Blackhawks over North Shore?

[Gareth Forwood]

Hi all,
I just heard a very loud noise over my place in Roseville and got a glimpse of what I think was a Blackhawk flying very low (maybe around 500ft or so). Anyone able to confirm if there were any military chopper flights around or if not what it might have been?
Cheers.

Edit: Webtrak shows an unknown aircraft (not a helicopter symbol) flying over at 183m (600ft) at the same time with notation Beacon: 6000

[Mike C]

I am watching 4 blackhawks flying over 2RN as i type.

They have been flying around all day.

I've noticed alot of military activity today in the Sydney area. C-130's, C-17's, CL-604's.

Anything special happening?

Practice for a US visitor perhaps?

[Nigel C]

According to this thread they'll be doing exercises for 3 weeks...
http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=5006

[Mike C]

"Helicopters will be flying around with or without lights between 2pm and 11pm (AEDT)."

"Up to four helicopters will fly at low altitude over Sydney CBD on March 9, 10, and 17."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/army-choppers-to-buzz-sydney-in-training-20100303-phmm.html

They are in the air now.

[Philip Argy]

The four of them flew in convoy up and down the Parramatta River about four times between 5.30 pm and 10 pm yesterday.

May be connected with the visit of the Indonesian President (who I believe will be on a Harbour Cruise in Sydney tomorrow) or may be just a training scheduling co-incidence.

[Mark Grima]

Was standing outside in Mosman at about 8:30pm last night and heard a bloody loud noise and immediatly thought about the Blackhawkes, was looking hard for it, knowing that it was not very high and after looking for a few seconds saw one sole flashing red tail light, hard to tell but I'd be surprised if it was any higher then 1,000 foot. Could not see anything totally lost in the dark night sky, not even a slight outline of aircraft.

Was actually quite an amazing experience.

Cheers

M

[Jeff T]

Yes Mark, they fly over my place everyday and night while these exercise's are on, I live quite close to Holsworthy, and even when they are right over my place at night they are still very hard to see, its amazing how blacked out they are against the sky, even on a clear night, actually, they stand out a lot more on a cloudy night.When they are in groups, its usually only the rear one with a red light flashing, the others are blacked out totally.

I've tried to get some good pics of them during the afternoon, but whenever I have a chance, its usually overcast and the lighting is terrible.

Jeff.

[Philip Argy]

The blackhawks are flying up and down the Parramatta River this afternoon - about 30 passes since lunchtime, which is starting to get annoying frankly as they are not too quiet at about 500 feet!

I don't know whether it's the same two or multiple teams of two (from the frequency I assume the latter) but I wish they'd return to base so the kids can finish their homework!

[Grahame Hutchison]

When I drove up the Warringah Expressway at around 3pm this afternoon, one of the Blackhawks was hovering just above a building in North Sydney. I had the sunroof open and wondered what the heck the noise was at first.

[Danny G]

Blackhawks deliver the SAS/Commandos to a site to extract hostages etc so i have always wondered why they use such a noisey helicopter ?

[Philip Argy]

Either they're monitoring our forum discussion or it's a co-incidence that they stopped just after 4.30! :eek:

[Matt N.]

When I drove up the Warringah Expressway at around 3pm this afternoon, one of the Blackhawks was hovering just above a building in North Sydney. I had the sunroof open and wondered what the heck the noise was at first.

We had 2 pairs of 2 hovering just above our building for most of the afternoon. It was awesome watching them up out the window and seeing everyone else in the opposite buildings doing te same. They were hovering that low they were kicking up all the leaves in the street. They looked to be having a good time!

[andrew evans]

I live next to Holsworthy and there was a 4 ship formation flying around yesterday it looked awesome i didn't have my camera with me:mad:

[Philip Argy]

I spoke too soon - they must have taken a dinner or refueling break because they resumed a little after 6 and have been at it continually since then runnning without lights except for a single flashing red light - quite a sight in the moonless sky too!

[Philip Argy]

I've been out to observe them more closely. In fact the first of the pair is running totally dark whilst the second is running with two flashing lights - one amidships and the other on the tail.

On their eastbound pass crossing the Gladesville Bridge just before 10 pm they appeared to me to be less than 300 feet above the peak of the bridge and certainly at no more than 500 feet when passing overhead my jetty (70 metres west of Wrights Point).

[Philip Argy]

Three blackhawks are buzzing the Parramatta River corridor this afternoon and will no doubt continue into the night as on previous occasions. No sign of them on WebTrak, though - just a solitary R22 ...

[Stephen Brown]

Blackhawks in Newcastle

http://www.nbntv.com.au/index.php/2010/08/04/army-black-hawks-to-buzz-the-suburbs/

[Grahame Hutchison]

Just saw five Blackhawks in cluse formation tracking southwest over Dee Why.

[Stephen Brown]

Over head Newie this arvo as well.

[David W]

Just saw one black hawk flying low around the office buildings in North Sydney

[Philip Argy]

According to yesterday's press ads, the Blackhawks will be busy training up and down the Parramatta River, Darling Harbour and North Sydney for the first few days of this week.

[JoshM]

I've been out to observe them more closely. In fact the first of the pair is running totally dark whilst the second is running with two flashing lights - one amidships and the other on the tail.

On their eastbound pass crossing the Gladesville Bridge just before 10 pm they appeared to me to be less than 300 feet above the peak of the bridge and certainly at no more than 500 feet when passing overhead my jetty (70 metres west of Wrights Point).

G'day Philip.

The reduced lighting is due to the use of NVGs (if you didn't already know). I imagine they do not appear on webtrack because they are too low. I have previously checked web track after a sortie to see if we show up, only to find that the paint appears then disappears depending on where you are and Alt.

