MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Tonights ride, tootling up shining cliff, hears the roar looks up and I'm sure it was a bloody apache doing some low level manouvers! In Derbyshire???????
One flew over me last week in Blakedown (near Kidderminster nowhere near any fly zones/ranges)
Saw one, or something similar, over Cambridge today.
I feel cheated only a pair of lynx going south over Meltham today.
IT was bloody low as well, looked the business! Mean looking ****er straight out "the movies"
Had 6 off them land on the short runway right in front of my office window a couple of months ago. Very impressive
Theyre filming Captain America in liverpool, possibly something to do with that,some nice old american trucks there monday night,Stanley dock area.
Must have been the same one I saw flying over ilkeston about half 5 as I was starting my ride home, given where it was I half wondered if it was the latest initiative against benefit fraudsters.....
Captain America? Missed that one, who got the lead part in that??
pah get loads over my house sounds like were going to war! 😮
Ha ha boatman! That'll be the one, I saw it belper end of shining at about that time. I was hoping that some of those little estate urchins would get their laser pointers out, so the pilot could detonate the whole area with an accidentally launched LGB
They're filming Captain America in Manchester too, apparently the area behind picadilly station towards the canal was suitable for filming a 3 minute car chase scene.
wrightyson - Member
Captain America? Missed that one, who got the lead part in that??
Chris Evans.
No, not THAT one!
One flew over my house in Liverpool the other day, first one I ever saw.
see them quite frequently in Royston. got a bit of a surprise when one of them popped up from behind the trees on the A505!
I was working at the School of Army Aviation in Middle Wallop, Hants back when they were doing the trials prior to their introduction.
Impressive machines.
Yeah. The RAF adopted Apache Gunships some years ago. It was probably on a training mission.
mangatank - Member
Yeah. The RAF adopted Apache Gunships some years ago. It was probably on a training mission.
That'll come as a shock to the Army Air Corps!
As the T shirt says: Don't bother to run, you'll only die tired!
That'll come as a shock to the Army Air Corps!
Yep Army Air Corps - read a good book about a deployment of them in Afganistan. Don't fancy the tungsten dart treatment 😉
bravohotel9er - Member
mangatank - Member
Yeah. The RAF adopted Apache Gunships some years ago. It was probably on a training mission.
That'll come as a shock to the Army Air Corps!
and the RAF whirley bird pilots
Its a shame they didn't make the Apache sound like Airwolf in flight. Now that would be cool.
I'd hazard a guess that the pilots would rather they made as little noise as possible...
Blue Thunder then - that had a stealth mode.
I saw 2 about a week ago, while queuing on the approach to the Black Cat roundabout on the A1. They were flying east to west about 30 seconds apart. First time I've ever seen them out and about (seen them at Farnborough before).
Saw one once while standing near Whinstone Lee Tor, close enough and low enough over the reservoir to look the pilot in the eye and be quite freaked out about the huge underslung cannon 😀
To be fair, if you were flying one of those on a training mission, you'd go and buzz people out for a walk too 😀
dan1980 - Member
They're filming Captain America in Manchester too, apparently the area behind picadilly station towards the canal was suitable for filming a 3 minute car chase scene.
Liverpool today, probably the dock area, don't know if they mean the historic docks, or the industrial docks.
Will listen out for any helicopters though, usually it is only the copper chopper chasing down scouse scallies, they'd get a bit of a shock with an Apache chasing them down though lol!!!
I was in the dales a few years ago (2004ish) on a really wet & minging day, between Hawes & Sedbergh, and despite the weather Chinooks were low flying - 2 flights of two ships, always assumed they were preparing for Afgahnistan/Iraq.
saw one back in march zooming over Ladybower Res. Looked like it was zooming along playing at Dambusters. Was cool.
Its just gone east over Mam Tor at 17:00. View from the contour bridleway would have been excellent.
iam quite lucky not only do i see them all the time flying around,RAF whattisham where they are based is just up the road in suffolk but also my company fix the forklifts in the maintanece hanger up there so get to see them up close and in bits and trust me they look EVIL up close that gun is FU*K O*F big up close
Think we saw one at Ladybower yesterday afternoon. There were several helicopters there.
Isn't Captain America a period film? Not too many Apache's around back then I imagine (the flying ones at least).
fatsimon mk2 - Membertrust me they look EVIL up close that gun is FU*K O*F big up close
I've been in the flight shed at Westlands down in Yeovil and can second that. I love the way that they're actually really simply designed in places. Some of the hatch bits appear to have a garden gate latch on them. Looks funny, but I guess it's easier to weld that in a conflict zone than some over-engineered complicated thing!
How many do "we" have in our fleet? Thought they were rather pricey in helicopter world and just assumed they wouldn't be fannying about over my local cheeky trail area?!!
67 from what I recall.
There was one stooging around Chippenham today, or possibly two. Anyway, saw it twice, and a Puma, so I reckon their doing manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain. Something surreal looking out of the door at work and seeing a gunship cruising past half a mile away.
One flew over us (West Hallam) weekend before last - not going fast but I was surprised how quiet it was though it was going quite slow.
Looked great, but "back in the day" - being a RAF brat - I used to love it when the Yanks used to use cars on quiet Lincolnshire roads to do practise runs in their A10 Tankbusters! More fun when you weren't the one being targetted, no such thing as "friendly" fire!
maybe he was dropping off bikers like the one dropping of the surfers in apocalypse now, less bullets flying though and colder
Apparently the Apache was developed in response to this beast.....
