Helicopters

Hi all,

Anybody else hearing the odd helicopter a few times a day at the moment? They seem to fly quite low and fly straight, making a lot of noise as they pass. One just went over a minute a go…

I’ve not - I guess not a police one as those tend to hover.

Possibly air ambulance or some other emergency service?

I think I heard that one and yes I have noticed it particularly today

Network Rail use a helicopter as well.

After looking that up it seems plausible to mistake a police helicopter with a Network Rail helicopter as the livery is almost identical. Never knew about Network Rail operating a helicopter until reading your post. In this day and age you’d think they’d sack it off in favour of a drone.

Quite surprised they haven’t yet. We had a bloody great racket from a helicopter last year. We are used to Apache Attack helicopters popping up from behind hedges here and scaring the bejesus out of us but this was a SWEB or similar helicopter checking power lines.

The pilot waved which was nice😁

@Stuartf Could it have been an RAF Chinook you heard? They are quite distinctive both in look and sound and they do fly over this area from time to time. They’re much larger than the more common helicopters used by the police, network rail and air ambulances and have two rotors - one at the front above the flight deck and one at the back above the rear ramp. Having been brought up not far from RAF Odiham in Hampshire which is where the chinooks are based I can always tell it’s a chinook without even looking out of the window! I understand they fly over London for urban training and given the direction they’re usually going in I’ve often wondered if they use Woolwich Barracks for a break or as part of their training.

I seem to get woken up a lot these days by one flying over at around 7am. I checked it out on FlightRadar 24 and is a flight from Biggin Hill to Coventry/Birmingham. Also notice a lot of Medivac helicopters from south east fly over SE23 on way to Kings College Hospital.

What I had heard whe I responded to the OP was definitely not a chinook. I’m familiar with the very particular sound of them. Of course I many more have been hearing the same helicopter!

Yep, definitely not a chinook. I didn’t recognise it as a police helicopter either. Network rail and Medivac suggestions are interesting though!

Apparently there’s only one Network Rail helicopter for the whole country, so the chances of it being over Forest Hill regularly are fairly small!

I wouldn’t be so sure given the frequency with which they tend to be doing work around here!