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-   -   anyone know why a eurofighter would be constantly circling a light aircraft at 2500ft (https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/480862-anyone-know-why-eurofighter-would-constantly-circling-light-aircraft-2500ft.html)

helirobin 25th Mar 2012 14:04

anyone know why a eurofighter would be constantly circling a light aircraft at 2500ft
 
on our s.w. shropshire hilltop have just watched a typhoon in a very high nose up attitude [to keep it flying slowly enough] constantly making large circuits culminating in close fly psts of a light plane; they are heading E.S.E from us west of Bishop's Castle with the jet making unbelievable noise as it tries to keep itself in the air while going so slowly, anyone know why? [2.45/50 sunday afternoon bst]

ralphmalph 25th Mar 2012 15:40

Practicing an intercept and shoot down! :eek:

paco 25th Mar 2012 16:19

Lost?

Phil

Whirlygig 25th Mar 2012 16:50

Maybe it was a real intercept and shoot down?

Cheers

Whirls

eagleroll 25th Mar 2012 16:52

it was intercepted earlier today after squacking 7500

ross_M 25th Mar 2012 16:57

How slow can they fly, even in that weird attitude.

mmitch 25th Mar 2012 17:12

The RAF have held an exercise all this past week practicing affiliation for the Olympics.
Olympics Air Security
mmitch.

HueyDog 25th Mar 2012 17:24

A good looking girl is flying the ultralight and the Eurofighter pilot is trying to get her number?:}

helirobin 25th Mar 2012 17:46

that exercise finished on the 22nd. so probably not part of that.

jayteeto 25th Mar 2012 19:57

Typhoon on a sunday. Sounds for real!

helicopter-redeye 25th Mar 2012 20:46


... squacking ...
??

In flight Sudoko system on MFD 3 playing up and causing nose high attitude and excessive engine noise?

helirobin 25th Mar 2012 20:54

yes, really!! it was a typhoon, 3 of us watched it for at least 6 minutes trying to keep "down" to the speed of the [unknown type-the typhoon being much more interesting] light aircraft which was plodding across the sky. The first time we actually saw the full circuit [we'd heard the racket coming from the west for some minutes earlier] we thought the jet had actually not seen the light aircraft as it was slightly below and in front of it, but it became apparent that it was trying to circle the small plane and we watched at least 3 further "cicuits" made by the jet round the small plane.

parabellum 25th Mar 2012 22:35

Sounds as though the light A/C may have lost radio contact and was heading towards busy airspace, ATC sent up an aircraft to get the attention of the pilot, also to check if pilot awake/alive and at the controls?

bladeslapper 26th Mar 2012 06:54

Parabellum

Bishops Castle is our equivalent of the outback !

The Low Fly Area for RAF Shawbury Defence Helicopter School stretches in that direction, but they don't normally do anything until after a leisurely breakfast on a Monday morning.

Intriguing......

Hummingfrog 26th Mar 2012 09:45

If it was a low wing, white, single engine, light aircraft then I probably know what what was happening but OFS act won't let me tell you :E.

HF

helirobin 26th Mar 2012 09:51

yes, it was small, pale and single engined. The eurofighter was definitely a eurofighterr, every time it turned to circle round behind the light plane it banked over and gave us a ringside view of its canard and delta wing shape. We thought it was probably a security thing of some sort, it seemed such an odd occurance.

JimBall 26th Mar 2012 10:15

Nothing secret. Training for OAS intercepts as per published protocol. Typhoon may also deploy flares. If they use a heli to intercept a heli they may use green laser and a "Follow Me".
Ignore all that at your peril!
See: Intercepts

Variable Load 26th Mar 2012 12:20

Fantastic thread for Rotorheads :=

500e 26th Mar 2012 13:57

Your all going to get a visit from the local operation P men:E

Ian Corrigible 26th Mar 2012 14:18

VL,

To add a bit of relevance, and since the Taurus Mountain 2 exercise was mentioned earlier, extracts from a recent Av Week article:


Olympics Trial
Aviation Week & Space Technology 03/19/2012

http://i.imgur.com/o4tOkdK.jpg

...Further additions to the normal QRA force structure will come from rotary-wing platforms. Royal Air Force Puma helicopters, as well as Lynx platforms operated by both the Navy and Army, are being added to mirror the practice—honed in Afghanistan—of gradual escalation of effect. If attempts to communicate visually with pilots of unresponsive aircraft fail, RAF Regiment sniper teams on board can use weapons such as warning flares, shotguns and rifles.

“Sniping from a helicopter isn’t new,” says Wing Cdr. Shane Anderson, commanding officer of the Puma-equipped 33 Sqdn., “but sniping from a helicopter at another aircraft is new for us. The French have had the capability for quite a long time, so we’ve had a look at that.”

“We’ve been working closely with the Typhoon, Sentry and Puma aircrews, just to ensure that we know exactly what each part of the layered defense is doing,” explains one sergeant in the RAF Regiment’s Sniper Training Team. “Every exercise takes it up a level, with more moving parts, so the guy who has sat behind the weapon system has the utmost confidence that at the moment he pulls that trigger he knows he’s doing the right thing.”
I/C


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