Each year English Heritage undertake a programme of aerial reconnaissance covering the whole of England. The reconnaissance is undertaken by the two Aerial Survey teams based in the Swindon and York offices. The York office staff cover the northern counties (Cumbria, Northumberland, Durham, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, North Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire). In the early part of the year (01/04/98 to 30/06/98) poor weather conditions and a waterlogged airfield severely restricted flying possibilities. One flight was made to record resevoirs in the Yorkshire Dales. Two flights targeted at recording cropmarks in early and mid June revealed little. The period 01/07/98 to 30/09/98 proved to be one of the poorest summers for cropmark development, also conditions suitable for reconnaissance were few (15 sorties made), these factors resulted in very low numbers of cropmark sites being photographed. However, a few notable discoveries were made, including long barrows in Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire Wolds, also a square barrow cemetery on the Yorkshire Wolds. In August a number of good flying days were spent recording scheduled monuments in Cumbria. During the period 01/10/99 to 31/12/99 five sorties were made. Requested photography for mining remains in the northern Peak District was undertaken. Other flights recorded earthworks in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Nine flights were undertaken in the last quarter of the year (01/01/00 to 31/03/00). This was a higher than average number of flights for this quarter due to flights made to record snow and flooding conditions. Areas visited included the Vale of York, North York Moors, the North Pennines, also the area of the River Derwent which was heavily flooded. Two flights recorded excellent soilmarks on the Yorkshire Wolds. Requested targets in the Liverpool and Chester area, earthworks in Derbyshire and Teeside were the subjects of other flights .To summarise, for the financial year 1998/9, 32 flights were undertaken (a total of 98.1 flight hours) and 781 targets were photographed.