Chinook, central London this afternoon
 

Anyone got any ideas why a chinook was circling low, roughly over Blackfriars station at around 4pm this afternoon?

He was holding for clearance through the LCY CTR on H4 eastbound to the Isle of Dogs. Vortex 438 Odiham to Cottesmore. Was there anything else?

Thanks for that! Just a routine flight then? I don't know why but I just expected another reason for a military aircraft hanging about over London, but I guess they sometimes go from A to B the same as anyone else! Always nice to see Chinooks though, fantastic noise...

Why would it circle when holding as opposed to just hover?
Is it a noise abatement thing?

Isn't it because hovering is much more strenuous and naturally has a lower safety margin than simple circling around?

B

Living close to the Thames (and LCY) we seem to get a Chinook come up or down the H4 helicopter river route almost daily, can hear that noise coming from miles away. But it seems a strange way to go from Odiham to Cottesmore, tying up everyone in London (presumably not just LCY) along the dog-legged way, unless they had a task en route.

<<tying up everyone in London (presumably not just LCY)>>

Pray, how does anyone get tied up? Unless they're into some perversion I don't know about?!

No-one in London was "tied up" by the Chinook. He got a clear run all the way along H3 to Battersea, then H4 to London Bridge to hold for LCY traffic, which is standard practice. As for the routeing, I guess even Her Majesty's Flying Club like to break up their day with a little innocent sightseeing. Maybe he was not in a hurry..

and maybe a chance to practise his heliroute nav

Was working on the 9th Floor if an office block about 1/2 a mile from the London Eye yesterday and saw the same thing again, looks like a regular flight.

Yes - they now run a scheduled service. Book online at www.mod.uk or see your travel agent....:D

Military Movements over Central London Today
 

A fellow pruner was mentioning chinook movement(s) over central London a few weeks ago..
Well today, so far we have seen an Apache (about 11ish) and a Merlin (about 10 minutes ago!)

Am working within sight on Big Ben and The London Eye.

It was me asking, if you'd searched for it you'd have answered your question with the replies to my original post!! Just an air traffic route over London, nothing exciting by all accounts...

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...hlight=chinook

was not a question, merely a statement of fact that there had been a couple of movements for anyone who may have been interested....

oh yes, sorry! anyway, link to the previous thread for reference...!

....and no-one spotted the RN Sea King operating demos on the Thames out of Armoury House??

Blimey.

Have quite a small arc of vision from my office window... would like to have seen that though!

Read in Heat magazine over the weekend that the Sea King Trials were for a Photo shoot to promote "The Guardian" the new Kevin Costner flick.
Apparently the person being "rescued" was a celeb, whose name escapes me...

Chiny "Scheduled Service"
 

I used to work in a builing (5th Floor) that backed onto The Royal Artillery ground in the City. This is basically a huge field surrounded by buildsings.

Once a month or so there was a lot of noise and one would float down, hang around for a bit on the grass then dissapear. Never did find out what it was upto.