From targeting horse thieves, finding missing people, spotting potential flooding dangers and even rounding up wild boar, members of the Yorkshire Sky Watch civil air patrol use gyrocopters and other light aircraft to great effect.
Arnold Parker founded the organisation and today heads up the Yorkshire unit, based at Rufforth Airfield, York.
Hear more on this story in our Country Week podcast »He decided to set up the organisation following the deaths in July 2000 of Sophie George, seven, and Kymberley Allcock, eight. The children died after being hit by a train while playing on railway lines in July 2000 in Wales. Today one of the planes based at the Sky Watch unit in Rufforth is named Kymberley in memory of the girl.
Mr Parker, a former member of the RAF now retired, said: "It struck me that particularly with the microlites people could fly around lower than airline traffic and executive jets and that having active staff in the neighbourhood with the pilots could be alerted to keep an eye out.
"If they see any incidents potentially developing they can call it in to air traffic control who can put in a 999 call and alert the emergency services. This way it might stop some of these incidents turning into tragedies."
The gyrocopters operate in a similar manner to helicopters but are much quieter and less intrusive, being able to fly low without disturbing animals.
They are environmentally friendly, running on unleaded petrol and averaging about 40 miles to the gallon.
"The sort of stuff we get is missing people. We can search vast areas very quickly and help those on the ground narrow their search.
"We also do work with Farm Watch, keeping an eye out for horse thieves, stolen horse boxes and farm equipment.
"Our pilots are very experienced with a lot being ex-airforce pilots or ex-Navy pilots.
"We are not an emergency service but we can provide aircraft fairly quickly. We can be anywhere in the county in about 20 minutes."
The organisation has already proved a boon to Farm Watch organisations, helping to identify a number of hideouts for criminal gangs targeting farmers.
Mr Parker said: "What happens is the people who steal this equipment tend to stash it relatively close to where it was stolen and come back to take it away at a more convenient time. A unit in Lincolnshire recently spotted an old disused barn without a roof that was full of stolen horse boxes – a hideaway would have been impossible to spot from the ground.
"Gyrocopters are not very fast and can't really move much quicker than 80mph. They can also fly slowly at about 30mph.
"We are up there every day of the week, not specifically searching for something but just keeping an eye out. We work with Farm Watch and if they have reported a suspicious vehicle in the area we will keep an eye out for it.
"Summer is the most active time for livestock thefts. It is very difficult to steal them at night and to catch horses when it is dark.
"They often tend to be quite blatant about it, bringing up a horse box trailer and carting it away."
Flying over the picturesque Yorkshire landscape allows the pilots to come across a variety of unusual sights.
"We also keep an eye out for fires in remote areas. We had one last summer near Bridlington where a fire had started in the middle of a forest. There was a huge plume of smoke but nobody on the ground could have seen it. We were able to spot it early.
"We also spotted a wild boar one day when out flying around.
"If the animal had got into a village and near to children it could have been bad news. We were able to fly low and shepherd it and eventually it went back into the farm it had come from.
"It is a privilege to be able to fly and it is hugely rewarding to be able to give something back to the community."
Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol is a registered charity and has 250 pilots and air observers in its membership throughout the country, who donate their time, aircraft and fuel in the service of their communities. Occasional donations are made but most of its funding comes from members.
