AIBU to ask you why helicopters fly over my house daily?

[Pl242]

Does anyone know why? I’ve googled and found nothing. Is it the police? Ambulance? Monitoring of traffic? All of the above or more? Genuinely would like to know why I see them daily and if that’s unusual or not and what they are doing. I’m in North London if that’s relevant. Thanks!

Are you growing a significant amount of marijuana in the attic?

I really shouldn’t have put the drugs on my helipad. Asking for trouble really.

They used to go over my area all the time, low level. It really pissed me off. Rumour had it they were scanning for growers of weed (needs a high temp to grow).

We live near lots of RAF bases and they are always mooching overhead. I'm rather unmoved by them, though can confidently spot which flying thing is an Osprey. I try and say it with confidence when it happens as if I know what I'm talking about. Lots of local people park up and watch them for hours. They get very excited about it all.

@Pl242

I really shouldn’t have put the drugs on my helipad. Asking for trouble really.

It's the silent, invisible helicopters you need to be concerned about then.

I grew up in a town with a very large mental hospital. My parents always assumed every helicopter was looking for patients who had gone missing from the criminal bit. They weren't, they were looking for people on the run from the police. The council eventually closed up an underpass as people were hiding in it.
North London, I'd assume traffic helicopter for the radio.

I hear one every day morning and evening. Turns out its a rich business man who helicopters to work and back daily.

Thanks to the PP who recommended the Flightradar24 app - though I reckon I could lose hours to it. I tracked one that seemed to have many travelled from East Midlands airport to batter sea helipad (map not fully accurate so a guess of mine). So might just not be police etc? Fascinated by this form of travel! Imagine commuting by helicopter 🤷‍♀️

Live near a big hospital. Air ambulance goes over all the time. Also the odd rozzercopter.

We get jets screaming over, makes the windows rattle and frightens my cats, and me.

Near me it’s people going out to the oil rigs but in London I expect it’s the police, air ambulance and/ or rich people.

We get Chinooks and Apache. When the racecourses were open we get lots of small ones ferrying jockeys about.

Like a PP, some days are like Apocalypse Now. I often think the Russians are coming.

There’s another app OP called Freedar.uk and you can see (some) military/police/coastguard aircraft on there.

This used to drive me crazy (I've chilled out a little over the years). I always think it's the CEO of JCB and the Bet365 woman (we're on the edge of Stoke). Used to go into the garden some days and give them the finger or shout "why can't you DRIVE, like everyone else!?".

I find that the police helicopter doesn’t show up on the flightradar 24 website (which seems sensible), but the air ambulance and other commercial ones do.

Wish we got chinooks, I like chinooks! I think it's the fact that helicopter noise is just unpleasant and that they always have to fly directly over our house. Bastards

OP, I can almost guarantee that you live on the north-south flight path for helicopters crossing London.

Police and air ambulances aren’t restricted to flight paths but civilian aircraft are.

Most helicopter flights in London are VIP transport (ie businessmen being taken to meetings around the country).

We’re on the coast and on the flight path for helicopters going to and from the oil rigs

Because you don’t close the curtains when you have sex

Eye in the sky for radio traffic reports

Also London and I’ve noticed an increase in last 4 months (I’ve lived here 12 years) - mostly at weekends, every 3 hrs during the night in Aug/Sept. I thought it was probably police patrol as there were huge parties in this area when lockdown eased.

@Pl242

Thanks to the PP who recommended the Flightradar24 app - though I reckon I could lose hours to it. I tracked one that seemed to have many travelled from East Midlands airport to batter sea helipad (map not fully accurate so a guess of mine). So might just not be police etc? Fascinated by this form of travel! Imagine commuting by helicopter 🤷‍♀️

That was me!

Glad you like it. There's a thread on Mumsnet somewhere for people who like to while away time randomly following flights!

We have loads here because we live near a major helicopter manufacturer and they do test flights with the engineers out over our area. We live in a pretty rural area with lots of valleys and stately homs, so I presume it's just an interesting place to fly within a few minutes of them. Any chance there is something similar near you?

To make us nervous.

Growing up in N Ireland, helicopters hovering was a constant background noise to my childhood. It's only now that we don't have them any more that I realise how incredibly noisy they are. Now if one goes over I'm peering out the window wondering what's going on and why they're disturbing me. Growing up, I wouldn't even have looked up if I was outside and it was overhead, it was no more interesting than a car driving past. Unless it was a Chinook. Those things made the house shake.