Stealth Hawk? Or something new

Unfortunately it was too dark to get any pictures but we had a very interesting encounter last night. We got to our trailer drop, and as I was going to disconnect from it, my other half honked to get my attention and pointed towards the front of the truck. As I looked where she was pointing, an MC-130 with all his low visibility lights pops up (not the interesting sighting but played an interesting role).

After we dropped the trailer, we went across the street and parked. The Combat Talon was still working the pattern. He'd come off the runway, turn left towards the mountains in a 180, cross about mid field, turn right in another 180, and either do a very low approach or a touch and go and do it again.

So we took the dogs out, and while standing behind the truck, I noticed what appeared to be standard landing lights on another aircraft. It looked like the usual two wing root, one nose gear pattern. Not long after I noticed him, Talon did another touch and go. This time however, he went straight out along thr runway heading for a good 7-8 miles at least, before starting a gentle right turn. About this point my other half says, "That's a helicopter".

About the time she pointed that out, he was less than two miles and closing. Until that point I hadn't heard a sound from it. I didn't clearly hear anything from it until he was within 1000 feet or so, and thr only time it was truly clear was when he went over us. Even then it was the quietest helicopter I've ever heard. Almost as soon as he was past us the sound faded again and was almost immediately gone. Thr best description we could come up with was a humming purr. It was even quieter than a Little Bird.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I had three of these fly over my house towards to end of last year. They were about 750-1000 ft up, they sounded like a Toyota Prius driving by. They flew over here around 2200 or so. They weren't going very fast either, but really quiet.

I'm glad somebody else had seen these now. Hey, here's a weird one, since you talked about the MC-130 Over here in just outside of Seattle we've been having a 130 flying around. Kind of weird since we mainly get just hospital medivac helos flying around.

a reply to: Zaphod58






There may or may not have been an instance where I experienced this very same thing.

Could have been a dream though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What was the speed? I wonder if it only a low speed capability?

a reply to: Montana

He came by at about an average speed for a helo. He crossed above us at a medium speed, like he was preparing to land.

a reply to: Zaphod58
If the system works well, I would be happy if the timber harvesters around here would buy a few. I can hear those helos working for dozens of miles in the mountain canyons.

a reply to: projectvxn

It was the strangest sound I've heard from a rotor system. I can't really come up with a good analogy for what it sounded like.

a reply to: Montana

There was a total of less than 5 seconds that I could actually hear it. I'd say it works pretty well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I had a dream about Camp Dwyer the other night.

Strange noises going to and coming from the west.

Swoopty dudes with nice beards making lightning at night in their quiet whirlybird.

a reply to: Zaphod58
there have been rumors about successor programs - so why not

Interesting sighting.

The Stealth hawks used in Neptune Spear supposedly sat around for years till that mission and after the success became all the rage and they started making them again (according to rumors) so if they are true its likely that they would start a more robust training scenario and they would have to train with support assets like the Talon.

We recently demoed the EC145 T2 (we fly the older E-145 with is similar to the Lakota) which has a fenestrated tail. Its a different sound profile similar to a leaf blower on low power but its not whisper quiet and you would have heard it. I was talking to one of our pilots who is also ANG and he says they have played around with them which could mean they have a few of the T2's in inventory, but again its not as quiet as a little bird.

Little Bird or other chopper doing an Auto rotation insertion? Unlikely but a ship that is autorotating with the engines at idle would be really quiet, and would be ideal for a combat approach except I'm not sure you can simply fire it back up and resume powered flight.

So you have a bit of a mystery on your hands. It may be one of those Neptune Spear deals, or something else the 160th is playing with........

Nice catch for the both of you

originally posted by: Montana
a reply to: Zaphod58
If the system works well, I would be happy if the timber harvesters around here would buy a few. I can hear those helos working for dozens of miles in the mountain canyons.

Are they using Huey's? or twin rotor systems? Those are the worse as you get that interaction with the tail that produces that whump whump. Multiblade rotors cut that down alot

Just a random thought here:

Fast and quiet? Defiant?

Counter rotating main rotors are supposed to be really quiet......
Ill bet if they kill the pusher prop its even more quiet.
There are a few first flight videos but hard to say on the noise VS real world etc
At night it would look look somewhat like a blackhawk

a reply to: FredT

Almost certainly not Defiant, but Raider is a very real possibility. It could have been on a FARA demo flight.

They found you Zaph..Ruuuuun
Probably a refined set of tech that started with the little birds in Nam and moved through the StealthHawks.More mature which will probably start to trickle down into the rest of the fleet until the Defiant and Raider take over.Maybe.

originally posted by: Blackfinger
They found you Zaph..Ruuuuun

Nah i bet there's someone at some three letter agency whose sole job it is to issue NOTAMs based on Zaphods whereabouts.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Raider isn't quiet.

It's quieter. But not what you described. There's also a push prop on the back that you would definitely hear.

Lucky, wish my local aircraft were quiet.

Some of the loudest Bells and Cessnas in the world fly over me...

Also, from time to time... V-22's at full throttle -_- I don't know why a presidential escort requires V22's at full speed at an altitude just above the tallest trees... But that's happened twice. Really hoping they change that pathing up because it's only slightly below, shatter windows, loud.

I'm between DC and some of the southern states, two times when the president has had to rush back to DC after some event in like Florida or the Gulf area, V22's have zipped over me close enough I could have thrown a baseball and hit them. (Mind you, I played outfield, so... I have a pretty long lob.)

a reply to: FredT

One outfit is using Hueys and ch46s. the other that worked last fall was using a sky crane. I haven't seen that group working this spring. The sky crane was working in the deep forest moving huge bundles of logs which is probably the only reason it was financially lucrative.

We had one fly over some time ago and it was (not to sound cheezy) similar to the helo on the TV show Airwolf. Kind of a high pitched whine/moan/growl and no real chop to it. Somewhat like a fully articulated rotor and fenestron tail but not as defined. I never saw it and didn't hear it long and it may be that the clouds attenuated the sound. We can hear the UH-1 20+ miles out and a little bird even a few miles out.

What we heard may not have been a helo, but it was certainly not a fast mover. Was moving about as fast as a GA aircraft.