefone number. What number? I got her the number and then she admitted she had heard of it but thought it was only applicable to Market Rasen.

At the risk of restarting the RAF Police thgingy, maybe we should send the phone number to the horses.

Further to the above,

Where any horse is to be ridden on the public highway, registration is to take place with the local police in order that they may make an enforcement order closing the said roads to all other users.

This is a further safety initiative due to the fragility and sensitivity of the horses and the recognised inability of the riders to cope and control thier mounts.

and of course the local council environmental health department to be informed so that they can monitor the situation in case anything falls to the ground and thus prevent the sh1t fitting the han:)

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http://www.drunkencat.com/media/1131...ltitude_Flying