I Heard a Helicopter This Morning ...

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

Interesting.

I heard a helicopter going by, opened up Flightradar 24 to see what it was, the icon was a fixed wing and it said "BLOCKED" and I could get no information about altitude, airspeed, etc.

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L 1,751]

on a bunny trail . . . took a look at the Houston area--Boy! there are a lot of planes in the air

 

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 5,489]

2 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Interesting.

I heard a helicopter going by, opened up Flightradar 24 to see what it was, the icon was a fixed wing and it said "BLOCKED" and I could get no information about altitude, airspeed, etc.

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

 

Was it black?  Are they back...?   

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

2 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Was it black?  Are they back...?   

 

I haven't gotten out in time to see it.  There have been several trips,  all to the same general area.  

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 6,282]

CalFire or PG&E?

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 6,282]

With a blocked number, more likely to be DEA or Ca DOJ

[Utah Bob #35998 15,300]

Did it have a MYOB icon? 

[Trailrider #896 1,725]

As far as "black helicopters" are concerned, it seems to me, depending on how close they are to you, and how bright the sky is, most military helos appear black.

[Chantry 1,134]

The real question is,  was it looking for you?   

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 2,309]

57 minutes ago, Chantry said:

The real question is,  was it looking for you?   

 

 

 

   .......................................... or me ............................. 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 5,489]

I've spent 'way too much time lookin' at Flight Radar.  I've figured out that most of the unidentified aircraft are law enforcement (although these are sometimes identified), military, local private planes without a transponder (might have one but shut off), and ag. 

 

We often see "crop dusters" in the area, both fixed wing and helicopters.  I've seen bunches of people going nuts on the "Next Door" site when they're spraying at night - "Don't they know that disturbs people?  Don't they know how LOUD they are?  They're just plumb RUDE!  Someone needs to REPORT them!"  

 

Uh... folks... they've been servicing farms and ranches in the area since long before your housing development was built.  Also, they HAVE to fly at night in the summertime; it gets HOT in these parts.  Look up "density altitude."  

[Utah Bob #35998 15,300]

I’ve never heard of Flightradar but a little while ago I was outside and heard a loud roar. You can tell the difference in an airliner and a military jet usually. We have B1s come over about once a month.

I looked up and spotted to planes. I would guess they were at about 15,000 ft. One was a tanker, refueling the other plane. I rushed inside to get the binocs but by the time I got them the jets were too far for me to identify the refuelee. Coulda been a 52.

All I can say is they were military. And they were heading west. 
Toward you.

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 5,489]

Try this.  You can move the map to include your location... click on any aircraft and it will be identified.  Panel to the left will tell you type of aircraft, speed, altitude, origin/destination, and N-number:  https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/den

 

You can then go to the FAA site and punch in the N-number right below where it says "Look Up N-Numbers" and it'll tell you that particular aircraft history, including ownership.

 

Terrific and fun time-waster~!  

 

 

[Utah Bob #35998 15,300]

4 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Try this.  You can move the map to include your location... click on any aircraft and it will be identified.  Panel to the left will tell you type of aircraft, speed, altitude, origin/destination, and N-number:  https://www.flightradar24.com/airport/den

 

You can then go to the FAA site and punch in the N-number right below where it says "Look Up N-Numbers" and it'll tell you that particular aircraft history, including ownership.

 

Terrific and fun time-waster~!  

 

 

PITA with that ad right in the middle of the map!

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

10 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

PITA with that ad right in the middle of the map!

 

Huh.   For me the ad is at the bottom. 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 826]

What ads? Download AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, or Ads Killer. They're free, and you don't get ads.

[Three Foot Johnson 2,374]

Three balloons down in the Bahamas at... 59,000 ft...? 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 5,489]

45 minutes ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Three balloons down in the Bahamas at... 59,000 ft...? 

 

One of the Bahama balloons launched in Texas, it looks like.  One more over the Gulf, and one over the Florida panhandle.    The one over the Gulf is at 68,000 ft and whipping along at a breakneck three knots.  

[Chantry 1,134]

7 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Three balloons down in the Bahamas at... 59,000 ft...? 

Possible answer:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

 

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by Chantry

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 6,282]

There are no aircraft near me. I did find a CHP helicopter in Folsom, CA.  It appears to be patrolling HWY 50.

 

Wow! They are sure clustered around SFO like meat bees on a piece of chicken.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 1,941]

Now by golly this is neat!

Many thanks!

 

[Trailrider #896 1,725]

About two days after 9/11, I was outside my house. All commercial air traffic was grounded.  Then I heard the jets. Two of them, F-16's came over the house. They were NOT in the "usual" wingtip-to-wingtip formation. Most likely from Buckley AFB, East of Denver.  They were in a combat spread. They were low enough I could see the yellow lettering on the AIM-9's under their wings!  They were out there patrolling the skies.  I wanted to cheer!

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 776]

My factory was across I-77 from Akron -Canton airport. On 9-11 the silence there was DEAFENING. Not to mention the sight of many tail planes seen between the buildings and along fences

[Sedalia Dave 11,894]

19 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Three balloons down in the Bahamas at... 59,000 ft...? 

 

Project Loon

 

[Sedalia Dave 11,894]

12 hours ago, Chantry said:

Possible answer:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

 

 

 

Project Loon

 

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

On 10/18/2020 at 11:49 AM, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said:

With a blocked number, more likely to be DEA or Ca DOJ

 

I'm used to seeing the Sheriff's helicopter not show on the radar site.   Likewise the Santa Rosa Police one. Security and all.

