APPENDIX C: Low Flying Areas in Scotland

Three Low Flying Areas (LFA's) cover virtually all of Scotland. These are areas where planes can routinely fly as low as 250 feet (85 m) above ground level. The areas covered repsents over 40 % of the total usable Low Flying area in the UK.
Within these three Low Flying Areas are also two of the three UK Tactical Training Areas used for operational low flying training by NATO fast jets and Hercules aircraft. Here planes can fly as low as 100 feet (or 30m) above the ground.

LFA 14 covers mainland Scotland north of the central region, the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. It was the most used Low Flying Area in the UK in 2003 with over 8,000 hours of low-flying occurring here.
LFA 14 covers 56,670 km2 and represents 31 % of the UK Low Flying System.
(LFA14C is the coastal area between Aberdeen and Rattray Head and military activity is controlled through air traffic controllers at Aberdeen airport due to the high level of helicopter activity.)

LFA 16 is located in south Scotland and includes the Border Region, Dumfries and Galloway and up to the central belt. It covers 16,142 km2 and represents 9% of the UK Low Flying System.

LFA 13 includes the South Borders, west Nothumberland and northeast Cumbria. Covering only 2,035 km2 it repesents 1% of the UK Low Flying System.

In 2001 there were a reported 750 individual complaints recorded by the Ministry of Defence Low Flying Complaints and Inquiries unit, meaning that on average complaints were made about low flying at least twice a day by people in
Scotland.

Source: www.mod.uk/issues/lowflying/index.html