TOT: Helicopters

[Graham.]

Two dual-fan (Chinook?) helicopters in formation just flew over my house, M25 postcode. I've never seen that before, is something happening?

[Andy Burns]

Have seen them as a pair around here before, not often but pretty low, just be grateful you don't live where they train regularly

[Tim Streater]

They go over us from time to time. To/from Manston, possibly?

[Jethro_uk]

Used to see them a lot on the way to the QE2 hospital in Brum when there was action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], Graham. [e-mail] writes

Heading back to RAF Benson?

[charles]

Post code M25 is in Greater Manchester.

[Tim Streater]

Oh, did the choppers have that stencilled on their undersides?

[NY]

We used to live just over the hill from Catterick Camp and for a few days earlier this year there were several Chinooks flying very low on out-and-back routes across Wensleydale. The throb from six rotors (three Chinooks, each with two rotors) flying a couple of hundred feet (*) above you really makes your body vibrate.

At least you hear helicopters coming from a fair distance away, as the sound gradually gets louder as they approach and then softer as they retreat. Fast fighter jets are another matter altogether - frighten the living daylights out of you ;-)

(*) They were very low - certainly a lot less than 1000 feet.

[charles]

no. but the OP said that's where he saw them

[Tim Streater]

I know. I see them in CT4.

[charles]

and I see them in KT24. We live under the aerial equivalent of the M25 and RAF Odiham isn't too far away.

[harry]

We get them regularly. Sometimes even below the house in the past. But then Shawbury is not far away. (Helicopter training).

[Dave Liquorice]

Above? More often than not a couple of hundred feet below us B-)

Ocassionally they are higher, a while back six flew past at about

100' AGL and 400' horizontally away, they didn't half make the windows rattle!

Can normally hear/feel the whop whop whop of a chinock inside the house a minute or two before it passes.

Naw, they go past us at or a little above our level. The sound of the approach gives the game away. If it's going pass close enough to see the pilot wave it starts with rapidly building, sharp, ripping sort of noise that becomes a very loud roar that may trigger an involuntary duck. B-)

What I don't like seeing flying about are Apaches, they are just too mean looking.

[nightjar]

Manston ceased to be an RAF base in 1999.

[Davey]

It's the bloody Ospreys that make the noise here. Even one is loud, compared to a Chinook.

We did get a personal flypast by The Red Arrows the other weekend, really fast, and low. They were on their way home from somewhere on the South Coast.

[ARW]

Did someone called Dave from Doncaster organise that? He might have retired?

[Vir Campestris]

We had four passes by 12 WW2 era fighters last weekend. Something on at Duxford I suspect.

The black helicopters are regulars. As is one of the Duxford Spits. Much nicer here than where we used to live, near Heathrow.

Andy

[Steve Walker]

They appear every so often - the Manchester Evening News often has an article about why they are around. Although I think it has happened often enough now that they are no longer bothering.

SteveW

[Davey]

No idea. Maybe, no idea. Doncaster is a long way from Bury St. Edmunds.

[nightjar]

Manchester is a holding point for aircraft bound for Heathrow, although I doubt they often get Chinooks landing there.