Defence agencies object to wind farms because of their potential impact on low flying aircraft. In the UK MOD Objections often arise due to concerns regarding night-time visibility and impacts on training. In a recent African project Pager Power has been asked to assess the visibility of a large hilltop wind farm to pilots of high speed low flying jets.
To help understand the issues Pager Power created a simulation to show what the wind farm would look like to the pilots of fast low flying aircraft. The simulation was for a 900 km/h aircraft flying at 150 metres above ground level. The simulation showed, due to local terrain, that the wind farm was clearly visible from a distance of over 10 kilometres and that it became much more visible as the aircraft approached the wind farm and overflew it.
To demonstrate the simulation whilst maintaining site confidentiality Pager Power has created a new simulation showing the view of a notional 5 wind turbine development at Harrow on the Hill from a fast jet departing RAF Northolt. This simulation can be viewed in the simulation video below:
For more information on how Pager Power can help you resolve MOD objections and other low flying issues please call us on 01787 319001.