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The MI-24 Hind
S that the original "gunship" as in Rambo 3 style??
A-10s win on the big gun front. Havent seen any in years, have they all left the UK? They used to be all over the North Pennines - the joys of living in a low flying area. Best sight was, I think, all the herc's going up the Northumberland for some big excercise. Might have been the largest peace time parachute drop.
Can we now have a 'cool copters' thread?
Is that the original "gunship" as in Rambo 3 style??
The one and the same.
The Rambo Copters were a tweaked one of these:
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See!
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Ironically it landed (the apache that is) in front of my window this afternoon for re-fuelling.
mean looking buggers they are
A10's were removed from frontline service and given to the Air National Guard, after some halfwit decided that F16 Fighting Falcons were better ground attack aircraft. Plus the Yanks were too scared to use them at low level, which is what they were designed for, in case one got shot down with an RPG, and had them operating at 10000ft, where they couldn't clearly identify coalition vehicles and so shot the crap out of several, killing a number of people.
I remember being sat up on Llanstephan Castle watching A10's doing live firing runs across the river. Amazing sound, like someone ripping large sheets of heavy canvas.
I thought the point of the A10 was just a big gun and an armoured bath tub for the pilot with everything else being designed to work if when most of it was shot away.
I do hope that the ANG are taking good care of those A10s.
If Terminator Salvation taught us one thing, it's that they'll form the cornerstone of our air combat operations in the forthcoming post-apocalyptic war against Skynet.
😛
A couple of years back, we were on a night ride in Snowdonia, when 3 buzzed past at about our level, turrets pointed at us! I guess they'd seen the lights and the gunners / pilots glanced our way with their night vis. Quite scary!
yes army air corp apache built under licence from Boeing by Westland helicoptors...
uk apache has more powerful engines and other UK features... (probably making it less effective lol - daylight/clear weather only chinnock anyone)
still looks awesome and and odd sight when you see them over london
rootes1 - Memberyes army air corp apache built under licence from Boeing by Westland helicoptors...
uk apache has more powerful engines and other UK features... (probably making it less effective lol - daylight/clear weather only chinnock anyone)
Actually, UK variant generally considered superior to the American.
Oh a boys toys thread......we had a couple of A10 fire above us at Infantry School in Brecon. That Gatling sounds like someone has set off a Black and Decker drill next to your head.
We'd have put in an order for 200 of those but the RAF decided they knew best and blew the dough on Eurofighter Typhoons instead. That was 1993. Cheers guys.
Actually, UK variant generally considered superior to the American.
By people on forums or by actual apache pilots?
Good if ours is better, shows well can still cut it in aviation engineering.
Lets face it. Its probably safer for them to fly Apache's in England than in a war zone.
Just had two go over Dorking. Makes a change from the Chinooks 😀
:edit: ...and another one
No RPG's in Dorking either 😆
loddrik - MemberOne flew over my house in Liverpool the other day, first one I ever saw.
when I go and see my Mum in Liverpool the helicopter is always up, the Police one 😉
but the RAF decided they knew best and blew the dough on Eurofighter Typhoons instead
I seem to recall the 4 down in the Falklands seem to be upsetting the Argies as we aren't playing fair and leaving 'Las Malvinas' undefended any more. So it appears eurofighters are good for some things. Those, and the possibility of sub-launched cruise missiles....
rootes1 - MemberActually, UK variant generally considered superior to the American.
By people on forums or by actual apache pilots?
By design.
More useful rotor blade mech. design, improved environmental operating capability, better defensive aids system, more powerful engine, improved ordnance capability, etc...
That Mi-24 is a mean machine and it can carry 12 troops as well. They were pretty effective in Afghanistn during the war in the late-70s - 80s and that is why the US started shipping Stingers to the mujahidin....whoops.
The Apaches are getting a bit of a rep in Afghanistan where they are known as "Mosquitos" and are not winning any friends amongst the bearded and AK47 carrying nutters 🙂
One other useful feature of the British variant is that it's navalised. So, unlike the original, it can be flown from carriers, HMS Ocean and indeed any RN/RFA vessel with a helipad.
apache and A10 rely on a benign air evironment to operate
if the iranians manage to get operator guided man portable surface to air missiles to the oppostion things will be a lot different
Not especially for the Apache with it's DAS.
I followed one in the car for 20minutes oN friday!! It was flying pretty low over the m25 following the traffic.
Mental but brightened up my journey!!
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One flying east up the a505 just at Royston right now if anyone else is on te flight path!
They are based at Wattasham, Suffolk, hence seeing them near Royston, delivered a rental car one day to RAF Honington, parked the car on the perryroad, there was an apache hovering about 20 feet of the deck following me,scary, when you think the pilots of them are trained to use both eyes independantly, the one round the M25 was probably the new police vehicle to stop speeding drivers LOL
Not especially for the Apache with it's DAS.
I disagree, a credible SAM threat using SACLOSBR technology will be difficult to counter and if they go lower to avoid this threat they are at risk from RPG
even if they can detect the laser (for the 10-30 sec max time of flight, target at around 6km) they will not be allowed to laser back due to the risks for civilians or kids with laser pens
also older anti tank sytems such as Milan which are essentially passive and unjammable are a credible threat and probably available on the market