To think the RAF shouldn't do this

[concernedforthefuture]

I was rudely awoken at around 3am this morning by an RAF plane flying fast and low (c 600ft) above my house. I honestly thought it was coming down; it was so loud and scared the shit out of all of us.
I appreciate the need for training but... IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning??! We live a long way (150 ish miles) from Brize Norton where this plane came from (and indeed we aren't close to any airport / airfield), so low flying aircraft sounds are very unusual.

AIBU to think they should fly low elsewhere at night (like out at sea )? I probably am, but fancied a moan as I'm very tired this morning.

[curtainsforme]

Looking at the playback it actually ends each time the herc reaches the white dotted lines. This indicates the plane is at 0 altitude. The altitude on the app in relation to the ground you are on is incorrect. If it were correct there would be no gaps in the playback.

[curtainsforme]

Lol at the people dismissing this who probably don't know how BLOODY LOUD a jet is when it swoops over your house.

Lol at people ignoring the fact it wasn't a jet

[concernedforthefuture]

@StrawberryPeach - maybe there was more than one plane out training . Glad it wasn't just me though

[Fuzzywuzzyface]

@SummerDayWinterEvenings

RAF round near me have been doing night training for the last 2 weeks. It's essential. They post on local FB pages etc this seems to be just training. In the past we had it for a week -low flying at 2am but that was just before all of the sq went to Afghanistan.

This is happening near me..its very loud but also only for a couple of minutes..local Facebook page, Twitter etc advise of night flying and also that it is an essential training exercise.

[StCharlotte]

We used to live near RAF Odiham, a Chinook base. They would do night training and would fly really low (like tens of feet) and drop people in one of the fields behind us to find their way back to base. They would have an annual open day for local residents to "thank" them for their patience.

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

I thought part of the role of the RAF was to protect our skies - had it crossed your mind, OP, that they had scrambled because of an alert?

[PhoneLock]

and drop people in one of the fields behind us to find their way back to base.

We had two big helicopters drop into the field behind us. They seemed to be trying to get out of the way of the air ambulance that flew over them at he same time. They took off again as soon as the air ambulance was gone.

[concernedforthefuture]

@MilkTrayLimeBarrel it was training.

[concernedforthefuture]

@curtainsforme Maybe the data in the app is a bit out. It was definitely very low though - low enough for the house to vibrate as it flew over.

[SockYarn]

We live on the flightpath to a large airport and the RAF have been practising landing/take offs during lockdown when very little else is in the skies. We're used to aircraft noise, never notice it ordinarily. Can't really be getting worked up about this, to be honest.

[janet1267]

I cannot in any situation see how this happening once could be deemed as unreasonable.

[curtainsforme]

I don't live directly on a flight path to any airport but the one time I was woken in the night by an aircraft it was an Antonov An-22 at 16,000ft. Noisiest bastard I have ever heard (fast jets excepted)

Yes OP I suspect the app is far less than accurate otherwise it shows a few sections of the flight done by road

[viques]

Sorry, but I am smiling a bit at the OP cropping a map of the entire south west of the country because they were concerned it might give away their location.......

[concernedforthefuture]

@viques I'm not sure I get your point? The screenshot I had where it was above my house obviously does give away my location (as it shows a 'your location' marker) . Hence why I picked a different point on the route to show that it was labelled as an RAF plane with its altitude alongside, as someone asked how I knew it was RAF.

[Etinox]

It must have been a shock @concernedforthefuture
Made me think of this poem, by Fiona Benson
Eurofighter Typhoon

My daughters are playing outside with plastic hoops;
the elder is trying to hula, over and over –
it falls off her hips, but she keeps trying,
and the younger is watching and giggling,
and they’re happy in the bright afternoon.
I’m indoors at the hob with the door open
so I can see them, because the elder might trip,
and the younger is still a baby and liable to eat dirt,
when out of clear skies a jet comes in low
over the village. At the first muted roar
the elder runs in squealing then stops in the kitchen,
her eyes adjusting to the dimness, looking foolish
and unsure. I drop the spoon and bag of peas
and leave her frightened and tittering, wiping my hands
on my jeans, trying to walk and not run,
because I don’t want to scare the baby
who’s still sat on the patio alone, looking for her sister,
bewildered, trying to figure why she’s gone –
all this in the odd, dead pause of the lag –
then sound catches up with the plane
and now its grey belly’s right over our house
with a metallic, grinding scream
like the sky’s being chainsawed open
and the baby’s face drops to a square of pure fear,
she tips forward and flattens her body on the ground
and presses her face into the concrete slab.
I scoop her up and she presses in shuddering,
screaming her strange, halt pain cry
and it’s all right now I tell her again and again,
but it’s never all right now – Christ have mercy –
my daughter in my arms can’t steady me –
always some woman is running to catch up her children,
we dig them out of the rubble in parts like plaster dolls –
Mary Mother of God have mercy, mercy on us all.

From Vertigo & Ghost.. Reproduced with kind permission of Cape Poetry.

[Oldraver]

I live a mile from the Brize Runway and we usually hear this all night long, (though slept through this one). In the still of the night the sound really carries and you can hear the Hercs on the ground like they're in your back garden

[SockYarn]

One of DS's best ever experience was on holiday in the outer Hebrides and the fast pointy jets (Typhoons? Tornados?) were practising low flying. One came so low over where we were staying we could see the pilot clearly. So loud and so amazing.

Wasn't at 3 in the morning mind you.

[iVampire]

They would have an annual open day for local residents to "thank" them for their patience

I hope that was a well-catered event

[FairfaxAikman]

YABU I grew up in the shadow of an RAF base (under 10 miles) and if far rather being woken by a bit of night flying than a Russian invasion (slight exaggeration but you know what I mean). The RAF are there to protect us, they can't do that without training.
Also as PP have said you can't possibly know it was only training.

[PhoneLock]

Yes OP I suspect the app is far less than accurate otherwise it shows a few sections of the flight done by road

Isn't the main point of flying very low to evade being tracked by radar?

[Starcup]

I think if it’s a one off then it’s absolutely fine. They need to train in all sorts of area at all sorts of times of the days. National security trumps getting woken up as a one off.

But I can completely understand how frightening it must have been.

I actually think small leisure planes and helicopters shouldn’t be allowed in residential and built up areas at all! If their engines had to fail then there’s a good chance people on the ground would be killed. I can’t stand seeing or hearing them.

[concernedforthefuture]

@FairfaxAikman Someone in the thread confirmed it was training (they know someone who works there).

[curtainsforme]

Also as PP have said you can't possibly know it was only training.

You can. Aircraft type and route indicate training.

[eggsandwich]

I’m in Norfolk and live not far from a RAF air base, we were warned that this week they will be conducting night training excises ready for a redeployment to an aircraft carrier, they said it would sometimes go on till 2am.

Last night I heard them going over and was a bit noisy at times as the new jets are a lot noisier than the old jets they use to have at the base but it was good that local media warned us beforehand not that you can do anything other than shut your windows at night.

It doesn’t really bother me now as its part and parcel of life and its rare that they conduct this at night.

[ineedaholidaynow]

On the original screenshot what do the white dashes signify?