Shoo Fly Shoo

We have moaned frequently about the botheration caused by low flying aircraft but have felt unable to do much about it as ‘Defence of the Realm’ ‘ National Interest’ etc does warrant training for RAF pilots in this type of flying against the background of Iraq, Afghanistan and other places where the Queen’ enemies may pop up, e.g. Falklands, Provence. A nice RAF Liaison Officer once told the Community Council (before Huttonian’s time) that fighter aircraft were not allowed to fly under 300 feet and if you caught one at it just take the registration number and phone the RAF Help Line (Your call is important to us) to report the miscreant. I don’t know if you have ever tried doing this but even at 200 feet and 500 mph it is a challenge. Goodness knows I have so far failed to photograph one never mind read the small print en passant.

But now a ray of hope. The Berwickshire reports, under the headline ‘’Low Flying Speed Trap’, that the local (Westminster) MP has been monitoring a Police mobile ‘Skyguard’ radar device which has been tracking low flying aircraft to ensure that they were complying with regulations. Not speed one assumes, that is not the issue, but the height. This appears to be genuine ‘trap’ in that the pilots are unaware of where the mobile radar is cunningly located-so unlike motorists there is no nicely striped highly visible Box on post to warn Toad or Jehu to watch his speed. Sadly experiments by the Hutton Think Tank Techies to place aerial warning poles in place have not been successful and have been abandoned since a rare breed of Ewe was injured by being hit by the second stage firing mechanism of the rocket placing the warning box into orbit falling to earth. The box itself failed to stay in the Earth’s atmosphere as the third stage rocket was overpowered and is thought to be on its way to Uranus* where it may be (eventually) something of a puzzle to the Uranians and to space craft en route being asked to reduce their speed.

Anyhow to return to earth. I hope that the Police are in no danger if they continue with their entrapment manoeuvres. I say this because I read somewhere that when a similar sort of device locked on to a fighter aircraft in the Border some years ago the firing mechanisms on the plane were automatically activated (as was the practice in enforcing no fly zones in Iraq) and it was fortunate that a missile was not launched to hone in on hostile radar. I only hope the Boys in Blue are leaving their armament at home

* Careful pronounciation please.This is a family blog Blogg-ed  ¶ 11:25 AM