Low flying in Cumbria

As Cumbria is a long way from major airports, both civil and military, we don't have to worry about controlled airspace. The main issue in Cumbria is military low flying.

Low Flying

Being a mountainous area, Cumbria gets a lot of low-level traffic, mainly from the RAF but also from other NATO forces. Most aircraft will be transiting through Cumbria on their way to somewhere else, frequently from bases in Southern England to Scotland, or to the ranges at Spadeadam in Northumberland.

Normally, they will be flying in the valleys keeping well away from the ridge lines. If they fly over a ridge they may go partly inverted so that they don't lose sight of the ground. Tucano training aircraft may behave differently - these are the black turbo prop aircraft with straight wings. In the early stages of training, student pilots will be flying straight legs between well-defined visual waypoints, like Killington Reservoir. They are flying over the hills instead of in the valleys and because most of the pilot’s attention will be on flying the aircraft; their look-out time may not be what it should be!

Cumbria lies in low flying area 17

Cumbria lies in Low Flying Area 17 and standard low flying height in Cumbria is 250ft agl. Go here for further information about military low flying. Aircraft can fly at up to around 420 kts which is around 7 miles a minute. Frequently you will hear them before you can see them. Tucanos will fly slower at around 240 kts. As well as fast jets, you will see large transport aircraft flying at low level and they make a pretty impressive sight. They will be trailing a very dynamic wake so keep well clear of their track for several minutes and watch out for the wake being blown downwind.

Military sorties are flown during weekdays. They do fly on weekday evenings and at night. Friday afternoons are generally quieter and there is no low flying at weekends.

There's very little you can do to keep out of their way. The best way is to make sure that you register your weekday flying through the CANP procedure. Submitting a CANP is now easier than ever by using the CANP for Free Flyers web page. Bear in mind that it can take around 4 hours planning for a sortie and they may have started to walk out to their aircraft at least an hour before arriving in Cumbria. So, get your call in early. You may well get a call back from a pilot or flight planning officer asking for more information on your plans for the day. They are not calling to persuade you not to fly, but to assess the true nature of their risk. Any information gathered from the call must be posted on the Cumbria Flight Plans & Site Conditions Telegram Group for the benefit of all pilots.

The primary low flying routes through the Lake District.