Black Hawk helicopters over Melbourne

I can only make threads in Intro Yourself so please move this to the appropriate forum.

There's a couple Black Hawk helicopters flying around Melbourne city right now for about an hour so far. Does anyone know what's up? They seem to be circling the same area over and over again, seems to me like it is above the West Gate/Docklands area.

Probably training.

They were doing it last week too.

Its probably for the The future King.

Originally posted by C0bzz
Probably training.

They were doing it last week too.

Probably. But for how long? And VERY low. Coming round again as I type this...

Just wanted to make sure nothing had happened, not saying it has or saying it's anything more or anything like that.

Originally posted by Rukas
I can only make threads in Intro Yourself so please move this to the appropriate forum.

There's a couple Black Hawk helicopters flying around Melbourne city right now for about an hour so far. Does anyone know what's up? They seem to be circling the same area over and over again, seems to me like it is above the West Gate/Docklands area.

Brisbane also but we put that do to the Prince is in town - maybe he's heading your way

reply to post by Rukas


Also in Sydney as I write can't see them just hear them, too much rain

Oh Chur!

You guys are probably right though I completely forgot about William being around LOL, havent been watching Aussie news.

Originally posted by phatpackage
reply to post by Rukas

 

Also in Sydney as I write can't see them just hear them

Oh Chur!

Hmmm that's a bit odd no?

They were training in Sydney LAST week...

news.ninemsn.com.au...

Originally posted by Rukas

Originally posted by phatpackage
reply to post by Rukas

 

Also in Sydney as I write can't see them just hear them

Oh Chur!

Hmmm that's a bit odd no?

Sure is. I did not notice it until I saw your post yeah loud now! North Western Sydney

Originally posted by Rukas
They were training in Sydney LAST week...

news.ninemsn.com.au...

Sounds like it is coming from the north west possibly Richmond airbase but with all the cloud cover I can't tell sound could be bouncing off from anywhere. Still can hear them a bit further away now!

They are sceduled to do some training in Geelong Tuesday at skilled stadium. They were buzzing around Geelong Monday night also.

Originally posted by Toldyouso
They are sceduled to do some training in Geelong Tuesday at skilled stadium. They were buzzing around Geelong Monday night also.

For how long?

They've been buzzing around Melbourne city for about 2 hours now...

They were flying at around 5pm, then I heard them again at 9pm. Bit late I thought, those babies are loud.

Don't forget that there's a Formula 1 race in Melbourne this weekend. Always a possible terrorist target and therefore the military will want to train to be prepared.

They are back, its now 9:50pm and I can hear them in the distance.

I have had a similar experience while residing in Kew, Melbourne, some 20 months ago when 3 blackhawk helicopters passed almost directly overhead while I happened to be out on the verandah cultivating a lung cancer. Apart from the astonishing noise, I found it a little disconcerting that they were travelling at around 250 feet in tight single-file, lights-out (with the exception of a dull red lamp glowing at the base of each of their tail fins) over a relatively dense residential area. With all that in mind, I was wondering by smokes-end if perhaps I had witnessed something other than a relatively mundane training run.

This article is from 2009 but I think it sums up the blackhawks, they were doing training then around March 24th.

Judging from the similarity in the dates (19-3-09 to 24-03-09 and today.. 21-3-11) I think it's just more training.

AS Black Hawks fly across Melbourne’s suburbs, residents have been asked to tolerate the loud noise. The Australian Army’s 6th Aviation Regiment is conducting training for Black Hawk pilots across Melbourne until March 24.

Black Hawks soar over Melbourne

Flew over the dandenongs two days ago 5 of them in rough formation.

Here ya go......

This should answer your questions...

The Age - Melbourne


Black Hawks to train over Melbourne


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6ef1500af004.jpg[/atsimg]


Shadows from the sky will cross over Melbourne streets next week as Army Black Hawk helicopters take to the sky for routine helicopter training exercises.

From Monday to March 24, Black Hawk helicopters will fly over the city and suburban areas during the day and night
Australian Army's 6th Aviation Regiment will conduct the helicopter training operations to ensure pilots are well trained for flying in all conditions.

Advertisement: Story continues below The Department of Defence said Melbourne residents may notice some increased noise from the flights with flying to cease by 11.00 pm each day.

The training will be conducted around Melbourne and specific training activities will take place at Fort Gellibrand, Williamstown and Watsonia, Olympic Park, Fishermans Bend, Melbourne Airport, the Docklands stadium, HMAS Cerberus and the Melbourne.


Full Story

On a personal note, back when i was in the Navy, stationed at HMAS Cerberus we used to see Blackhawks flying around every day. Cerberus isnt really that far from Melbourne.

The Clearance Divers and BM's used to do ''fast ropping'' from them from about 50 metres from the ground, was an awesome sight. Seeing them fast rope down without harness's!!


Edit -



Sorry i just realised that article from The Age is back from 2009... Duh!!


Although it seems looking at Google, they seem to have similar training excersises every year around this time. Although the ADF website doesnt list and current training excersises......

ADF - Current Training Ops

But here are some recent clips from Melbourne of the BlackHawks -