Low-flying complaints up in East Anglia
 

Does this report irritate anyone else as much as it did me? No doubt these moaners are newcomers to a region renowned for military aviation.

"It's the sound of freedom".

There, I've said it before some other idiot does ! :*

Always good to see journalism in East Anglia maintaining its usual low standards by not keeping up to date. ;)

Perhaps the noise from the RAF Honington Voluntary Band was causing a problem?

Missed out Watton and Coltishall.

Well I moved to this region in 1986 and I have a complaint too, about the lack of low flying !
All we get now is the racket of clattercopters from Wattashambles and those awful colonial tilt things.
I gather our neighbours across the great divide (River Waveney) have some awfully loud stealth darts in the neighbourhood, but they're just not Jags.
Pfft, nostalgia aint wot it were.

Sounds to me like a dedicated band of activists bigging up the complaint-count.
I live in E Anglia on what is evidently a training route and every year we get maybe four or five Hercs and the same number of Chinooks come by on the same track at very low level, if even that.
Fast jets? Two ot three a year maybe, all RAF. afaik the yanks don't do low flying though occasionally they make plenty of noise mid-level manoeuvering.
Apaches are sometimes seen bumbling about but don't have the startle factor of a fast jet or to some extent a Herc.

Compare that to fifteen years ago when 2FF2Rs right overhead were a three times a week occurrence. In my youth it was often several daily, often a stream of them in quick succesion.

There isn't a low flying nuisance around here, that's for sure.

"People who want to complain about low flying can do so by SWK-lowflying%40mod.gov.uk?subject=."

I'll bet that makes a hell of a racket - I wonder if it has terrain avoidance built in...........

I don't believe it, teaching readin and ritin to East Anglians. they'll be doing rithmatic next, easier for them, more toes

Strange how some of us can't quite complete the circle that military operations are an extension of the civil government 's policies, those policies include the democratic right to complain about how tax payers money is spent! Low flying complaints are proof that democracy is alive and well, not some subversive activism to ground Biggles.

Lived at West Raynam 1956-60.Skies full of Hunters, some Swifts, Navy Gannets (?)
Javelins, Meteors, US B45's(Skulthorpe). Father spent
a lot of time pulling bits of aircraft out of East Anglican woods and fields.
Loved those days. John

Personally I'd buy a house because it was in a LFA.

Low flying?
 

in 2000Years ago I was happily looking forward to retirement as it meant I could indulge visits to the fences at the wealth of bases in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Then they closed Coltishall, Honington, Woodbridge, Bentwaters and Wattisham. Now it's so rare that I hear jets I'll go outside to look and see what's there.
Nobody seems to have cottoned on to the fact that these days most operational flying is going on at medium level, not in the weeds like it used to be.

The last low flying jet I saw was a USAF F15 around 500 feet running north up the Waveney Valley at Burgh Castle in November 2000: this is the only time I've ever seen this happen!
Quite what is causing all these complaints, I'd love to know, wouldn't you?

Mind you, some people really don't help themselves.

I did a brief spell as an assistant Ops Off at pre-pongo Wattisham in the summer of 1983. One evening a lady rang us to complain about the noise of our F-4s. Which surprised me somewhat, given that the locals were normally very friendly and tolerant.

But she had a point. It seems that some utter d*ckhe*d had decided to return from a PI session over the North Sea by leading a pair at low level across most of Norfolk and a bit of Suffolk at high speed. At 20:00! Whatever for? That fell into the category of unnecessary low flying and she had every right to complain. When I rang the squadron to speak with the leader, he didn't give a toss...

Another bit of unnecessary low flying happened a little later - this time some idiot went over Beccles heliport below a hovering helicopter. Which just happened to have a CAA test pilot on board....

Waddo, late 1960s, a letter appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo. I assume it was written by a little old lady, a resident of Heighington. However, she wanted to know if there was any truth in the rumour, that Vulcans were mounted on turntables during ground runs? Her theory was that this was done to enable each village to get its fair share of the noise.

There was something about low fly in the vicinity of base in the book. If I remember correctly stating that there was little value over familiar terrain (near base) andno point in p*ssing off the locals.
There again there was something about not going over the same location twice - which gets ignored these days on the Mach Loop - No wonder the locals get upset when low level just becomes a jolly

I was in the centre of Kings Lynn last Monday staring upwards at 2 F15s making a bit of noise while doing some ACT. After they had finished, I realised that nearly everyone around me had been looking up as well. The locals generally like aircraft and are aware of how much value is bought to the local economy by nearby RAF Marham. There's a lot of new housing in East Anglia, I suspect it's the newbies who should have done their research before becoming nimbys.

In Kings Lynn the local local language would be Polish?

So probably appreciate the sound of freedom?

Were the locals throwing bread for them, Dan? N4N!!

Isn't Suffolk pothead central. I don't suppose they even notice the aircraft. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-48117678

Peculiar connection you make between cocaine traces and potheads. Are they connected in some way? Or is it just whatever you've been smoking...?
;)