Border Patrol Helicopter Attempts To Disperse Protesters In Minnesota

As a member of team DoD, team DHS (CBP to be specific) is no friend of mine, and I have personal acquaintances through my wife's female friends (wives and such), in the employ of the latter. It made for tense BBQs down during my DLF days. Oh well, we can't all be friends.
 
Lucky they didn't get shot by one of the protestors.

IBTL
 
It’s about rotor wash, so I have hope.

IBTL just in case
 
Because that was so popular when the NG did this during the riots in DC last year.
 
Not sure if I’d want to fly that low around angry miscreants that have a license to destroy without repercussion. Do we know yet if the Houston PD helo that crashed last year was shot down?
 
Officer Frank Murphy taught me that trick.
 
DaleB said:
Great question. And aren’t law enforcement agencies like CBP subject to FAA regs? I know we mere mortals get in some pretty hot water for pulling a stunt like that.
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I know there are some exemptions from the FARs for public agencies. Not sure how far they go.
 
Or could this article be another fairy tale written by another fairy tale writer with an agenda. A group of "protesters" near a pipeline seems like a security risk to me and a CBP helicopter would be a very likely candidate to investigate people hanging around a pipeline, especially if they appear to be up to no good. I imagine and hope, the helicopter was rolling video during this event.

Helicopters fly low to the ground all the time, nothing intrinsically dangerous about it.

I don't think this should get locked.
 
hindsight2020 said:
As a member of team DoD, team DHS (CBP to be specific) is no friend of mine, and I have personal acquaintances through my wife's female friends (wives and such), in the employ of the latter. It made for tense BBQs down during my DLF days. Oh well, we can't all be friends.
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I have had some recent dealings with a member of team DHS that would certainly be consistent with your exerience.
 
Reminds me of the protests in Egypt. They started flying helicopters low over the protesters, and they all whipped out laser pointers.
This being 'murica, I wouldn't be surprised of people start packing roman candles.

Ron Wanttaja
 
AlleyCat67 said:
Sigh… yet another political topic pretending to be about aviation. IBTL.
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Ha ha! Take it as you will! I was wondering more about how smart it is to fly or hover over angry people who are within rock throwing distance!
 
The Drive, err, Warzone, is a great largely editorial and opinion free collection of some fantastic writing for aviation and military geeks

This gets very close to journalistic, and a turn I'd rather not see them make. Already lost Jalopnik. Oh well

In general, play stupid tricks, win stupid prizes. I don't condone the heli's actions but people should not be upsetting our infrastructure either.
 
hindsight2020 said:
As a member of team DoD, team DHS (CBP to be specific) is no friend of mine, and I have personal acquaintances through my wife's female friends (wives and such), in the employ of the latter. It made for tense BBQs down during my DLF days. Oh well, we can't all be friends.
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DLF ??
 
Tantalum said:
This gets very close to journalistic, and a turn I'd rather not see them make. Already lost Jalopnik. Oh well
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I miss Jalopnik. That was in my daily rotation forever until the recent redesign/acquisition/neutering or whatever happened. Haven't really been back since.

CBP sux. No news here. :)

But since the question was asked... for the helo pilots, CAN a thrown rock bring one down? I assume the rock gets pulverized and the rotor blade gets dented, but... does balance become a problem? Is the tail rotor more vulnerable?

I assume in this specific scenario, if damage is done, then the helo autorotates into the crowd, which is not without some amusing karmic irony. Throw stupid rocks, win stupid rotor blades?

I dunno anything about helicopters now that I think about it. :oops:
 
Slingshots might be at least effective enough to make the helo pilots and owners reconsider the wisdom of using one as an annoyance tool. It’s not going to bring one down, but then you probably really don’t want to.
 
They do CBP roadblocks here in NH to catch border scofflaws from Canada. I've been through quite a few of them and the agents have been nothing but courteous and professional.
 
schmookeeg said:
But since the question was asked... for the helo pilots, CAN a thrown rock bring one down? I assume the rock gets pulverized and the rotor blade gets dented, but... does balance become a problem? Is the tail rotor more vulnerable?
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Yes, yes, and YES!
 
schmookeeg said:
I miss Jalopnik
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A few of their writers went to TheDrive. I will periodically check back into Jalopnik, mainly because of Torchinksy, but the rest of the writing generally seems like it comes out 5 days later after someone copies it from Drive or regurgitates a YouTube vid they saw

schmookeeg said:
CBP sux
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They make their rounds if you are offroading by the desert around here, Valley of the Moon, etc., many of these great trails are a stone's throw from the border. They've never bothered me. But, a dorky white dude in an FJ might not be the type of person who would get bothered anyway..
 
..also, I think Russia takes the cake for low level heli antics

 
Sounds like they’ve got a rogue helicopter pilot problem in Minnesota.

 
PaulS said:
They do CBP roadblocks here in NH to catch border scofflaws from Canada. I've been through quite a few of them and the agents have been nothing but courteous and professional.
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Hopefully the only thing you say to them is "am I being detained?". Complete horse crap they are running these checkpoints hundreds of miles from the border.
 
Groundpounder said:
Hopefully the only thing you say to them is "am I being detained?". Complete horse crap they are running these checkpoints hundreds of miles from the border.
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Nah, that just results in a longer stop, usually they just ask how you are doing, then have a good day. I was told they are after the biker gang guys during bike week which starts this weekend.
 
^I agree

When I first started seeing these rando checkpoints I thought of the scene from Red October "do they let you do that?" .. "yes" .. "state to state; no papers"
 
schmookeeg said:
CAN a thrown rock bring one down?
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On that model it would have to be a 1 in 1M throw at the T/R that might cause a vibration enough to warrant a landing. Now if the rock had a length of cheap rope tied to it then would an entirely different scenario. But simply hovering over construction sites has brought down more helicopters of all sizes. Its amazing how plywood, visqueen, tarps, etc will defy physics and get themselves entangled in all sorts of ways.

Silt fence...
KathrynsReport.jpg
 
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