Black Unmarked UH-1's etc

They're probably AH-1W Super Cobras used on ships. The LHA/LHDs carry them, along with the Chinooks, AV-8Bs and now V-22s.

reply to post by Zaphod58


haven't seen either of those guys either. I'm telling you it was much cooler around here when El Toro was still open

Sorry, my militaryness got the better of me.

LHA:



LHD:



AH-1W Super Cobra:

reply to post by Zaphod58


Well hey I'm not airborne on a heli but I caught this from my back yard today too:



I haven't been keeping up on jets so I don't know what type this guy is either.

[edit on 8-2-2008 by Shakesbeer]

F/A-18 Hornet. POSSIBLY a Super Hornet, but no way to tell from that far away. you can tell by the thin wing with the missile rails on the tips, and the tails that sit so far forward on the exhaust. They're also canted outward.




The easiest way to tell a Super Hornet if you can see it up close is that it has square air intakes on either side of the fuselage. The Hornet has rounded intakes.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Last week one of those guys came tearing through the neighborhood here seriously no higher then 400 feet above the houses. He didn't seem to care about buzzing the hell out of the ground and was banking hard & eratic as if chasing something.

Actually it would have been 500, but I'll forgive you for being 100 feet off. They really get nailed if they go below 500 feet above the tallest structure in a city. They've been known to occasionally buzz the towns near their airfield. You're right on top of their base if you were able to get pics of one with gear down, and flying the pattern.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Well thank you Zaphod, not bad for an amateur I guess

On the "guessing" note, only place I can think of that it would be landing at that close to me would be Los Alamitos. But yeah, these have all been taken from outside my house (front/back).

The CH-46 is not the Chinook, the chinook is the Ch-47. The Ch-46 is called the Sea Knight. The "black hawk" you have a pic of is the SH-60B Sea Hawk. Those deploy on DDG's, FFG's and CG's.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
The last picture, I can't tell you what the antenna is for, but it's a Hughes 500. Those are used by a very large number of people, civilian and military. The military uses them as the MH-6 Little Bird special operations gunship. Some of them have rounded noses, others have noses like in your picture.

The MH6 was based on, but it's not a hughes 500.

Anyways, I think we are looking at an APR-39, as that system usually uses 4 antenna detectors, plus it would make sence to put them like that on a small helicopter.

Also not sure, but I think the helicopter in the picture looks more like a MD-500E(the shape of the nose is designed for higher speeds). Maybe the MH6 has a variant that looks just like that..

[edit on 9-2-2008 by daniel_g]

Yeah, I realize that the Chinook is the CH-47, but most people that don't have an aviation background have a VERY hard time telling the two of them apart, so it's simply easier to call them all Chinooks, instead of getting into gory details and overwhelming people.

The MH-6 is based on, and almost exactly the same as the MD-500. The MH-6M is based on and almsot exactly the same as the MD-500E. The difference between the MD-500 and the MH-6 is almsot non-existant, except that the MH-6 carries armaments (except the MH-6H which only carries troops) and has a bigger engine to carry a heavier payload. Other than that it's an MD-500 series helicopter.

[edit on 2/9/2008 by Zaphod58]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
The difference between the MD-500 and the MH-6 is almsot non-existant, except that the MH-6 carries armaments

Actually this is the reason why I always try to show the difference:
A lot of countries and contractors use armed versions of the MD-500, some even have an improved engine, but it would be an error to say that they have MH-6 helicopters even though they look and perform almost the same. I know it sounds like trying to point the difference between tap water and bottled water, but at least some people would want to know which is which.

Thanks for the MH-6M info, was looking for pictures of that variant, couldn't find many, but did find an interesting one:

'look ma, no pilot!'
Maybe OP will get lucky and get to see one of those, 6X I think it is. lol I bet most people would be like 'wth'

[edit on 9-2-2008 by daniel_g]

They're still doing test flights with it. They've only done a couple of them so far, all successful. I USUALLY try to point out the differences to people, but I've had too much on my plate in the last few weeks to really sit down and point out all the little differences that there are between the different variants.

Thanks for the info guys....so, see any markings on the ones I posted?

No, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. I've seen some of the Sea Hawks and Sea Knights, and Sea Stallions with markings so hard to see that you could barely see them from 100 yards. I'll dig up some of the pictures of a Sea Stallion they used to have in Hawaii, and show you how run down and filthy looking they can get, and how that blurs out the markings something awful.

Not the one I'm looking for but sort of what I'm talking about:




Here's the perfect example of how hard it is to see the markings on a CH-46 Sea Knight:



[edit on 2/9/2008 by Zaphod58]

reply to post by Zaphod58


I understand the subdued paint jobs, but what are the odds of the all of their craft's paint jobs being scuffed up that bad that I cannot see anything on the tail or fuselage? The 47 or 46's whatever they are, definitely come below 500ft and have come close enough for me to almost hit them with a baseball...no markings visible.

It's not just scuffed up markings. Look at the picture of the Sea Knight, where it says Marines and some of the other markings, you're within 500 feet, and you can barely see them. I've had them fly over me within 200 feet and couldn't see the markings on them. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

what about with the aid of a 70mm telephoto lense at 200 feet? pretty sure I'd be able to see them just like I've been able to see the CHP and Sheriffs (even the small letters)....

Just wondering, is the *that subdued really?

Partly a reflection, but so would any other view.

Here are more, from less than 200 yards (or so they appear):

Originally posted by Shakesbeer
what about with the aid of a 70mm telephoto lense at 200 feet? pretty sure I'd be able to see them just like I've been able to see the CHP and Sheriffs (even the small letters)....

Just wondering, is the *that subdued really?

Maybe yes, maybe not.
For example look at the pictures on this thread.

They were taken with a 300mm lens, as you can see the markings are still pretty hard to see.


[edit on 9-2-2008 by daniel_g]