In an apparent blow to aviation enthusiasts in the UK, it can be revealed that routine military fixed-wing low flying dropped by nearly 33% in FY2019/2020 compared with the same reporting period the previous year.
According to a UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) report into the pattern of military low flying across the country, published on June 24, there were 34,638 hours of military low flying within the UK Low Flying System (UKLFS), an increase of 1.7% compared to 34,056 hours in FY2018/2019. Of the 34,587 hours of routine low flying activity, 8,329 was fixed-wing and 26,258 was rotary-wing.
However, while overall routine low flying activity increased by 1.9% in the reporting period, fixed-wing activity decreased by 32.8%, a dip that was attributed to the drawdown of the Tornado fleet in 2019 and a drop in the requirement for flying training at low levels.
