Aviation Help!

ok,so ive just had a helicopter buzzing my house for a few mins

it had only ONE,pale orange light that DID NOT FLASH.you would have thought it was a ufo,but luckily i saw it briefly pass by the light of the moon when it flew off, and its fuselage was visible for a moment.

theres always helicopters flying about where i live,i know what they look like,and this was not a civilian craft,it was very long and wide,like a chinhook with only one rotor!.it was very loud when it was near my house,i heard the neighbours moaning about the noise after,but when it flew off it became silent!.

does anyone have any ideas as to what it was!?

also,this morning strangely a military fighter jet flew over my house too,very low and very loud and clearly identifiable.it was probably nothing,its just that i live in a highly populated urban area and ive never seen a fighter jet fly here before!.

are jets they allowed to do that?.





[edit on 28-11-2007 by welivefortheson]

Military jets are cleared to do that. Not too long ago a pair of F-15's flew over my work at around 3000 feet. I live 20 miles from NYC so I'd say this is a pretty densly populated area.

As far as the helicopter's description you gave, I'd venture a guess that it was a CH-53 or one of its variants.

Too vague to tell though.

Shattered OUT...

reply to post by ShatteredSkies


they do!?,i never knew that!.it was a delta winged design.

yeah it did look like a ch 53
www.aerospaceweb.org...

but im in england!!???

reply to post by welivefortheson


A Merlin helo perhaps? Since you said its similar to the CH53 with one rotor.

reply to post by welivefortheson


I think that the UK operates the CH-53, but I could be wrong. I have to wait till I can get home to check my AWST source book for 2007

reply to post by deltaboy


thats the one!! a merlin!
www.bbc.co.uk...

why would a merlin be hovering over my house!?

the worst thing i do is smoke something green every now and again!

Routine training mission? Once I saw 4 Blackhawk slicks in formation over my school for a while.

Are there any airbases near you? That might explain it. Near would be within 50 miles of your house.

I do believe the UK operates CH-53's. I'm not sure what UK policy is about military aviation in populated areas, but I think it might actually be more lenient than American.

Shattered OUT...

FredT and Shattered,

The UK deffinately does NOT operate the CH-53, they operate the CH-47. I think you may also be confusing them with the Westland Wessex or Seaking. They do of course operate the Merlin and a derivative of it is being produced in the US as a VIP presidential aircraft to operate as "Marine One".

LEE.

reply to post by welivefortheson


As a former Crew Chief for Blackhawks let me offer the following:

The light you mention was most likely the searchlight, on and in the stowed position. When flying without NVGs we would routinely fly with the searchlight on, in the stowed position. That is, on, fully retracted in the nose of the a/c, pointing straight down. This wasn't for our vision, but to allow other, non-aided a/c to spot our location (think civilian a/c...nothing sinister).

Quite often, when using NVG's, during training, the lead a/c in a flight of a/c will have the searchlight on, fully stowed, using the IR setting. That is; no light to the unaided eye, but brilliantly lit if using NVGs. Usually the first A/C will fly like this; in training. Sometimes the lead and trail aircraft. Typically, this is used during training where there are multiple groups of flights, all accomplishing different things within the AO. Been there, done that, flew hundreds of hours, saw it with my own eyes, no conspiracy.

I wouldn't believe this if I had not seen it myself, many times. When the searchlight is on, stowed, in IR mode.......if the A/C flies directly over you, you can see a faint glow, unaided. Very faint, but there - sometimes. Why? Honestly, I have no idea.

Just a few ideas to digest.

reply to post by SlightlyAbovePar


dont they use IR to search for heat sources?

ahh they think im growing marijuana cos i have my skylight blacked out to stop the sunlight on my comp screen,i wish i was!(disclaimer, drugs kill your motivation etc etc)

theres always been alot of helicopter patrols where i am,they run like clockwork,dont know why.this one just looked alot different to them.

why do you think?,maybe there is an airbase?

oh ps,whats it like to fly in a blackhawk!?

[edit on 3-12-2007 by welivefortheson]

Educated guess:

Military aircraft establish routes that are flown over and over and over again. The reason? It's training, known hazards and locations of said hazards and deconfliction with other, non-military a/c.

What could the a/c be doing on these routes? Practicing good 'ole time, distance and heading nav work. Practicing NOE. Practicing emergency procedures. Practicing unmasking/masking. Basically, a lot of very legitimate stuff.

I hope that answers your question?