Yes, the cars in the air can still hoon around...

One issue you don't have is that (presumably) you're not a well known criminal. I get the sense that most of these car chases it's the same people doing it again and again and even if they are not caught immediately there would be store CCTV in our sleep-walked-into-a-survaillance-society state - vids would be looked at and perpetrators would be caught in time....

(Whats with all the 4s?)

I was thinking of that too, train station near by so mingle with the shoppers towards the train station, hop on the train and hope that by the time they've been to view the CCTV I'll be miles away.

(It really sounds like I'm planning something xD).

.
^^^^^^^^^

No way would general TV show petty crims' escaping from the helo.

The TV, and the police are biased to showing that EVERY time the helo go's up, they bring a crim' in.

Not so.

Vette

I think on grand theft auto liberty city you normally use a rocket launcher to get rid of the police helicopter, a heavy machine gun if it's flying low enough.
But obviously I wouldn't risk trying that one in real life, as you may get more than a speeding ticket and 3 points on your licence lol.

Army surplus gear and see if the IRR really works?

Sure I read somewhere that if you`re planning on getting up to no good
during the hours of darkness, before you go out, lie in the freezer for a
good few hours so when you go out you`ll be invisible to the helicopters
heat-seeking cameras.

Since you're in Slough anyway - you may as well just head to Hounslow and decamp under the flightpath somewhere. Pat and Carl will never find you.

There was one episode of that famed Road Wars show where they said that a lot of car crime actually happens at night and when there is thick fog. One example was given where they didn't find the crims. But I imagine it's all down to the planning, making sure you do it on a foggy night.

There was another case where someone got out of the car and ran into a tower block. Gone. You could then spend all night riding the elevator.

I have often thought that the workload of a police helo pilot must be enormous when on a pursuit. Not only has he got to chase the scrote in the car in such a way that he captures usable evidence, he's also got to fly safely, avoid obstacles, and negotiate ATC clearances for controlled airspace where necessary. He certainly can't just plough straight into the Heathrow zone without clearance, although I imagine that the copilot would handle the obtaining of clearances.

For the most part, I can't see clearances being refused though. The helo is probably flying pretty low (500 feet perhaps?), which will make it much easier for an air traffic controller to offer the required clearances. The standard separation that ATC have to provide is 3 nautical miles horizontally or 1000 feet vertically, so a helo at 500 feet will only be a problem if he needs to cross the final approach path within about 5 miles of the runway threshold. On the climbout path, most aircraft climb fast enough that I doubt there'd be much problem on that side, and a climbing aircraft can be instructed to turn if necessary anyway (or can be held on the ground for an extra 30 seconds until the conflict disappears).

I'd be interested to know if they'd break an aircraft off from an approach if the helo needed to pass close to the landing threshold. Are there any air traffickers on here?