[Richmond]

More precisely, military aircraft flying low overhead. Living in East Anglia one has to accept a certain amount of it I suppose but in the 16 or so years we've been here the amount of activity has increased hugely. They used to fly over here one day a week, now it's every day except Sundays. Having a particularly bad day today with constant exercises overhead, jets chasing a Chinook etc. It's been going on for several hours now. Sheep are bunched and look frightened, and last year during a Chinook exercise several of them broke out of the field they were in and galloped off. Fortunately they stayed on our land and were easily recaptured.
Apart from the fact that I nearly have a heart attack every time they zoom over I am concerned for the ewes who are only a few weeks off lambing (due end Feb/early March).

[Twotwo]

I’m not sure about the constant flying of jets etc but last year the air ambulance landed in in one of our fields .. an electric fence from my 2-3 weeks to go ewes, they watched from a far but it didn’t seem to effect them at all 🤞

[SallyintNorth]

They will get used to it, but let the local bases know you have very pregnant sheep and would be ever so grateful if they were able to keep the low hovering of Chinooks to a minimum over your fields.  (It's the prolonged low hovering of the large helicopters which frights the sheep the most.)  They won't be able to avoid it completely, but my experience of RAF Spadeadam (for whom the white west wall of our farmhouse was a visual homing beacon!) is that they are mindful of local farmers' needs. 

[Richmond]

Our house used to be white Sally, awful white painted concrete render. We stripped it all off back to the original red brick and hoped that it might be less visible, but we are on top of a hill (a small one, being Norfolk!) so I guess still a spotting point. The aircraft come from 4 different bases as far as I'm aware - RAF Marham in Norfolk, RAF Coningsby in Lincs and the USAF bases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall over the border in Suffolk - which might explain why they seem to be here all the time. The aerial acrobatics are quite impressive to those who like watching that sort of thing - they regularly have dogfights overhead, screaming round and round and plummeting out of the sky - but the noise is deafening. If they are overhead while I am outside I literally cannot have a conversation with anyone. Sometimes I have to crouch on the ground with my hands over my ears. The sheep are unbothered by the jets if they are high up, it's when they come screaming past, and as you say, the Chinooks are also quite intimidating although they fly relatively slowly. They are so low I sometimes think they are going to crash into the trees but they just miss them. The pilots must surely be able to see animals panicking beneath them though. I did try a while back to find contact details for one of the bases but didnt get very far.

[SallyintNorth]

RAF Lakenheath
Local: 01638-52-5659


Royal Air Force Mildenhall
01638-541110
Public Affairs email : [email protected]

RAF Marham
01760 337261

You could also contact the generic Low Flying Complaints and Enquiries Unit :
[email protected]
Telephone: 01780 417558
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm

Low Flying Complaints and Enquiries Unit
RAF Wittering
Peterborough
PE8 6HB

My advice would be to come at it from a "not complaining, just wanting advice and information, worried about my very pregnant sheep who get panicked by xyz" standpoint. 

[Richmond]

Ooh thank you Sally that's really helpful. I'll start off with an email and see how I get on!

[Backinwellies]

  I dont know about the SE but here in Wales we have only experienced the dog fight stuff once recently  after dark .... quite scary for us humans! 20 mins of circling and so much noise! .... this was the USAF.
We often have daytime RAF jets fly over but they just appear and go.

[Richmond]

One of the downsides of living here is that it's a perfect training area for pilots (no mountains). They either pass overhead on their way to train over the North Sea, or they train over the land between the base and the sea. I'm guessing we are on a regular flight path. One day a week was acceptable but now it's become too frequent for my liking. Nice sunny days with blue skies tends to bring them out as well, a bit like tourists! It often happens that just as I go out for a quiet potter in the garden, out come the jets.

[SallyintNorth]

Living within the circuit pattern of RAF Spadeadam, one became quite tuned into their regular schedules and what caused there to be out of the ordinary activity. 

October, international training, lots of activity, not all the pilots would know which areas to avoid (for livestock reasons.)

Many night flights, extra low level flights : there's the possibility there's going to be an active mission soon... 😳

[Backinwellies]

Many night flights, extra low level flights : there's the possibility there's going to be an active mission soon... 😳

  especially by USAF ..... sadly yes!

 I think the question is not if but when and where?

[PipKelpy]

We're in the low fly zone for RAF Shawbury, they have to practice somewhere. As long as ewes don't mind, I'm not complaining.

I remember a jaunt years ago in Wales, I could hear this noise, it was 2 fighter jets flying in a Valley, lower than the road, brilliant sight!

[Fleecewife]

Being married to an ex RAF pilot and having an ex Army helicopter pilot son, I am a lover of planes and appreciate the service our pilots give.  Our boys are very likely about to be going to peacekeep in Ukraine, or even fight bigger countries, so please try to accept that they have to practice their skills somewhere.  Mostly they come up to Scotland to play in the hills.


I grew up in Norfolk and the jets made my Dad furious as every time one used our farm as their turning point, every turkey ran into the same corner of each house and so many were killed in the crush.  He was in regular contact with the Station masters of the relevant local bases and they did try to limit over flights.  Each turkey could only be killed once though.


I think if you approach the bases in the right way and tell them it's lambing time so your ewes are at a very vulnerable stage, they should respond by limiting pilots activities a bit.  There is no way that a pilot flying at low level and high speed can notice sheep being stressed, even if they have the country skills to know it's lambing time, so please be understanding.  There is a limit to how low they can fly and how close to buildings they can fly.  If you can be precise in your complaint that will help.  The exact time the plane flew low and the plane's identity number will help too.  Then they know precisely who was the offender, rather than just giving a general telling off.


Our military services will be protecting us from very great risks all too soon.  Hopefully your sheep will soon get used to overflying aircraft, but I suggest you bring them in for lambing.
It's an age old dilemma and I do hope you get some concessions.
Here we get a lot of low flying planes, helicopters and hot air balloons but luckily our Hebbies are pretty laid back about them.

[Richmond]

Since writing the original post there seems to have been much less activity overhead. I have started an email several times but then couldn't finish it to my satisfaction so haven't actually sent anything yet!

[SallyintNorth]

I'm glad you've had less problems recently.

Personally, I would say a friendly telephone conversation will pretty much always land better than an email.  It's just so impossible to predict how another will read words, without the benefit of hearing your tone.

But if you're stressed about it and not confident you can keep it friendly, an email might be safer nonetheless!  lol

[SallyintNorth]

On the subject of the inexactitude of the written word...  linky