Tree-top Puma in East Northants

[LotusOmega375D]

Just seen the lowest flying chopper I've ever seen outside of an airshow. I heard a roar, ran to the window and instead of looking up into the sky, I realized that the source of the noise was a fast-moving Puma barely skipping the tree-tops.

I am sure such activities are commonplace in more remote areas of the country, but this is the Rose of the Shires for goodness sake!

What would it be up to?

[anonymous-user]

LotusOmega375D said:

What would it be up to?

Dreaming of being a Chinook
Probably just crew training. Nothing special.

[krusty]

It's like that every day over Ropley.... on the flight path to RAF Odiham

[Boatbuoy]

I've been low level in both Chinook & Puma, and both were great experiences. Going under the National Grid wires was particularly interesting. Just another day in the (old) office for Crossflowkid tho!

[Ganglandboss]

I remember seeing a couple of Chinooks a couple of yeas ago. I have no idea what they were doing at the time as I'd seen them flying over Manchester a few times within a couple of weeks, which is a long way from Odiham. I was at the butty van on the Snake Pass, just next to Derwent Reservoir. All of a sudden I heard the thunder of rotors and two of them popped up from behind some trees and flew past us quite low. I'd love to know what they were doing in the area. I think I may have posted on here at the time but nobody seemed to know.

[Ritchie335is]

If it was an EC225 it was probably trying it's hardest not to plummet out of the sky.

[onyx39]

Ganglandboss said:

I remember seeing a couple of Chinooks a couple of yeas ago. I have no idea what they were doing at the time as I'd seen them flying over Manchester a few times within a couple of weeks, which is a long way from Odiham. I was at the butty van on the Snake Pass, just next to Derwent Reservoir. All of a sudden I heard the thunder of rotors and two of them popped up from behind some trees and flew past us quite low. I'd love to know what they were doing in the area. I think I may have posted on here at the time but nobody seemed to know.

I remember as a kid living in Southall, in a tower block we used to have occasional helicopter traffic and almost peeing my pants with excitement when a dozen chinooks went over in formation!

[anonymous-user]

Ganglandboss said:

I remember seeing a couple of Chinooks a couple of yeas ago. I have no idea what they were doing at the time as I'd seen them flying over Manchester a few times within a couple of weeks, which is a long way from Odiham. I was at the butty van on the Snake Pass, just next to Derwent Reservoir. All of a sudden I heard the thunder of rotors and two of them popped up from behind some trees and flew past us quite low. I'd love to know what they were doing in the area. I think I may have posted on here at the time but nobody seemed to know.

Odiham is only where the Chinny fleet is based. Crews can deploy pretty much anywhere in the UK for training sorties or in support of exercises.
And Manchester area is easily within range of Odiham anyway.

[dantheman12]

Ganglandboss said:

I remember seeing a couple of Chinooks a couple of yeas ago. I have no idea what they were doing at the time as I'd seen them flying over Manchester a few times within a couple of weeks, which is a long way from Odiham. I was at the butty van on the Snake Pass, just next to Derwent Reservoir. All of a sudden I heard the thunder of rotors and two of them popped up from behind some trees and flew past us quite low. I'd love to know what they were doing in the area. I think I may have posted on here at the time but nobody seemed to know.

Its a comon flight path for the RAF, down over Derwent dam, Chatsworth and on towards Matlock bath. We commonly get jet, C-130, helicopters etc. Some training aircraft as well.