Flight path.

theatrically_inclined

theatrically_inclined

Dedicated Member
I lived in a small town called Brackley near Silverstone for 17 years. During the first part of that time every year when the British Grand Prix was on, just 6 miles down the road, the main road through town and town centre came to a standstill. Clogged with cars looking for a place to stop, rest, eat, stay overnight, and pass through to Silverstone. Then they opened the bypass. Bliss! Then one year - as I reported in the local paper - the queues on the bypass went all the way back to the M40 Junction, 12 miles away. For the following year new 'tourist information signs' appeared on the Motorway - only displayed for race weekend - to divert traffic off the motorway at an earlier junction if necessary. Also around this time helicopter owners realised they could make a fortune offering 'park and fly' transport from local aerodromes to Silverstone to avoid traffic - with buses as a back-up in case of bad weather. Dad worked for a bus operator and didn't mind driving the standby bus. After the last helicopter to the track had left, the buses went to park at Silverstone in case they were needed for the return trip, and Dad could watch part of the race from the top deck! Living near two of the aerodromes meant a constant noise of helicopters overhead - no joke about one every 3 minutes.
On Grand Prix race day Silverstone airfield is the busiest airport in the world - based on number of take-off and landings.
Oh and don't think about leaving town by car to avoid the noise. To help ease the congestion the entire 4 lanes of the dual carriageway between Brackley and Towcester (the other side of Silverstone) are one way traffic to Silverstone before the race, and from Silverstone after the race.
Then I lived in Birmingham for 18 years. What Grand Prix?
I now live near Milton Keynes. Not as gridlocked or trapped by a monster one-way system, but a helicopter every 2 or 3 minutes since 8am.
I'm trying to write a script. My concentration is bad - oh a squirrel ... at the best of times ...
 
All the talk about the helicopters as well as car and ground traffic for the Silverstone event reminded me of a video I watched some months ago on TV coverage of the Tour De France. The logistics behind moving all those people from point A to point B for Silverstone and recording the Tour De France is amazing.

I agree with you that it can be annoying having a chopper go by every few minutes for all hours of the day many days in a row. Especially when used to a quieter atmosphere the rest of the time of the year.

The video mentions about half a dozen motorcycle guys with TV cameras, two helicopters with TV cameras. All these TV feeds get sent to another helicopter flying above them. That then gets sent to a couple of small fixed wing planes that act as relay stations before beaming it all to a ground receiver station. All the while zig-zagging the entire course of the race route!

To add to all that the motorcycles, cars, buses for the staff and support crews as well as the riders themselves. Not to mention the vehicles the tourists arrive on. The massive scale of traffic for these types of things are mind numbing to me. Before watching this video or reading your post it never would have entered my thoughts to how much is going on behind the scenes of events like these.

If interested here is the video.
 
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