Seen Over Your House Today

[Nick]

Saw the Hertfordshire Air Ambulance fly over to land at Harlow hospital yesterday. Makes me wonder if they all fly the same type?

[Mossie]

The MD Explorer is certainly one of the most popular types for Air Ambulance and Police at the moment, both those services most local to me operate them.  The EC-135 is also a popular type, fenstron and NOTAR types are useful if you're landing in urban or wooded areas to avoid tail rotor strikes.  Also, these newer types are replacing older ones due to econmy and noise, our old Humberside Police Bo.105 was certainly much noisier and there were a lot of complaints about it, especially at night.

[Logan Hartke]

Also, these newer types are replacing older ones due to econmy and noise, our old Humberside Police Bo.105 was certainly much noisier and there were a lot of complaints about it, especially at night.

There's an EC 135 over here in the states at one of the local hospitals I see from time to time.  There's not a lot of complaints over here about aircraft noise, though.  We have MH-60s and P-3s that fly around the night sky overhead, so air ambulance helicopters wouldn't even be noticed by most folks!

The people you've got in your community need to spend a few nights under the landing pattern at NAS Jax!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYJQTXw_A0A

Cheers,

Logan

[Mossie]

We get a small amount of air traffic locally, there's a regional airport not too far away as the crow flies, I live quite close to the turnaround for the approach.  We also used to get a fair amount of military traffic, my little town is on the edge of a military flight path, we used to get buzzed by Tornadoes regularly, even A-10's using a nearby inshore gunnery range.

There's little of noise these days though and folks forget, the military traffic is seriously scaled down and the modern civvies are much quiter than they once were.  Most of the complaints came from the city were the aircraft didn't overfly, or more rural areas out of the way of flight paths.  The Police Bo.105 was pretty noisy, especially in the hover.  There was no helicopter before that Bo.105 and I think for some people it made them aware that crime was going on when they'd been blissfully unaware previously.  One problem we used to have was kids stealing cars in the city and driving them out into the twisty rural roads near us.  The local force got the Bo.105 mostly as a trial, once it proved it's usefulness they upgraded to the shiney MD902 which hardly bothers unless it's directly overhead in the hover.

[Logan Hartke]

I've only seen one Bo.105 in the flesh and that was a highly modified acrobatic helicopter at an airshow.  I can't imagine they'd be loader than our local Seahawks, though.  One of the neatest helicopter flyovers I had was at the beach, though.  I heard a distinctive whop whop whop from the distance and once they appeared on the horizon, I saw a USMC UH-1N flanked by two AH-1Ws.  As they went overhead along the beach, there was a bit of an Apocalypse Now feeling.

Cheers,

Logan

[Old Wombat]

...  I heard a distinctive whop whop whop from the distance ...

I love that sound!

[Cliffy B]

...  I heard a distinctive whop whop whop from the distance ...

I love that sound!

Ditto!  Its certainly unique  

Talking about distinct and wonderful sounds we had a restored A-1 Skyraider in full Glossy Sea Blue and Korean era markings over the neighborhood last weekend.  It was hard to see through all of the trees but that radial....mmmmmm....  

Only problem was the idiot chose to do some aerobatics that brought him way too low to the ground!  You don't do that over a heavily populated area of a city!!!!!!!!    I know there may have been a perception issue and he was actually pulling up several hundred feet above the ground but it doesn't matter.  Go find some farmland to practice over next time you friggin idiot!  

[Mossie]

I've only seen one Bo.105 in the flesh and that was a highly modified acrobatic helicopter at an airshow.  I can't imagine they'd be loader than our local Seahawks, though.  One of the neatest helicopter flyovers I had was at the beach, though.  I heard a distinctive whop whop whop from the distance and once they appeared on the horizon, I saw a USMC UH-1N flanked by two AH-1Ws.  As they went overhead along the beach, there was a bit of an Apocalypse Now feeling.

