Triangular red and green blinking lights

Hi,

I am noticing some interesting things in the sky in my back yard. Last night I noticed what seemed like a plane, however I'm wondering what kind of craft this could have been.

It was silent, which means it may have been very high up. The lights were blinking green and red.

This is what was interesting, the lights (red and green) would all light up at the same time forming a triangular shape. I never saw a plane do that before.

Anyone know of a plane or helicopter that would do that?

Planes have different settings for the wingtip nav lights. They can be set so that they blink or are steady at the same time, or that they alternate.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Planes have different settings for the wingtip nav lights. They can be set so that they blink or are steady at the same time, or that they alternate.

I was under the impression that planes had to have nav lights on all the time?

I would suspect the blinking was caused by small clouds

They can be set to blink, because the pattern is pretty fast. It's not like *blink* then wait 5 seconds and *blink*. One goes off, the other is on, then it goes off and the first is back on. They usually use it on the ground, but I've seen a few planes in flight with them set that way.

Hi,

It wasn't fast blinking, like you normally see from a plane or helicopter. It looked like:

2 green lights on opposite sides stayed on for about 1 sec, then a red light for the amount of time, and then all of them on, again for about 1 sec.

When they were all on you can see it formed a triangle.

Maybe a blimp?

Hi Electro38

I can't give you any good guesses on what you saw, have you ever been to flightaware.com? It's a pretty neat web site that will show you most IFR flights in your area. The next time you see an aircraft flying over you can get on their site and see if it's listed. It keeps me entertained most of the time! Good luck.

I checked out the site ypou recommended, very interesting.

I haven't seen anything since after Memorial day.

You're welcome. Remember that the data on the screen is about six minutes behind real-time and not every IFR flight is on their, some of them can be blocked by the aircraft operator.

I work with electronics and I notice often I am picking up what I think are airplane conversations. (I make electronic musical instruments, synths, guitar effects, etc.) While I'm wiring something up I will hear transmissions over my shop radio.

I hope their transmissions aren't being disrupted because of this.

I once had someone come to my house (my previous residence) because our cable TV was picking up airplane transmissions. How did they know what house was causing this? That was amazing...

He told us to get the cable fixed, and we never did because we didn't own the house. I thought he would come back, but never did.

[edit on 6-6-2007 by Electro38]