On Oct 11, 12:58*pm, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
they were flying sorties out over the Saudi desert, they get seriously low
when in combat rather than excercise conditions. They were down to a
few tens of feet, camels were a hazard...

Indeed; defined safe box & safe altitude against friendly; extreme low
height to avoid radar particularly SAM. Saudi, Iraq etc are hugely
hard on sand filters used to protect turbines - the maintenance is
pretty severe. Helo lift off is get going horizontally as fast as
possible and worry about altitude once you get airspeed up, so sand
gets everywhere.

The obsession with low flying in the UK is a necessity I'm afraid, pay
the penalty in noise now or lives later in exercises or combat (plus
those on the ground from failed sortie to provide air cover).

The small vertical axis wind turbines can operate at high speed &
produce a very loud whirring noise. They are not pleasant at close
quarters, both visually & acoustically.