Lake District jets and drones

Noob question so apologies.
I want to take my Mini 4K to the lakes in a few weeks to get some good footage of me and the family on top of the mountains etc, I am aware that certain areas are popular with low flying jets, do these show up on drone scene ( not a full member yet, waiting for payday :pensive_face: ), if not how do I know when they’re going to be around ??
Thanks !

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Unlikely, as there are no Flight Restriction Zones around the Lakes region.

Military training times / dates / routes isn’t something they tend to make public for obvious reasons :slight_smile:

Do you know which base they are operating out of? If so, you could give them a courtesy call to say you’ll be flying your drone there at X time and casually ask “is there anything I need to be aware of?” :thinking:

I thought the Gov site gave some information…

I presume all are not listed for obvious reasons.

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No idea @PingSpike , they just appear and scare the crap out of you, by the time you realise what the noise is they are gone :grin:

Thanks @Onanist I’ll have a look at those :eyes:

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LFA 17, the best free air show you’ll ever have. They don’t fly training missions on weekends so you’ll be safe Saturdays and Sundays. Like @Onanist says, check the times on the Gov.UK site, but if they’re not advertised they might still show up if the weather’s good (just like us). Just keep your ears/eyes open, and don’t forget helicopters can fly down to surface level, three years ago, I had 2 Apaches, 2 BlackHawks and 2 Ospreys fly past the rented cottage in line astern, they were that low, the pilot of one of the Ospreys waved at us!.

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Good question. I’ll be up there myself in a few weeks!

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Love it up there, I can’t wait to get my drone up and get some epic pics !!

Fast jets can fly down to 250 ft, helicopters 100. I was in Bowness a few weeks ago and had a large military transport contouring the hillsides very very low, a hawk and a high speed jet, not sure what type. The large transport was almost silent. I stuck below 100 ft whilst flying (after the transport had cleared) and made sure I kept a good look out (and ear). Need to be careful in hills they can appear from nowhere I’ve had them flying below me whilst climbing on Gimmer crag (Langdale) and come round for a second pass when they’ve spotted us.

So far as I know the low-flying training in the Lake District is similar to that on the ‘Mach Loop’ in Wales; there is no restriction on flying drones but there are notices asking you not to fly drones while the jets are training. This is a moveable feast, as they are dependent on the weather, so might not turn up at all on a day they say they are going to, and might take advantage of good conditions at the spur of the moment when they say they’re not going to. Probably best to assume that low-level fast flying is about to take place and keep your eyes peeled for it! Aircraft from different bases are likely to show up, so there is no sort of central control that you can contact. My instinct on this is to fly but land as soon as you are aware of military activity, and stay down! Going up to film the jets at any range that does not mean they are dots in the sky is clearly asking for trouble!

Fast jets will be hard to pick up visually if they are below the skyline, they are not painted to be easily seen by enemies, and you won’t hear them until they are very close to you because they are flying pretty close to the speed of sound, so you have very little time to react to them. My advice is to keep well off their probable flight paths, which will vary with individual aircraft and pilots. That may be problematic in narrow valleys! Apart from the risk of collision (you probably don’t want to be the cause of an F-35 shaped burn mark on the side of Scafell Pike), there is the issue of the disturbance caused by the passage of the aircraft themselves and of the jet exhaust; I would not like to predict how long this lasts or how far off-set from the actual track of the aircraft might be affected to the point where it will down a drone!

You’ll also see big aircraft, A400 Atlas and foreign air force Hercules, doing insane flying at very low levels. These are of course slower and you get more time to react to them, but being bigger the amount of air disturbance and wake disturbance will be that much greater as well! They may be slower but they are still clipping along at a fair old rate by drone standards! Personally, I wouldn’t want to risk my drone anywhere near any of this sort of activity, seagulls are bad enough!

Flight Radar 24 can be configured to include military jets, and will give you live tracking for them if the transponders are switched on, but there’s no guarantee that they will be, or that they are working even if they are switched on.

Besides, who wants to be distracted from this magnificent free air display by flying a drone!

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They are allowed to fly down to surface (drop off troops/cargo or land), the 6 that came by the cottage were following the road below the level of the tree tops (by Pendragon Castle south of Kirkby Steven)

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Apart from the jets. Also rememver your 120m from surface if you fly away from hill. 120m height is not from take off but from closest ground so your altitide on your controller will rarely correct. Your controller could say you are flying at 10 meters when you could be at 100m.

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Drone footage or it didn’t happen … :zany_face::zany_face::zany_face:

Couldn’t fly a drone on a weekday (Friday) during NATO exercise in LFA17, helicopters were less than 100 yards away from the cottage and about 25 yards away from Pendragon Castle. Throughout the week we were treated to RAF Typhoons and F35s and USAF F15s and F35s, with the odd USAF Hercules thrown in for free!

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The emoji did suggest I wasn’t being serious?

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I know mate :grinning_face:

Ok, maybe I was overgeneralising here’s what the MOD say:-

Overview

Military low flying is used to train military aircrew. Low flying by military aircraft is carried out across all of the UK.

Low flying means:

  • fixed-wing aircraft flying down to 250 feet from the ground
  • rotary-wing aircraft (for example helicopters) flying down to 100 feet from the ground

Rotary-wing aircraft can also be authorised to go lower than 100 feet from the ground.

Low flying is not usually allowed in areas around airports, or towns and cities with populations of more than 10,000.

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Living in Bowness you get a feel for when they’re coming. No help for the OP but having had a proximity report for a near miss with an A400M flying extremely low
As a result, they did confim, registering the flight by 6am the day before as a minimum timeframe that would be noted. (I’d planned a week ahead and was praised lol)
With a leisure flight you don’t always get that timeframe but thought useful to post here :slightly_smiling_face:

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This is a good app to have. Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

It doesn’t predict the flight path of aircraft but at least give a heads up of both civilian and military aircraft in your area. Though some military aircraft (USA) don’t always show up such as F-15, F-16 etc

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Far from ALL. And far from just “some USA military” don’t show.

I’ve seen Chinooks (UK military, just this morning, in fact, over my house), Boeings (even civilian ones) and MANY helicopters and light aircraft that are “Invisible” to flight trackers.

They can only be considered a start - but far, far from complete .. and, perhaps more to the point, it’s often the ones that are “Invisible” to flight trackers that are the ones at lower altitude and most important to us.

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All true what you mention in regards of flight trackers. Personally, I’d stay with the rule of VLOS if having doubts a military/civilian aircraft might be around when flying my drone, just to be on the correct side of doubt if something did happen.

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