2 days ago I was relaxing with my Kindle overlooking the pond and drying off in the sun after my swim, when one helluva noise swept over the place. I am used to air force jets, always in 2s sweeping low across our hilltop but this was much louder.
2 minutes later another, or the same, pair swept back in the opposite direction. Then another pair. and another, each time sounded even lower, the last time really alarming.
They must have been very low because, apart from the deafening roar, I never saw a single one of them. Thus they must have been ever so slightly outside of the small patches of sky I see between the trees looking upwards from my position.
10 minutes ago 3, this time but a bit further south, then back again 2 minutes later. 5 minutes ago 2 more from south to north and this time I saw them through my kitchen veranda window and its glass roof, both well below cloud level and again, just now, even lower because the sound was really really deafening. I can barely type fast enough to keep up.
So, on 2 different days at least 4 passes of very low flying jets. Never heard or seen such a multiple before, always just the once and then weeks or months apart.
We get noisy jets quite often. Mostly very high but sometimes very low.
I’m not good at identification. Probably Rafales or Mirages. And even at night.
We get a couple of jets pass most evenings at around 10:30pm. I was told by a friend that they go to the Bay of Biscay then back to - I forgot where she said.
Like you, I’ve been seeing and or hearing them more frequently these days. Flying lower too.
We used to get them all the time in Finistère from the BAN at Landivisiau and they used the coastline where I lived to follow it round at low level. They have to keep practising and teaching new pilots all the time.
W get a lot of them here too. The valleys and hills make ideal training country. Certainly the last 12 months has seen an increase and like Spardo has experienced we get them roaring by at very low altitudes.
Low-level ‘contour flying’ has been going on for at least a couple of decades in areas of Western Europe where the topography resembles that of the Russian steppes. In the noughties in summer Cumbria’s Eden Valley used to be (still is?) used for for all manner of NATO exercises- Hercules transports landing in fields and fighter planes screaming just overhead - scary and potentially dangerous if you’re very suddenly startled while driving an open topped sports car.
Nevertheless, have been surprised by how quickly farm animals and animaux de compagnie (apart from our cat) get used to it.
There has always been a lot of low level flying over my area but if anything it’s less now that it has been during the past 30 years or so. Perhaps they have adopted som additional playgrounds. As well as the fast jets we get smaller, louder planes that stay around for longer. I had always presumed that they were private planes, including some stunt planes from the very small local airfield but as they continued flying throughout Covid they too must be military.
It was just the increased numbers and decreased height that was way out of the ordinary, that alarmed me. We have always had them but one pass and then nothing for weeks. No woinder we are in a drone no fly zone.
Oh yes, of course, somebody warned me that exercises were to be held in the Dordogne. The camouflage they wear is really good, I was driving home and came upon a long line of soldiers, broken into groups of about 20, walking along the side of the road and I only saw them because they were moving.
We have day and night ground exercises here a few times a year. We have a Légion étrangère training base nearby. It always amuses me that details of the exercises are posted by the Maire for all to see. They always add a note to say to just ignore any soldiers you may come across and not be alarmed.
I get them from time to time here (north Vienne) and also some very powerful, low level single/two (?) seater turbo props. I’ve always assumed that they are Ukranian pilots in training.
I already have Flightradar to track my son’s flights across the globe But it doesn’t show military aircraft and I wouldn’t have thought anything else would do either, but I haven’t had a look at your link yet.
