This may seem like small scale compared to most.. But it is really starting to irk me big time.....
To set the scenario, we live in an area roughly triangulated by the Ipswich Motorway, the Logan Motorway and the Centenary Highway.
It seems like every Friday and Saturday night our local Bear in the sky flies triangulated flight paths between those three points.. I know, I know, the Bear is tracking speeding, stolen vehicles, ect ect.. Do not have a problem with that at all..
But he never has any nav lights on. My son in law flies for a international airline ( not Qantas BTW), and he has a laptop with software which he links to something or other and can see and track all transponders in real time. But, guess what? There is not even a squawk from that machine..
Now he seems to fly around 500 ft. (seen the heat signature with night vision), but directly above that are two flight paths into Eagle Farm... When aircraft are on ILS and heading for the outer marker, they should be around 1700ft. So that gives a vertical separation of 1000ft. So, question?? What does the big boys anti collision alarms say??
Or does ATC just tell them not to worry about the Bears playing in the woods??
So in my way of thinking is that if any 'normal' aircraft or citizen were to cruise around without nav lights and their transponder switched off, they would be locked up...
So, why and how come

?
The second part is more personal, and maybe why it aggravates me so much.. They seen to be flying a Eurocopter, probably a EC135.. These choppers have a solid block mounting the four blades.. The principal is that the blades flex to absorb the dynamics rather then having a lot of moving links and bits and pieces.. And the four blades do flex a hell of a lot less then a UH 1.. But with my past and a couple of hours of low fast runs then 90 degree turns, it all gets a bit much..
Thats it... Rant over...