Cessna circling over south London

Yeah, that's a great episode. It's not what the London planes are doing though.

Fair enough. That episode is amazing - the potential of the technology is awesome but the privacy implications terrifying.

I kind of felt OK with it after listening. It's technically just blanket cctv, so tends to be used for reviewing an incident that's already happened.

Of course, there is massive potential for abuse.

I saw/heard this last night. Very low, very slow, definitely twin engine small aircraft (looked like the f406) circling Dalston and hackney last night. I did wonder what it was doing.

Anyone read Spycatcher? This sort of malarkey was going on decades ago, and I'm sure continues in a more advanced form now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycatcher

I heard it in harringay too

I thought it was very slow. Do you think it was definitely the Cessna? Main visible difference is the Islander's wheels aren't retractable.

The Cessna's stall speed is 75 kts (86mph) but an Islander can go as slow as 35 knots (40mph). It's a plane for going slow so perfect choice by Q for the job. It's also a pretty rustic and loud plane, so I was thinking it might be the spooks.

Wouldn't it be totally obvious for anyone who might be in a profession that involves being spied upon that they were being circled by a plane all night?

It happens often enough that it seems to be worth doing.

sat in your black bmw with blacked out windows and stereo pumping loud rap music, i think you'd be blissfully unaware of a plane at 1,000 ft

I don't think that's quite the audience they're after, if you catch my drift - less profession and more ideology.

It's been doing loops over Mile End/Bethnal Green sort of area for the last quarter of an hour if anyone's interested in catching it.

You don't get that shit in se1.

Not enough Muslims.

John Denver died cos someone forgot to fill up his Cessna.

I work in a large campus based building in London and regularly get contacted by a company offering aerial photographs of our site for marketing brochures and stuff. They'll do bespoke flights and get the shots your want. Or for a cheaper price you can be included within their regular flights. They'll also do night time with all the lights on and dusk / dawn if you want it romantic. £480 for 10 shots if I remember it correctly.

You should put them in touch with MI5, they could save a fortune.

WUT? This year gets worse and worse. RIP John.

That plane is back. Maybe it never went away. Maybe this is the first day I have sat in the garden this year.