Low-flying helicopters. Black and unmarked

a reply to: Leethal23
I don't know what to say about your sighting but the NC guard does fly Apaches out of Raleigh IIRC. The active duty guys have both of those types at Fort Bragg. I know the Special ops guys train in the Uwarie area regularly. Is that close to you?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Most of the passive EW equipment is use only by the AF or FW aircraft that accompany helos like EC-12's.

a reply to: buddah6

There is one system that slices, dices, and juliens opposing systems that may have been in play on the helicopters that night. But I'm not allowed to give details. I have three separate sources on it though.

originally posted by: buddah6
a reply to: weavty1
This is exactly what that I was referring to but on the Blackhawk. On the Huey it is just an up-turned extension of the engine exhaust.

Ahh, okay... You mean this bad boy smoke stack?

a reply to: Zaphod58

You may be right about the EW on helos! It's been nearly 25 years since that I've had first hand knowledge of what equipment is being used. Even then, I flew fixed wing (fw) aircraft for my last 14 years. We only had RAWS, chaf and flairs as protection in hostile airspace. We made efforts to follow Spark Varks on our missions because of their success in doing whatever they do. The bad thing is they did it at 550 knots and we flew at 180 so they would out-run our protection as they went to the western side of the battlespace.

They military uses drones for the missions that I flew then. It's much safer for the crews and the information retrieved is more accurate and timely.

a reply to: weavty1

Bingo! It was simple and it worked to my knowledge. It was used on the Hueys until they were retired when ever that was. GOOD SHOW!

originally posted by: buddah6
a reply to: Leethal23
I don't know what to say about your sighting but the NC guard does fly Apaches out of Raleigh IIRC. The active duty guys have both of those types at Fort Bragg. I know the Special ops guys train in the Uwarie area regularly. Is that close to you?

No I'm very familiar with Uwaire ..... I'm used to seeing the nc guard training and this would be the longest training exercise I have witnessed in this area.... On Wednesday night around 1 am they were at it again... Just seems strange

a reply to: Leethal23
The Uwharrie Nation Forest is the correct name...sorry for the spelling. What you're seeing must be active duty training because it never stops 24/7. There is a large amount of military training of all types that goes on there all the time. The last time that I went camping in Cosby, TN. there was two B1B's doing low level training in and out of the mountains. They went into afterburner to clear the mountain and scared my grandkids to tears although very cool to see all four burner come on at once.

These guys have to train "somewhere" and you are in that "somewhere" for a while. I would just consider it to be the sound of your taxes dollars at work. The best place to train for the mountains of Afghanistan is the Appalachian and Smokey Mountains on the east coast and the Rockies in the west. I'm not saying that this is the answer to your helo sightings but an educated guess from my experience albeit 25 years old.

a reply to: buddah6

Tennessee is part of the Marietta high speed corridor. It goes from about Marietta to Knoxville, to Huntsville. It's used a lot for flight tests out of the LM plant, as well as low level training.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Thanks, you are a true resource!

a reply to: buddah6

I used to live under it. We watched a large number of F-22s testing. Got our own private airshow with every one. God that was fun to watch.

a reply to: [post=17955211]Zaphod58[/

I think there's oil burner/olive branch routes all over that area. North of Knoxville, between London and Richmond Ky, I would see all kinds of military activity in that area. The most impressive sight was the B 52 on a low level run. The most common aircraft was MH 60's and MH 47's at treetop level...cool. Farther to the west, just north of Nashville, a lot of refueling ops was a routine sight. Refueling was cool to watch especially at night. I could really understand why people think they're seeing UFO's when the planes being refueled moving on and off the tankers.

a reply to: buddah6

They lost several B-52s and crews when they started going low level. The tails weren't stressed for the turbulence, and they would snap, throwing the aircraft out of control. There is a monument, and wreckage still there up in Maine at the crash site where most of the crew didn't survive.

There's a famous picture of one flying with most of the vertical fin missing after that happened. It happened to be an engineering crew flying it, so they were able to save it.