To ask you if helicopters are watching you??

[Sassenach85]

Has anyone noticed helicopters in their area? We have them now day and night - some so low it scared the pets and kids. Some black some yellow some grey. Is this just my area? We all feel unnerved by it a bit

Another thing I noticed on Flightradar (insomnia!) is that a drone is sent out each night for several hours from Lydd airport over the channel. I assume they are looking for migrant boats? It’s quite odd. Sometimes some small planes also make the same journey. This is the small hours, 2:00 a.m. onwards.
Some of the private planes are quite interesting too. Some of them heading for holiday destinations such as Alicante. Hmm.

Anybody any thoughts why some areas are markedly less and some more so?
In my case I suspect the massive reduction is due to business people not flying all over here in their fucking noisy choppers at the moment.

Look on Freedar and you'll see the military flights. Although the US ones don't give much info.

Probably time to make the point again that on any of these apps you only see the military flights that the military are happy for you to see...and quite possibly the same might apply to the Police.

If a Red Arrows aircraft or a Typhoon is doing something fairly benign such as general handling practice, operating in airspace shared with civil traffic, then it makes sense for them to be electronically visible to ATC (and hence the apps) and also to other aircraft - it reduces the risk of a midair collision.

OTOH if Typhoons or similar are out over the North Sea or elsewhere practising tactical stuff they almost certainly render themselves invisible to the general public... The last thing the military want is the whole world to be able to record and analyse what they are up to..even the number of times they need to go to the tanker might be of interest to those that watch these things....

lots more here, day and night (south east coast) presume they are keeping an eye out for big groups of people which I don't mind tbh.

We normally get loads here most nights. Haven't heard any since lock down though. Which has been nice.

Loads more helicopters flying overhead than usual...yellow, white grey...here in Australia...

None today so far! Maybe because it is overcast.

All Air Ambulances in the UK have been grounded for the time being and use critical care cars placed in various areas around a county

Ours hasn't either, it was on the roundabout near a car accident a few days ago.

I’m in Scotland and I’ve not noticed any helicopters where I am. I occasionally see the air ambulance going out but not often.

Funny I saw two helicopters a few hours ago flying together in north Cambridgeshire. I thought it was a bit unusual.
But suspect it is medical supplies being distributed. Greenish grey colour.

hooves plenty of people live in london boroughs and report it's fine, there. It's not all london boroughs.

Do you really think you borough is that bad

People fighting in the supermarkets
No delivery slots for months
Loads of people having parties
Streets full of kids playing out

And yet the police havent done a thing about it?

They were told to lay off. Not ignore people breaking lockdown completely.

I am suggesting your view isnt quite objective. Your posts on other threads make clear you hate where you live and the people that live there.

Do you think you might not be seeing things as they are?

Not a helicopter, but what is this plane up to? Flightradar24 link.

fr24.com/C550/245de38d

I heard a helicopter the other night but that's nothing unusual, I hear them from time to time. I assume it's police doing police stuff.

Training? I’ve seen planes with odd patterns like that a few times, and assumed that’s what it was. But who knows!

@TerpsichoreanMuse just a guess, aerial photography?

(My comment was to TerpsichoreanMuse.)

Around here the Air Ambulance is yellow and grey.

Not too far from Edinburgh, only see the police up, they were looking for a missing/vulnerable person.
I think it’s unlikely an increase just that you are more aware as our environment is much quieter now.
Also Army are being used for medical deliveries.

They are passing by me every day and sometimes night......I live in a village by t he sea......so no roads just the coast line what are they looking for and it was a chinook flying very low.

We noticed a lot yesterday, South Wales, red which i think is the air ambulance and the police one.

this is not near the the part of the channel where dingys come across either

Training? I’ve seen planes with odd patterns like that a few times, and assumed that’s what it was. But who knows!

That sort of overlapping/"creeping" pattern probably means the aircraft is involved surveying/imaging/remote sensing of some sort.

Yes, photography or training sound reasonable. I wondered if it was searching but I suppose a helicopter would be more likely for that.

I've seen the drone over the channel too, and I thought most likely looking for immigrants.

Not a helicopter, but what is this plane up to? Flightradar24 link.

Probably survey work. It's a nice day to take photographs. I noticed another one with a similar flight pattern over the Birmingham area earlier.

Google has to get its "satellite" images from somewhere.

Its been going over is for the last 30 mins, but we have seen one chase with a speeding car and lots of police and some illegal bike joy riders so maybe the idiots are out. I feel sorry for the police if so, what a waste of time. We are near the two hospitals where the covid patients go and theres the RNLI for the coast, so it can be noisy to be fair. Very interesting thread OP.