[Miscellaneous]

Having noted a higher than usual military activity I checked NOTAMS and all local areas were cold. That surprises me. I'm curious if anyone noticed NOTAMS relating to the below activity?

[Charles Hunt]

1) Cold? Blooming freezing more likely!

2) As we are leisure pilots no one will have been looking at NOTAMs as not flying due Covid restrictions.

[MattL]

I thought NOTAMs were only issued for unusually high intensity flying ie Exercises rather than routine day to day activations?

[Miscellaneous]

@MattL throughout the Scottish Highlands there are numerous restricted and danger areas which, for 5 yrs or so, have changed from being NOTAMd cold to being NOTAMd hot. This has been a much welcomed change and has opened up significant areas to our end of GA, particualry R610 A/B/C/D. I thought maybe there would be similar in the other areas listed.

I am surpsrised that the flying activity I quote above did not result in the said areas being NOTAMd as active.

[PeteSpencer]

Ha! When I was training in early 1990s In EAnglia at Ipswich , RAF Woodbridge ,RAF Bentwaters (US AF A10 s 10 miles) RAF Wattisham 15 miles, RAF Honington 20 miles , RAF Lakenheath , (USAF) RAF Mildenhall (USAF) RAF Coltishall 30 miles were all active within a 40 mile radius .Didn’t bother with the (sparse) Notams:

They were all assumed active :The air was thick with tin and the occasional C150 got splatted.

We studes were told in no uncertain terms : ‘ Get above 2000 ft as fast as possible and stay there’

[2Donkeys]

We studes were told in no uncertain terms : ‘ Get above 2000 ft as fast as possible and stay there’

I think that advice is probably still useful even now (ignoring COVID for a moment). Many GA pilots seem to think that a nosebleed will ensue above 2000 feet and therefore stay low. The likelihood of collision once above 2000 seems to drop dramatically.

[Stu B]

..,. and (London TMA etc excepted) continues to drop the higher you go!

[Lefty]

We studes were told in no uncertain terms : ‘ Get above 2000 ft as fast as possible and stay there’

I think that advice is probably still useful even now (ignoring COVID for a moment). Many GA pilots seem to think that a nosebleed will ensue above 2000 feet and therefore stay low. The likelihood of collision once above 2000 seems to drop dramatically.

I proactively adjust my routing so as to be able to fly as high as practicable, primarily because it is less crowded (lower collision risk) and secondly, I fly a Cherokee 6 with a 1700 fpm glide, so from 2000’ , I’ve got just over 70 seconds before I am in a field.

For example routing from Waltham to say Duxford or Old Buck, I will route north via WCO and Cranfield rather than the shorter Wycombe - BPK - BKY where I would have stay below 2400 for most of the trip. It adds a few miles, but it reduces both hassle and risk.

[PeteSpencer]

Of course there is significanfly less fast military tin about now in E Anglia: In my above list only LKH and MLD (unless you count the Watt eggbeaters) are active.

When I first joined our group our strip was under the Honington downwind of the massive LKH/MLD/HON CMATZ. (Honington now only activated by Notam)..

With mobile phones in their infancy with lousy (analogue) reception at our strip and our a/c VHF radio not reaching HON ATC from the ground, getting airborne with Tornadoes screeching about the place was a bit of a lottery, so a frantic call to HON from 100ft on the climb out was called for.

The plus side was that when HON Tornadoes left they left the HON ILS active under C & M for a number of years.

Peace was only disturbed once again after the Gulf War when Lakenheath decanted temporarily to Honington while they repaired the chewed up runways at LKH.