Black Helicopters?

[satnutwillb]

I don't know whether or not this is the correct place to post this or not,but here goes anyway.I've heard all these black helicopters jokes,but didn't think I'd ever see one.Well,it wasn't really a black one,but once in a blue moon a helicopter will fly in about the same northernly toward south position.I live in the county and had the pickup backed up to the big dish for a little tweaking.I had the tailgate let down with small tv,receiver,and tools on it.Well,this time a helicopter came across heading in about the same position,but this time it made a turn and came back across going back like he had just passed,but then after passing over again,he circled and came like from west to east to west,turned came back from west toward east about 4 times,then turned and made a couple trips north to south and south to north.After several of these maneuvers he finally left in the position he was going the first time.He or she never flew directly overhead,it was always out from me cause I could see the side openings.I kept waiting for them to leave,but after awhile I started to mark my pole so as to know where to put it back,and start rotating my dish on the pole and follow them as they crossed.I decided that might not be wise,because most people are use to little dishes and they might think I had them locked in radar and fry my feedhorn,receiver and yours truly. That's never happened before and I just wonder if it was related in any way, or I've been reading too much into the black helicopter jokes.

[Corey]

I haven't heard much about the black helicopter paranoia lately, but I think the original lore had it that they are part of some "one world government" / UN military.

My guess is that they are really not black, but are dark green, but appear black against a bright sky. Most military helicopters are painted painted to be hard to see from the sky against vegetation, since they typically fly very low compared to other aircraft. They are very hard to disguise from ground observers because they are slow and make a lot of noise, so I think they don't bother trying to make them hard to see in the sky.

Your [air] mileage may vary

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by Corey

They are very hard to disguise from ground observers because they are slow and make a lot of noise, so I think they don't bother trying to make them hard to see in the sky.

Your [air] mileage may vary

Ever heard of whisper mode? It is no joke. A Cobra/Apache can literally be sitting behind a tree less than 10 yards away and you never hear it. Been there, done that and lived to see another day. I always thought whisper mode was just movie stuff until that day. Had he not moved I most likely would have just wandered by and never even knew he was there. I would imagine most veterans can verify this also.

[satnutwillb]

This one wasn't black or military green.I thought it might just be searching for marijuana,because I live in a hilly wooden area,but it's never happened before and me being at the dish at the time,just seemed strange.

[rainman]

it probaly was a pot chopper as you stated satnut they do that around here every year about this time. sometimes they land in the field by work to unload their stash.

[satnutwillb]

Yea,that's what I was thinking,but what seemed strange to me is I live right by the main highway and the woods are away from me a pretty good distance.They just turned around and kept passing around me for several trips before leaving.When they did leave,they just went the way they were going when they fist came over and stayed like that until the were out of sight.They didn't do all that circling over the woods around anywhere close as far as I could see them.Maybe they come in peace and are just hobbyist like us and were admiring my dish.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by satnutwillb

Yea,that's what I was thinking,but what seemed strange to me is I live right by the main highway and the woods are away from me a pretty good distance.They just turned around and kept passing around me for several trips before leaving.When they did leave,they just went the way they were going when they fist came over and stayed like that until the were out of sight.They didn't do all that circling over the woods around anywhere close as far as I could see them.Maybe they come in peace and are just hobbyist like us and were admiring my dish.

You don't live under a MOA (military training route) do you? I get planes flying over me all the time, at real low altitude, sometimes down to tree-top level. One time a few F-16s flew over. I listen to a scanner, so I know when they are coming, so I generally go up to the top of a nearby hill, and take pictures of them. I have a long 500mm lens, and so I'm out their aiming the big camera at them, still listening on my scanner. Well shortly after they flew over, I hear them come up on the radio and tell ATC that "they were going to go back and look for him"! A minute or two later, they came back and again flew low over my house. I figured that they got annoyed that someone was aiming something at them, and were trying to find me. Had me a bit nervous, expecting to see some of those black helicopters come looking for me!
Turned out, that later that afternoon, I saw on the evening news that ATC had called them shortly after they went over my house, and told them that they had an unidentified plane that had come into the country across the Canadian border, and they asked the F16s to intercept the plane. So they weren't coming after me after all.