Cheers,

Logan

I've only once seen Blackhawks in flight, I travelled to Dublin one time and George W. happened to be visiting.  As a result there was a substantial US military presence.  I remember them being pretty clattery beasts, but it's a bit of a distant memory and difficult to compare, I never heard them in the hover either.  I've checked out a YouTube vid and while it's hard to work out real noise levels, the Seahawk is certainly loud!

[rickshaw]

I've only seen one Bo.105 in the flesh and that was a highly modified acrobatic helicopter at an airshow.  I can't imagine they'd be loader than our local Seahawks, though.  One of the neatest helicopter flyovers I had was at the beach, though.  I heard a distinctive whop whop whop from the distance and once they appeared on the horizon, I saw a USMC UH-1N flanked by two AH-1Ws.  As they went overhead along the beach, there was a bit of an Apocalypse Now feeling.

Cheers,

Logan

I've only once seen Blackhawks in flight, I travelled to Dublin one time and George W. happened to be visiting.  As a result there was a substantial US military presence.  I remember them being pretty clattery beasts, but it's a bit of a distant memory and difficult to compare, I never heard them in the hover either.  I've checked out a YouTube vid and while it's hard to work out real noise levels, the Seahawk is certainly loud!

What surprised me the first time I heard a Blackhawk was how much like a large radial engine it sounded.   Iroquois always sounded like they were much larger than they actually were with that "Wop-Wop-Wop-Wop" beat.  Chinooks are really, really loud.  They vibrate like all buggery and you can see the rear ramp moving about six inches up and down!

Personally, I hate choppers.  They call out of the sky far too often for my liking. 

[Logan Hartke]

First two minutes give you a pretty good idea of the noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtgF4gY9jWM

It's not that bad, but it's definitely not as quiet as an air ambulance!

Cheers,

Logan

[Army of One]

Spitfire...!!!! Spitfire....!!! Just over my house in Crawley....!!! Dunno the mark but no cannon barrels n a rounded fin so guessing an early model.....not directly over the house....sorta side on view....what an awesome sound....!!!!!

[lenny100]

two f15-e with a few bombs onbord went screaming down the coast here a few min ago, at around 800 feet, what a noise

[NARSES2]

two f15-e with a few bombs onbord went screaming down the coast here a few min ago, at around 800 feet, what a noise

Natives getting uppity again ? 

[Pellson]

I've only once seen Blackhawks in flight, I travelled to Dublin one time and George W. happened to be visiting.  As a result there was a substantial US military presence.  I remember them being pretty clattery beasts, but it's a bit of a distant memory and difficult to compare, I never heard them in the hover either.  I've checked out a YouTube vid and while it's hard to work out real noise levels, the Seahawk is certainly loud!

I got overflown while in the woods hunting by one of the brand new UH-60M the RSwArmy has procured this year. It was REALLY low (actually flying between trees rather than over them) but I didn't really think it was that loud. The 60M: has modified, slightly wider rotor blades compared to the 60A and that might be the reason.

[PR19_Kit]

While on a short train trip to Scotland with Mrs PR19 we spent time at the Kyle of Localsh wandering around and having a splendid lunch in a local bothy which had superb views along the Loch itself (it's actually a chunk of the Atlantic Ocean!) and the Skye Bridge.

Suddenly XV Sqdn decided to liven up the proceedings by raiding the place with a singleton Tornado GR4! I saw this dot on the horizon approaching the bridge at some speed, twigged what it was right away, grabbed for my camera and headed for the door. I wasn't sure if the Tonka was going over or under the bridge (!) but as I reached the door he pulled up in a loft bombing profile and went over it. Some people who were coming into the restaurant stopped RIGHT IN THE DOORWAY (!) when they heard the Tonka, by now in full 'burner', and prevented me from getting out, the rat-bags! The Tonka pulled hard to the right and up and over the Skye mountains and vanished back to Lossie I presume, leaving me with only memories.

What a piccie that would have made with the two burner flames against the backdrop of Skye!

Needless to say for the rest of our time at 'K of L' my camera never left my neck, but we never saw another aircraft.

Another report later when I've uploaded my cam piccies.