The Need for Flying training

Crews and aircraft from RAF Odiham are currently deployed overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq and are ready to deploy at short notice to fulfil a variety of tasks anywhere in the world.

Our crews need to be trained to meet every eventuality, but it is Ministry of Defence policy that we limit our low flying as much as possible, so every flight that you see will be carrying out an operation, or an essential training task that is preparing the crews for operations at home or abroad. You are, therefore, likely to see our aircraft operating below 500 feet.

Our Chinook, Lynx and Gazelle helicopters normally conduct tasks and routine flying training between 8 am and 11 pm Monday to Thursday, and 8 am to 5 pm on Fridays. However, due to weather, light conditions, task requirements etc, these times may vary. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide details of the take-off or landing times, routes or heights of all the aircraft sorties. In addition, we hold some aircraft at very short notice to provide support anywhere in the world where it may be needed. This includes an aircraft and crew for emergency commitments, such as the floods in Boscastle in Aug 04 and the Jul 05 London bombings, at 2 hours notice. Hence, it may be necessary for aircraft to depart RAF Odiham out of hours.

In addition to the helicopters, winch-launched and motorised gliders and sometimes model aircraft operate from RAF Odiham in daylight hours at weekends, and on some evenings during the summer.

Our helicopters fly to all areas of the country to undertake tasking and training, and to disperse their noise footprint, so that no one area is subject to concentrated activity. However, we have what is known as a Dedicated User Area for helicopter low flying, covering the counties of Hampshire and West Sussex; so, it is likely that Chinooks will be seen more regularly in this region.

RAF Odiham has an extensive list of fields made available by landowners all over the country, but mainly in our dedicated area, to support our essential requirement to practice field landings by day and night. You may, therefore, see our aircraft at very low level approaching or departing these fields.

Night flying is an essential skill that all of our crews must possess. We are very aware of the disturbance this can cause, but have a duty of care to ensure that our crews are adequately trained and prepared for operational duties, which are more safely conducted by night. We endeavour to complete all of our night flying training as early in the evening as possible, but in summer, we will inevitably have to fly later into the night.

The times given here are flexible, but we will always endeavour to complete our night training as early as possible.