[satnutwillb]

Originally Posted by wejones

You don't live under a MOA (military training route) do you? I get planes flying over me all the time, at real low altitude, sometimes down to tree-top level. One time a few F-16s flew over. I listen to a scanner, so I know when they are coming, so I generally go up to the top of a nearby hill, and take pictures of them. I have a long 500mm lens, and so I'm out their aiming the big camera at them, still listening on my scanner. Well shortly after they flew over, I hear them come up on the radio and tell ATC that "they were going to go back and look for him"! A minute or two later, they came back and again flew low over my house. I figured that they got annoyed that someone was aiming something at them, and were trying to find me. Had me a bit nervous, expecting to see some of those black helicopters come looking for me!
Turned out, that later that afternoon, I saw on the evening news that ATC had called them shortly after they went over my house, and told them that they had an unidentified plane that had come into the country across the Canadian border, and they asked the F16s to intercept the plane. So they weren't coming after me after all.

We have a national guard armory about 15 miles and a small engine plane airport about 20 miles from us.I've seen the double top propeller green military helicopter,that I figured was from the armory fly across in about the same route that the one the other day was traveling before,but that is very rare.The closest big airliner airport is about 100 miles from here.I've saw contrails from jets or airliners before,but they were so high up that I couldn't even see what was flying.There's probably an unrelated reason as to why they did that,but I hardly ever see any helicopters and any time I have they just kept going.The woods are back from our house enough that I can clear the tops of the trees enough to get extremes e and west if my actuator and mount would let me.That's why I wondered why they kept coming back from this way and that way,because about the time they'd reach the woods in front,back,and sides of my house was where they would start turning to come back in front,behind,and side of me,never straight over me.Now,being up over the trees like that they might could have seen enough into the woods that they needed to see,but from where I was looking it just looked like they were going over open pasture and my house and across the highway and turning around just as they reached the woods and come right back.Sometimes they would turn a little different so they would come by from E. to W.instead of N. to S. direction.I was pointing at G-10 and I made tiny adjustments just fooling around waiting for them to leave.Even though I wasn't doing anything wrong,I wasn't about to start pointing across the sky while they kept doing that.Hey,I bought a 13 in. Wed. night to use when I do some tuning,but that day I had a 19 in. hooked to it.Maybe they were trying to see what was on.

[satnutwillb]

Since I don't believe in black helicopters linked with the bud and I don't think the helicopter stayed over wooded area long enough to be searching for drugs,I just thought about a guy started putting junk cars in a pasture behind my house.They are not right behind the house,but down from my house in a pasture.Some of them are pretty sharp looking and he's got a 64 Thunderbird that's got a nice body.My son has been trying to get it off of him.I bet that was what it was checking out.Although it seemed like it crisscrossed long enough to find Hoffa if he was anywhere around.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by satnutwillb

We have a national guard armory about 15 miles and a small engine plane airport about 20 miles from us.I've seen the double top propeller green military helicopter,that I figured was from the armory fly across in about the same route that the one the other day was traveling before,but that is very rare.The closest big airliner airport is about 100 miles from here....

You don't have to be near anything to have military traffic. I am no where near any military bases or big airports, but had all these planes flying over. I finally found out I was right under what's called a "visual route". Since I found the freq they use before entering, I've been able to determine where the planes are coming from. Here in Maine, I've seen planes from as far south as Georgia, and as far west as Washington State fly over my house at low altitude, although most come from Vermont, Mass and Conn. Most of my neighbors thought that the planes were coming from the Brunswick NAS, which is about 45 miles away, but that wasn't where they were coming from. We've had A-10s, F-16s, F-14s, F-15s, F-18s, EA6bs, C-17s, C-130s, KC-135s, B1bs, and several types of helicopters, all military, but also they often fly training planes which often don't look military at all. Some of them look like corporate jets, etc. I really enjoy watching the things.
I think you posted once that you were in Tenn or Ky? You might go to :
Special Use Airspace & Air Traffic Control Assigned Airspace , and on the right select Tennessee ( or whatever state), and check MOA and MTR, and also check "not scheduled", and click "update map", and it will show you if there are any military training routes in your area. I am right under the first leg of VR840, in Maine.