The flying is in support of TAG-East (a company of the 2nd Commando Regt.) training and for aircrew re/qualification.

JoshM

[Philip Argy]

They've been busy boys this week. Here's an unusual perspective photo that a friend took from her city office window:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150102955334809&set=a.133732539808.125658.547919808&ref=nf

[Erik H. Bakke]

Heard a couple of them overhead my office in Lord St, Botany just now.
Sounded like they were coming in to land at the airport, but I can't confirm this.

Gotta love the sound...

[Nigel C]

2 just arrived at the heliport. Fingers crossed for an invite.........

[Philip Argy]

Stay grounded, Nigel!

[Nigel C]

Never been in a chopper before. This might be a fine way to start!

[Erik H. Bakke]

They just left the airport, going east.
Looked like they were tracking along 07.

[Michael Atkin]

Just saw one flying very low and circling around the Gymea area in the shire south of Sydney, quite and amazing sight and sound!!:D

[Brad E]

And they were spotted about 1nm north of YSSY. From where I am it looked like they were about to overfly the field!

[JamesW]

I saw them fly over my school at around 1:30pm, heading eastbound towards Maroubra/Malabar Beach.

[andrew evans]

They did a flyby of Sydney tower and the turned East and flew out that way.It looked like they had civilian's in them maybe a charity flight of some sort ???.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/5200480795_fb2ba00bc3.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5005/5200480343_e96bf964cc.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5201072340_0077477ab6.jpg

[Russell D]

Had a formation of 6 flying fairly low heading NNW towards Richmond yesterday arvo around 1.40PM overhead the Mount Druitt area. Unfortunately no shots as I was on the train on my way home from uni.

[Brad E]

Here's a photo of them over Zetland last Wednesday. They approached from the north, hovered around Joynton/Epsom Rd for 30-60 seconds and then departed back to the North again

http://www.totalweb.net.au/evansbw/IMG_3463.JPG

[Stephen Brown]

Also over Newcastle/Willy today

[Nigel C]

Route today took them initially east, then across the south of the field to join the 34L circuit, past the control tower to Maroubra area, north to the Heads, Sydney Harbour, Manly, Northern Beaches, Harbour again, then back to Sydney Airport.

The flight wasn't for charity purposes.

Cheers

[Philip Argy]

Buzzing Drummoyne at 1 am at a low level is not too impressive - I don't see why waking everyone up at that hour is necessary for training, and they seem to be hovering around Cockatoo Island and creating quite a racket there too.

There are two of them running totally dark except for a red flashing tail light on the rear one of the pair.

I hope they wake up Senator Faulkner who lives at Drummoyne!

[Robert S]

Buzzing Drummoyne at 1 am at a low level is not too impressive - I don't see why waking everyone up at that hour is necessary for training, and they seem to be hovering around Cockatoo Island and creating quite a racket there too.

Pffft, you just got a flyby. Over here in Ryde/Meadowbank we got them drawing one big raised middle finger in the sky, hanging around like a bad smell, going around and around and around. The activity around 9pm I have no issue with, but the activity up until 12:50am was completely and utterly ridiculous. After they left here, Webtrak indicates they hung around B@lls Head for some time, albeit it was struggling to continue tracking them at that time, before they finally headed back to Randwick.

Those things are loud, especially when they echo around the valley here and all the unit blocks. There were four of them, three with nil lights, the last with the strobe.

Whoever made that decision needs a very sharp reminder that there are people down here and you don't do your public relations much good with this kind of nonsense.

There was some commentary on twitter, notably:

http://twitter.com/alyshajane
http://twitter.com/corinoco
http://twitter.com/v_benson
http://twitter.com/margey_pargey

This exercise was NOT in accordance with the story they put out which was picked up by AAP and republished in much online media:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/troops-on-patrol-in-inner-sydney-20101129-18ddj.html

I'm sorry, but unless there was an active threat, that was completely and utterly inappropriate.

[Philip Argy]

I haven't checked but if that's all Webtrak is showing then it's incomplete as I was watching them circling around north of our place and then heading south west from Woolwich right across Drummoyne - maybe Ball's Head isn't the only place that was censored!

[Robert S]

Well this is very interesting.

Webtrak's evidence of the harrassment of Ryde/Meadowbank residents on Wednesday morning has been removed. At that time it simply shows an innocuous-looking heli flight from Randwick to Holsworthy, and an aircraft arrival at YSSY.

However the noise meter at Hunters Hill clearly shows the impact during the helicopter's progression from Ryde/Meadowbank to B@lls Head - some time after 12:57am, when it suddenly rises from levels in the 40s, peaking at 83 dB at 12:58 am.

It concerns me that the ADF appears to have the ability to remove delayed noise impact data from a third party provider (although thankfully they did not do a complete job of it and some evidence is still there).

Meanwhile at B@lls Head, it appears from the following report that they did indeed remain at this location (as previously identified by WebTrak), where they caused damage to the historic former Sydney ferry, MV Baragoola.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/black-hawk-down-draught--veteran-ferry-cops-a-blast-20101201-18grc.html

I think they have a lot of explaining to do.

[Robert S]

Manly Daily article:
http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/another-blow-to-baragoola-chopper-blades-this-time/

Photos and discussion of damage done on the Preservation Association's Discussion Board:
http://www.savethebaragoola.com/forum/index.php?topic=798.0

[Maikha Ly]

I'll be heading to the Open day tomorrow, so hopefully it's not too bad, and I do hope the Defence Force own up to any proven damages they've made.