RAF Hercules……

Been flying over Western lakes every night for weeks, it seems. Usually after dark – noisey buggers. Saw one today from work too.
Why so often?
Should we be concerned?

Is there a civil airport near you? They need to practice landings at civil airports as part of their training. I live at the end of the runway at Leeds Bradford and we get them aout every two months

Nope

Then be very afraid

There aren’t many really high hills down here in Wiltshire, so they need to find some pointy land to practice low-level flying in. It’s quite interesting in a 60 ton transport plane, apparently.
Watching one do a Khe Sanh Drop for the first time is heart-stopping; a large four-engined transport just stooging along suddenly pivots at the tail and drops vertically towards the ground, pulling up at the last second. I wouldn’t have wanted to be the first pilot to volunteer to try it.

The Khe Sanh Approach is still used today in situations where groundfire is potentially a problem. It was used by coalition forces in the Kuwait conflict and by UN forces in the Balkans, (which led to its alternative name, ‘The Sarajevo Approach’). The only modification which has been made to the basic manoeuvre is that the aircraft will now jink from side to side on its approach in order to confuse and evade any potential missile threats.

The technique is also a very popular attraction at air displays and is popular with the display crews of many types of large aircraft, not just the ones mentioned above. It is the Hercules that is the most common performer, though, and it flies in the colours of many different nations. Being a prop-driven aircraft it also has a very distinctive sound, reminiscent of an enormous drone bee dawdling across the sky. With its droopy cockpit ‘face’ and bulky fuselage it looks ponderous. When it drones lethargically towards the end of the runway, as with every large aircraft on final approach, you wonder why it doesn’t just fall out of the air. It is probably travelling at a speed that would embarrass most other forms of transport, yet it blocks out a quite unnerving amount of the sky, seems far too big to be held up by something as insubstantial as air and seems to be hardly moving at all.

Then the pilot drops the nose and your stomach suddenly turns over as this bulky aircraft, helped by the alarming impetus of gravity, goes into an indecently steep dive towards the ground. One of the weirdest things about this is the fact that you get to see the upper side of the wing. With planes this big, this rarely happens. If you see them on the ground, you walk under and around them, always looking upwards. When you see them in flight, you obviously very rarely get to see them from any quarter other than below. Seeing the top half of the Hercules like this therefore feels inherently wrong, especially since the plane is pointing directly at the ground. Like seeing a picture of sinking ship perpendicular in the water or a crashed car upside-down with wheels still gently turning, seeing the unfamiliar upper side of the wing induces a sort of subconscious panic.

The drone of the propellers then increases in pitch as the air now rushing past them makes them spin more quickly and the knot in your stomach rises up to your throat as you realise that the plane is surely going to crash… and then, at the very last moment, the pilot levels out, wheels perilously close to the ground, and makes a pass along the runway, dropping parachuted pallets along its length. It is only as it thunders past your position on the flightline that you realise just how fast it is travelling, and how that dull buzz of propellers and engines is actually a roar. If you are close enough, you will feel the backwash pull at you as the huge, imposing mass punches its hole through the air as it passes, sucking anything not nailed down across the runway in its wake. Then it will climb steeply and within seconds it will be a thousand feet up, banking sharply away, and the roar will revert to a distant drone, the pitch dopplered to a lower and more relaxed note.

along similar lines (big thing with whirly bits) we had a big ol’ helicopter (chinook I presume) fly extremely low over the house here on the Fife coast the other night. low enough that you could hear the whine of the engine(s) inside the house. the cats weren’t overly pleased.

I’ve seen an increase in military helicopters flying over where I live ( East Lancashire ) during daytime. More often than not a single Chinook, now & again we get a pair of Merlins or Lynx.

you will find its people trying to keep there job secure!

lots of “new” flights and training. just so they can prove that there job is worth wile and they should not be cut in the next defence review.

then again i could be all wrong. 😉

They might just be at that stage of their training and be doing that sort of flying for a few weeks.

They might have changed a route.

There might be an exercise nearby that they are supporting.