[Sadoun]

I watch "24" sometimes, and I see that CTU uses Black Helicopters

[satnutwillb]

Originally Posted by wejones

You don't have to be near anything to have military traffic. I am no where near any military bases or big airports, but had all these planes flying over. I finally found out I was right under what's called a "visual route". Since I found the freq they use before entering, I've been able to determine where the planes are coming from. Here in Maine, I've seen planes from as far south as Georgia, and as far west as Washington State fly over my house at low altitude, although most come from Vermont, Mass and Conn. Most of my neighbors thought that the planes were coming from the Brunswick NAS, which is about 45 miles away, but that wasn't where they were coming from. We've had A-10s, F-16s, F-14s, F-15s, F-18s, EA6bs, C-17s, C-130s, KC-135s, B1bs, and several types of helicopters, all military, but also they often fly training planes which often don't look military at all. Some of them look like corporate jets, etc. I really enjoy watching the things.
I think you posted once that you were in Tenn or Ky? You might go to :
Special Use Airspace & Air Traffic Control Assigned Airspace , and on the right select Tennessee ( or whatever state), and check MOA and MTR, and also check "not scheduled", and click "update map", and it will show you if there are any military training routes in your area. I am right under the first leg of VR840, in Maine.

I checked the site and looking at the map it showed some not far from me,but not in or over my area in Tenn.I checked Memphis for city,because that was the closest to my area they had listed.I might not be reading it right.Even if there was one,why would they turn around and start crisscrossing all over me?They never have before.It's kinda distracting when your trying to fine tune with them flying all around you.

[William Eng]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

Ever heard of whisper mode? It is no joke. A Cobra/Apache can literally be sitting behind a tree less than 10 yards away and you never hear it. Been there, done that and lived to see another day. I always thought whisper mode was just movie stuff until that day. Had he not moved I most likely would have just wandered by and never even knew he was there. I would imagine most veterans can verify this also.

I asked an army aircraft buyer who knows every part of military helicoptors, but he has never heard of flying in whisper mode unless their engine is off.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by William Eng

I asked an army aircraft buyer who knows every part of military helicoptors, but he has never heard of flying in whisper mode unless their engine is off.

I used to work on an Army base that had choppers (I forget what kind), and once I had to do some tests of some devices around a chopper that was running but just sitting on the ground, and that thing was definately not wispering.
They made us put in these sponge ear plugs to go near them, and I'm glad I had them. We were testing an electronic device to see if helicopter exhaust would interfere with it's function, and we didn't want to pay for the use of the chopper, but they agreed to let us come in while the thing was going through it's normal warm up routine. But whatever kind of chopper those were, they were definately noisey.

[Corey]

Maybe "whisper mode" is some sort of active noise cancellation system?

From a distance, I think most of what you would hear from a helicopter is the "whop whop whop" of the main rotor blades, which is low in frequency and maybe could be attenuated with a carefully designed loudspeaker system and electronics.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by William Eng

I asked an army aircraft buyer who knows every part of military helicoptors, but he has never heard of flying in whisper mode unless their engine is off.

Standing on the side of a hill with no motorized vehicles in sight this thing sat there in the air hovering about 5 ' off the ground and not making a sound. It was a USMC Cobra. Very spooky sight if you have ever had to look one in the "eye". I have also seen a Harrier standing on it's tail hovering and while hovering was almost silent. All changed when it opened up and took off straight up. Never heard the chopper leave.