Because I heard that started in July. But for the past few weeks we’ve been overflown – hell, sometimes we get buzzed – by combat aircraft I never saw around here before. I just had an Apache helicopter fly over my yard so low the pilot could have punted a juniper if he could have gotten his leg out of the cockpit.
I’ve also seen V-22s, and I never saw one of those around here before. Occasional flights of Blackhawks are relatively common, going back and forth to some military base or other, but always on the same routes and at higher altitude. These are fighting aircraft, flying low.
We gonna be putting up with this all summer? I wonder.
So far, anyway, all I’ve seen is the usual low flying Cessnas and a few even older craft that look like crop dusters. We do have a private landing field nearby, and I suspect that more than a few large landowners have their own strip. Except very locally, airplanes make a lot more sense than horses out here. 🙂
I was walking to lunch last monday and heard a prop engine aircraft approaching but the rhythm was wrong for the aircraft that fly out of butte’s airport. When I located it in the air, the visual profile was strange. Then it banked for a turn and I saw the distinctive prop-on-wing of a v-22. I hadn’t seen one this far west before. Why anyone would be moving that type of aircraft around the country is a mystery.
Clarence
Ummmm… These aircraft weren’t black, were they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_helicopter
Not unusual to see the Blackhawks, A-10, C-130, etc around here. But I do live next to an active Army airfield.
MJR: The V-22s were a bit dark in hue, though hardly stealthy. You’re not gonna tell me you’ve got anything against black, are you? 🙂
Oh no Joel, black is beautiful. Kidding aside, I suspect that the zoomies are getting ready for a deployment to an area (middle east?) that is like yours in geography. Since your neck of scrub is mostly empty not to many people to complain.
Or… it could be a “Seven Days in May” situation but I really, really have my doubts about that. ;^)
Down here in south Texas, I’ve seen quite a few military desert tan hummers with the gun shields on top, sans guns. Those gun shields are something I’ve never seen before, the hummers are commonplace.
Texas Highway Patrol vehicles are still in force, a whole lotta them on the road seeking neer do wells, but thats old hat. Upriver in Laredo, that helicopter had a dust up with presumably the Mexican cartel Zetas over some drug smuggling.
A used radar gun (just to check how fast those birds are going) might be handy.
Don’t even need to launch a “smokey sam”, just a cup or two of black powder light off on the ground at the right moment could be fun.
From someone else’s property though.
jon, I don’t know how or whether these things are armed. I do suspect bouncing a laser off one might turn out to be a very bad idea, though…
MJR: heck, any color looks black when backlit by Mr. Sky. But you already knew that. 🙂 Let the conspiracy trolling commence!
jon spencer: That sounds like a really bad idea. Someone (not me, honest! Really.) once lit up the sheriff’s helicopter’s plexiglass dome with a handheld red laser. LEOs were knocking on the door within five minutes. Imagine if they had been military and thinking they were taking fire. BTW, if you want to get your heart rate up, have a different sheriff’s ‘copter come looking for you while hiding behind a boulder. Produces quite the visceral reaction. Don’t ask how I know…
Yes, a laser is a very bad idea. That can damage the crew’s eyes and is against the law.
That’s why I said radar gun and unless you leave the radar gun transmitting there is only a small chance of getting a accurate fix on where the emitter is.
The Radar gun could just activate the aircrafts warning systems.
Some of the older eastern bloc AA stuff used K-band radar.
You’re absolutely right. On re-reading I see you specified a radar gun. The objection remains, though: I wouldn’t hit an Apache gunship with radar, either, unless it was to be immediately followed by a big-ass missile. Not having either of those, I’m safe from temptation.
Over at Viking Preparedness on YouTube, there are three or four excellent videos on what Jade Helm is all about. Seems like I’ve read that Spec Ops is training until some time in September, so you might be in for a summer of this.
Hey Joel I know it’s a little late but this may solve the mystery…
http://www.strategypage.com/military_photos/military_photos_20150621212032.aspx