Saw UFO with my eyes and my drone (pictures)

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: SecretKnowledge

Approximate size?

Diameter about 6-8 inches max. It was a dull metal silver/grey. Not shiny. A raised ridge about 1cm going around the centre of it. Not shiny. It was following the path of a river staying the same speed and height all the time. About four foot above me. Silent. No time to take phone out i didnt want to miss any of it. Fascinating.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

The one I saw looked like a tuna can without the paper label .

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's true, I have noticed that here in Portugal. Because of all the CoViD-19 situation we have very few flights, so when I ear one I look to see where it's coming from or going to, and I have seen several that do not appear on (on my case) FlightRadar24.com

a reply to: JBurns

I have seen something very similar 2-3 times before. Looks nearly identical to what I have seen. Was clearly a sphere when I saw it, did ir appear as a sphere to you as well? Notice any shining light from the sun reflecting off the craft? I noticed them before by catching a reflection of the sunlight. One poster mentioned, silver sphere. Not a bad way of describing it.

Anyways, excellent photos.

Any idea what this could be? Anymore details you can remember about what it looked like, how it behaved?

a reply to: M4ngo

One poster mentioned, silver sphere.

That was me and that is exactly what I saw.

I've been waiting years for someone trustworthy to capture one of these things on camera.

This is the real deal man.

a reply to: JBurns

Most impressive. Those are great photos.
S&F, will be following.

Hi guys found a way to get the full size image uploaded:

ibb.co...

Click full resolution

Here is all the EXIF data from the file

ibb.co...

Note that altitude is in Meters on DJI drones not Feet

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

I sincerely appreciate your vote of confidence Means a lot to read that

All I can say is not claiming this thing is alien, but it sure as heck is unidentified to me!

I've even read stories from Australia and I think the UK where others have seen these

Also I just realized is this thing was traveling in a different direction than the wind, which I *believe* indicates either power or inertia (which itself implies power?). Maybe an engineer/physics person can verify that is accurate

a reply to: M4ngo

Thanks for the reply & great information!

It did appear to be a sphere, I think I used the word "golf ball" at first and was definitely silver/grayish in appearance before it had that big cloud in its background. I actually noticed it initially because of a shimmer of light kind of like when you see a polished coin in bright sunlight

Now initially it was totally still. Which I thought odd because anything humans fly tend to move around a good bit, even helicopters and the like (altitude and attitude wise). But to me and the two other observers, it was like it had dropped an invisible anchor and was just holding its position perfectly. No movement whatsoever

And almost as soon as I turned my drone toward it, it appeared to react (again could be total coincidence) by moving. It seemed to move forward a bit (I say this because it went under the cloud not over top it), then did this weird manuever where it went up into the cloud, and made some sort of U-shape or 3/4 of a square pattern flight like this: | _ |

At that point, it did this (what i called peekaboo) in and out of the cloud, before finally moving off at a fairly decent rate of speed back into a cloud. At the point my video lost contact with it and I never did regain visual contact with "it" using the drone or my own eyes

I will say I didn't feel menaced or anything of that sort, I was actually (and still am frankly) a bit astonished to have finally caught a glimpse of something I believed in for a very long time... namely unidentified objects in the air. I just can't imagine a human pilot flying a craft into poor visual conditions of a cloud and then somehow manuevering in and out like that. Or holding a perfect hover. And I mean *perfect*

a reply to: JBurns

Fascinating thread.

If only it had dropped to the ground, you could have started another phenomenon similar to the classic "Betz Sphere" from 1974.

originally posted by: JBurns
I just can't imagine a human pilot flying a craft into poor visual conditions of a cloud and then somehow manuevering in and out like that. Or holding a perfect hover. And I mean *perfect*

Human pilots move through clouds all the time, and your drone was also perfectly still, wasn't it?

a reply to: ArMaP

My drone doesn't hold a perfect hover, it still moves back and forth slightly especially when there is wind. Not to mention it sounds like you just kicked a hornet's nest

Human pilots move through clouds all the time

They do, but they would be operating on IFR at that point correct? I just can't imagine a human pilot making close-in manuevers in such unusual patterns (tight U shape) and for what reason?

I did check FlightRadar website and my own ADS-B tracker for transponder equipped aircraft and found none. Is there any craft that matches the above description you're aware of?

Although I can see it in the stills, i cannot find it on the stream.

I tried matching the cloud formations but when you move down with the gimbal I think you cut it out for a bit.

Maybe try some video software on it..

But thanks, still really cool.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Hi mate. I know from previous posts that you live near me and that your 'hotspot' is where I was "christened" when I was a baby.

Have you ever seen one of these things in broad daylight or only at night?

Ay up Wide-Eyes, good day to you............. For sure yeah did see them during the day too. Best stuff at night while looking logically at it seen an amber orange type at dawn, also clusters of yellow type also clusters of white type in a corn on the cob formation after sunrise, then another single white type ufo orb about mid morning it knew we were there it was sort of following us, lastly a green type travelling vey high in the sky, not sure if this was a ufo orb, a meteor or something else but it took like ten minutes to travel in its straight path above us. Would love to see a silver one but from memory that has eluded us so far

Slow moving spheres are difficult. It's so easy for them just to be balloons. They're not as easy to identify as party balloons since they don't have strings or an obvious wobble. But people see these things quite a lot. So something extraordinary, or just a balloon? That's the question.

originally posted by: JBurns
a reply to: ArMaP

My drone doesn't hold a perfect hover, it still moves back and forth slightly especially when there is wind.

If that's the case, maybe I'll fiddle with the stills and see if I can come up with a stereo pair that can give some better indication of size and altitude.

a reply to: JBurns

They do, but they would be operating on IFR at that point correct?

No.

IFR requires a ceiling less than 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL) and/or visibility of fewer than three miles. VFR requires a ceiling greater than 3,000 feet AGL and visibility that’s greater than five miles.

inflightpilottraining.com...

Specific rules about clouds depend upon the class of airspace in which one is flying but are mostly concerned with avoiding collisions.

a reply to: Blue Shift

BlueShift, would they be capable of moving against the wind (as indicated by cloud movement)? Or performing what appeared to be different patterns of motion (ie: a U shape)

And also, would a balloon continually ascend or would it hold an altitude? Could it hold a hover/static position?

Thanks for the reply!

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: JBurns
a reply to: ArMaP

My drone doesn't hold a perfect hover, it still moves back and forth slightly especially when there is wind.

If that's the case, maybe I'll fiddle with the stills and see if I can come up with a stereo pair that can give some better indication of size and altitude.

Great!! I was hoping somebody with some image skills would come along and work some magic

Much appreciated!

a reply to: Phage

Thanks for clarifying that phage