Discussion
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
How could you tell he was hoovering? Must be quite difficult in a helicopter.As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
ff5317 said:
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
How could you tell he was hoovering? Must be quite difficult in a helicopter.As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Sure it was one of these?As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above

Maybe making sure Ken had left the building
Edited by Semi hemi on Thursday 5th June 16:21
Semi hemi said:
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Sure it was one of these?As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above

Maybe making sure Ken had left the building
Edited by Semi hemi on Thursday 5th June 16:21

There's a low-level route for military rotary through the centre of the city up the river. It's quite popular if you need to get your AH from say Wattisham in Suffolk out towards somewhere in the west, and is often more 'fun' and direct as an alternative to going the long way round the city.
The gun on the AH as you probably know can be slaved to the crews' helmets. The 'gunner' in the front seat (usually the mission commander in British Army AHs) just has to look at a target through the helmet-mounted monocle and the gun will point at it. Maybe the crew thought that Ken was still around and were fully tooled-up with 30mm and Hellfire?
I remember a few years ago the Wattisham AH regt successfully completed an exercise in the West country resulting in them being declared combat-ready. We heard that they were due to come via my work on their way home, and at the allotted time we went outside to see about 8 AH accompanied by as many Lynx appear low on the horizon looking like a 21st century guaranteed-death version of Apocalypse Now. As they approached I reckoned that if I was in a cave wearing a dish-dash I'd be $hitting myself about now. It was pretty impressive.
The gun on the AH as you probably know can be slaved to the crews' helmets. The 'gunner' in the front seat (usually the mission commander in British Army AHs) just has to look at a target through the helmet-mounted monocle and the gun will point at it. Maybe the crew thought that Ken was still around and were fully tooled-up with 30mm and Hellfire?
I remember a few years ago the Wattisham AH regt successfully completed an exercise in the West country resulting in them being declared combat-ready. We heard that they were due to come via my work on their way home, and at the allotted time we went outside to see about 8 AH accompanied by as many Lynx appear low on the horizon looking like a 21st century guaranteed-death version of Apocalypse Now. As they approached I reckoned that if I was in a cave wearing a dish-dash I'd be $hitting myself about now. It was pretty impressive.
Edited by speedtwelve on Thursday 5th June 23:28
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
I thought that was interesting too.As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
I watched them too, the leader was breaking away and the other 3 were making runs at him. They looked more like cop copters than military. As a fan of everything mechanical especially cars and planes / Helocopters, i do enjoy the London skyline as of late as it is generally full of interesting things happening.
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public). And about half an hour ago what looked likea display team flying in formation around South London in a group of 4.
All in all, quite interesting from the usual police chopper above
Mattygooner said:
Howdy,
Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public).
Being that the Apaches least lethal weapon is equivalent to throwing 500 hand grenades a minute at a target I would question its use as an anti-terror weapon in London, though they did deploy light tanks to Heathrow airport to defend against the Al-Qaeda armoured cavalry division so I wouldn't rule it out.Just wondered if anyone knows of anything happening to account for a joy riding apache over the southbank last night, generaly they fly straight through but this fella was circling and hoovering for quite a while, surely no VIPs need that sort of protection (perhaps Gordon Brown does from the public).
As for the military needing a reason to joy ride in their expensive toys, I'm not sure they need one, ref Prince William.
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