It might be a new requirement to train for – things change.

we had a dakota over at rooftop level last night, i live on the same road as bletchley park (stationX),

we used to get this guy regular in the past but he has been absent for a few years, then last night , im back..

he really likes to crank it over, end of this month we get 2 battle of britian flyovers, one on saturday, one sunday 😀

That quote from an observer is all well and good, about the knot in his stomach just watching a Herc. Try being inside one performing that manouevre! The first time I didn’t know what the hell was going on and thought we were all going to die when the nose suddenly pitched right down, now I’m used to it and it signals the start or end of another 6 months away from home. Still pretty impressive nonetheless!

The routes over the Lakes tend to be on the eastern side – my folks are forever watching them buzz over Dunmail Raise and through Ambleside, flying south from Keswick – from their front garden they’re usually looking down in to the cockpit (they live above the village, towards Wansfell). The missus also does the RAF air traffic control for the military corridors across northern England and the Eastern Lakes is constantly in use – there and Snowdonia are the 2 most popular low-flying training routes.

to practice low-level flying in. It’s quite interesting in a 60 ton transport plane, apparently.

Many years ago when I was in the Venture Scouts we had a trip to Link Miles and I got to fly the Hercules simulator. I got a bit overconfident though and crashed it while trying to fly under the Golden Gate Bridge. To show how long ago it was the control room to run it was packed with floor to ceiling computers all running massive reel to reel tapes.

When i was in the Air Cadets, I used to flying quite a lot in Hercs at Lyneham. I was in one sitting on the flight deck when the pilot went to do a Khe Sanh Drop. Had no idea what one was when it was announced. I was crying on the second!

grunty – When i was in the Air Cadets (70 squadron), I used to fly quite a lot in Hercs from Lyneham as well. I’ve also sat on the flight deck when they’ve done it. I too thought we were all going to die!!

Equally as terrifying is when having executed the move, they slam the throttles wide open to climb at about the same rate they’ve just dropped at. At that point a Herc feels like a large piece of agricultural transport that some maniac has strapped 4 turboprops too. The whole thing rattled and shook so much i was convinced there was absolutely no way it could possibly stay in one piece. The noise was deafening!!!

I may also have been crying by that point 😉

I’ve done that kind of tactical landing in a Chinook out of RAF Odiham. Flying over the woodland round Bagshot at 1000ft then suddenly the nose dropped and out of the half-open tailgate all we could see was sky. The pilot levelled out at treetop height and flew down one of the firebreaks in the woodland. Rotor blades were above the trees, the rest of the helicopter was pretty much hidden by the trees. Incredible bit of flying, especially cranking it over 90 degrees to get round the corners.

There was a Chinook flying over Manchester yesterday afternoon. Recognised the sound of the engines/rotors before I could even see it.

My Dad is a retired Herc pilot and had to do something ten times worse than the Khe Sanh drop. He flew Jim Davison down to the Faulklands and on a tour around the island.

Have, on several occasions, seen a Hercules do a practice approach on the straight section of M5 near Taunton Dean services… quite unnerving when you are driving in the opposite direction!!!

The first time I thought the plane was going to make an emergency landing on the motorway, only for it to pull up steeply with four black plumes of smoke as the pilot opened the engines up. Quite spectacular

I hope he’s received counseling? The MOD have a duty of care after exposing someone to horrors like that 😉

I think we went that way on an exercise with 24 Squadron (?) flying low level (under 200ft) to somewhere in the Borders. It was distinctly scary to look out of the portholes and see the dash board lights of cars on the ground.

Needless to say I was distracted for the rest of the flight puking my ring into a variety of bags (thoughtful lot the RAF) as half my platoon laughed at me. Got me over the concern about crashing into a hillside, mind.

It’s probably just some evil pilots trying to make their Meat-bombs (Paratroopers) puke before they hit the Dropzone at Warcop ranges

Having a girlfriend with connections in the military, as a civvy, I was lucky enough to get close to two of my favourite planes, the C-130s at Lyneham and the Lightnings at Binbrook. The sight of 15+ Hercules’ on the tarmac at night was ace.

I used to travel daily from Keswick to Cockermouth and Hercules planes were a regular sight. It is a wonderful thing to see them flying really low down Bassenthwaite Lake.

boxelder, do you not live in the west lakes normally? they have flown over my mums house pretty much all my life – right down the valley! most likely en route to scotland