 

But in the five years or so I've been using that site this is the first time I've seen an icon for a different kind of aircraft than what I observed and with a tag moving with it when I click on it that reads BLOCKED.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins 889]

I had one hover my yard and light up my property late one night several years ago. I’m in a fairly rural area. Small county. Maybe 13-14000 people. We don’t own a helicopter. Heck we might have 2 deputies at night covering the whole county. I called the law repeatedly to find out what was going on and they told me there was nothing to be concerned about. After about the third time, I kept calling to be obnoxious, to warn of hazards on mine and my neighbors properties, including old barbed wire fences and an open well. I started doing odd stuff in the yard-moving things from van to shop and truck to shop then back to van, all in a nervous hurry as spotlights lit me and my actions up. They would just hover and watch. Heck I figured a deputy would have been sent out. Nope.  I never got a straight answer from dispatch. Put on long holds. Dispatch told me there was no concern or danger. No one missing. No fugitives, she couldn’t disclose what was going on but if a someone showed up at my place I was not to approach them but not to call to report either. Went on for 1-2 hours. They fly away. Sometimes out of sound, sometimes just out of sight, then come back. It crossed my mind to run for sheriff off of this incident, building a conspiracy  based on the premise the sheriffs department was involved in facilitating some military surveillance us all. That, and I have a long-standing beef with our current sheriff. About 35-36 years ago in grade school, our current sheriff I beat him and his friend up on the school bus one day since they decided to act like little pricks and gang up on me. I laid the sheriff out first and then his best friend. Knocked them flat on there asses. The friends mom was the bus driver, watched the whole thing play out and didn’t say a word. 
 

Back to being sheriff;  wasn’t really serious, just humoring myself, and sheriff is a political position anyway. And my opinion of doctors, lawyers, politicians, and tv evangelist all rate about the same. I do generally trust large animal/livestock in veterinarians.

 

[watab kid 969]

when they pass over my house they are generally blackhawks or chinooks , theres a base other side of town and camp ripley just up river , once in a while the hospital life flight 

[Howlin Mad Murdock SASS #4037 80]

Any aircraft owner can block their data from being public.

 

Most military and law enforcement in CONUS do not block their data.

 

I've been fixing all kinds of aircraft for multiple decades, civilian, military and government, and I spend way too much time keeping track of them.

 

I like Flight aware better though.

 

Air Force One doesn't show up at all.  Found that out yesterday, but I could see it.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Howlin Mad Murdock SASS #4037
spelling

[Trailrider #896 1,725]

According to a blurb on the Air Force Association daily magazine ( AirForceMagazine@afa.org ) quoting the LA Times, in early June, four National Guard spy planes monitored street protests following the killing of George Floyd. This triggered concerns that the military was improperly gathering intel on U.S. citizens. This happened in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Washington where violence occurred during large demonstrations.  The fourth plane (helo or fixed wing???) was over El Dorado Hills, a suburb of Sacramento, CA, where much smaller and entirely peaceful protests were going on!

 

We joke about "black helicopters", but such goings-on presents a whole new perspective on the subject. If these were "National Guard" helos, who ordered them out? The adjutant general of each state, at the direction of the governor? Or were they "federalized"?  Where violence was in progress, it might have been justified as recon prior to sending in the ground troops. Where the demonstrations were peaceable, were anyone's Constitutional rights violated...or close to it?

[Sedalia Dave 11,894]

7 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

According to a blurb on the Air Force Association daily magazine ( AirForceMagazine@afa.org ) quoting the LA Times, in early June, four National Guard spy planes monitored street protests following the killing of George Floyd. This triggered concerns that the military was improperly gathering intel on U.S. citizens. This happened in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Washington where violence occurred during large demonstrations.  The fourth plane (helo or fixed wing???) was over El Dorado Hills, a suburb of Sacramento, CA, where much smaller and entirely peaceful protests were going on!

 

We joke about "black helicopters", but such goings-on presents a whole new perspective on the subject. If these were "National Guard" helos, who ordered them out? The adjutant general of each state, at the direction of the governor? Or were they "federalized"?  Where violence was in progress, it might have been justified as recon prior to sending in the ground troops. Where the demonstrations were peaceable, were anyone's Constitutional rights violated...or close to it?

 

Several cities have hired private contractors to fly 24/7 collecting full motion video of everything across several square miles. It is down linked in real time can be played back. Individual areas zoomed into with enough resolution to pick out individual people but not enough for facial recognition. If you know when and where a crime happened you can start there and go backwards in time to track where the victim and shooter both came from.

 

This PBS video from several years ago will give you an idea of that they are capable of.

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

This has become quite an informative thread, thank you.

[Sedalia Dave 11,894]

One thing not mentioned so far is that there can be good reasons for a particular aircraft being blocked or otherwise obscured.

 

Say you are Warren Buffet and you want to buy a company in a particular city. If your aircraft can be easily tracked via the internet then Everytime you travel everyone would be alerted. Even if your travel was for pleasure it could impact the business dealings of everyone at your destination. This would hurt all parties concerned especially those that invest in stocks.

 

The FAA has a program called Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) that addresses the need for some parties make it difficult for others to track their movements. 

[Subdeacon Joe 24,686]

37 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

One thing not mentioned so far is that there can be good reasons for a particular aircraft being blocked or otherwise obscured.

 

Say you are Warren Buffet and you want to buy a company in a particular city. If your aircraft can be easily tracked via the internet then Everytime you travel everyone would be alerted. Even if your travel was for pleasure it could impact the business dealings of everyone at your destination. This would hurt all parties concerned especially those that invest in stocks.

 

The FAA has a program called Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) that addresses the need for some parties make it difficult for others to track their movements. 

 

I've seen it when I know that there is an aircraft nearby and it doesn't show on the sit at all.  This was the only time I have seen it  with a different aircraft icon than the type of aircraft and the first time I have seen an icon flagged as blocked.  Sort of calls more attention to it.