Mystery C182 Terrorizes Quincy Mass

JimNtexas

JimNtexas

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Jim - In Texas!
Interesting. What sounds like a standard government cover corportation is frequently flying a sensor pod equipped C182 over Quincy Mass.

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/quincy/2013/05/photos_prove_suspicious_aircra.html

The comment about registrations with sequencial serial numbers of the same type to different PO box companies is very interesting.

Wired is on the case.

The local mayor and city council know nothing, except that the FAA says the flights are 'authorized'.

Of course it has to be a drone! Because we couldn't risk losing a pilot if the gun-toting rednecks of Quincy decided to shoot it down! :D
 
Point a laser at it, you'll find out who it is.:lol:
 
Probably something simple such as a night vision equipped police plane doing some type of surveillance.

In IL, the state patrol works with the department of natural resources at night to stop illegal . . . wait for it . . .




Frog gigging!
 
That looks like IR to me. They are looking for hot roofs, hot bedroom walls, hot exhaust plumes, timed lighting/exhausting and a/c condensers running in cool weather. No need to worry if your not doing anything illegal. I grew garden plants for the past four months under 1000 W grow lights. The heat never kicked on in my shop and no humidification necessary. The lights were on at 6 AM and off at 10 PM.

Here is one bust recently...

May 2, 2013, at approximately 11:55 A.M., Drug Unit Detectives were contacted by Lieutenant Shangold of the Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office regarding an address that he was just at in Quincy. Lieutenant Shangold said that he and Deputy Reynolds were at an address on Norfolk Street serving an administrative warrant. Once inside, he opened the door that led to the cellar and immediately detected an overwhelming odor of raw marijuana in extreme heat. When he walked down the steps, he observed multiple potted plants (approximately 30 plants) that were green.
 
Shepherd said:
Looking for radiation? :yikes:

Just sharing the paranoia.
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Earlier this year, one of the three-letter agencies flew helos around DC at low altitude dragging radiation detection equipment. The idea was to create a map of the background radiation so they had a baseline to compare if there was ever a release.

At least that is what they told us ;) .
 
The FBI used to have an entire fleet of 182RGs for surveillance operations. Not sure what they use nowadays.
People are so concerned about domestic drone operations. There is nothing a drone can do that a 182 with a pilot and a observer can do for 1/2 the price.
 
I happen to see one of these first hand in an avionics shop. Wasn't sure what agency it belonged to but it had some sort of IR camera pod on the belly and was packed with a bunch of black box technology in the rear seat area. I was whisked away pretty quickly when they saw me near it.
 
The pod on the side of the plane looks remarkably like the camera on a DEA 210 I used to work on.
 
weilke said:
People are so concerned about domestic drone operations. There is nothing a drone can do that a 182 with a pilot and a observer can do for 1/2 the price.
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Well, except a drone pilot can get a medal for valor, probably with an oak leaf cluster. :rolleyes:
 
why don't one of you locals just get in your plane and follow it to where it lands and take some photos? you can sell them to the local TV news
 
JHW said:
why don't one of you locals just get in your plane and follow it to where it lands and take some photos? you can sell them to the local TV news
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That actually crossed my mind, but Quincy is where the Boston Class B goes to the surface. I doubt ATC would let me get close.
 
JHW said:
it has a top
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Didn't the articles say it flies at night? It seems like it would be awfully hard to spot from above against a backdrop of city lights.
 
Palmpilot said:
Didn't the articles say it flies at night? It seems like it would be awfully hard to spot from above against a backdrop of city lights.
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I'm not advising you to go play vigilante. But i find traffic easier to spot at night. i can't imagine they're flying around over the city without strobes
 
RV10flyer said:
That looks like IR to me. They are looking for hot roofs, hot bedroom walls, hot exhaust plumes, timed lighting/exhausting and a/c condensers running in cool weather. No need to worry if your not doing anything illegal.
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And no need to worry if you ARE doing something illegal. The Supreme Court already said that was an illegal search in Kyllo v. United States.

--Carlos V.
 
About a year or 2 ago, I've seen a 182RG with a pod attached to it departing Sky Manor (N40). Still have no idea what that is.
 
Meanee said:
About a year or 2 ago, I've seen a 182RG with a pod attached to it departing Sky Manor (N40). Still have no idea what that is.
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Lots of survey aircraft operated by entities other than the goverment. You can map anything from moisture content of fields to nitrate concentrations in leaves using suitable hyperspectral cameras.
 
Interesting. We had what looks like a C182 orbiting at around 500' AGL just west of my neighborhood (which is at the NE corner of the Class E corridor to AEG) for over an hour this morning. I thought it was a bit odd since this isn't the most photogenic area; I didn't catch any ATC transmissions on my handheld, though I might check LiveATC.

Sorry for the crappy pics...



 
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JHW said:
I'm not advising you to go play vigilante. But i find traffic easier to spot at night. i can't imagine they're flying around over the city without strobes
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I find traffic easier to spot at night when I am at or below their altitude, but someone was hinting at doing it from above the top of the class B.
 
Stopped at AEG this afternoon to buy the latest ABQ sectional, and I grabbed a photo of the plane that's been flying over my neighborhood this week. It's registered to "National Aircraft Leasing Corp," which shows up in discussions about rendition aircraft and is widely believed to be a front for the federal government. It also looks very similar to the aircraft in photos linked in the original post.

When I asked the counter girl at Bode if she knew anything about it, she became very defensive and wanted to know why I wanted to know. "Because I find it interesting that it's been doing hour-long orbits near my neighborhood this week," I replied, adding that her reaction pretty much confirmed my suspicions.

Sure would like to know WTF it's doing flying around Albuquerque.

 
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I think it is safe to assume the government is making baseline sensor passes over major urban areas. While it may be disconcerting to some, I think it is a prudent move given that I am convinced radiological attacks will be made against us at some point. It is just the nature of the government agencies involved to try to keep this secret, although I can see no logical reason to do so.
I once asked in a DHS task group meeting why this type of action as kept secret, (we were discussing port security) and was told "because it is security". I asked why it wouldn't be good to let the public know we were doing our job, and got blank stares. :dunno:
 
flightwriter said:
Stopped at AEG this afternoon to buy the latest ABQ sectional, and I grabbed a photo of the plane that's been flying over my neighborhood this week. It's registered to "National Aircraft Leasing Corp," which shows up in discussions about rendition aircraft and is widely believed to be a front for the federal government. It also looks very similar to the aircraft in photos linked in the original post.

When I asked the counter girl at Bode if she knew anything about it, she became very defensive and wanted to know why I wanted to know. "Because I find it interesting that it's been doing hour-long orbits near my neighborhood this week," I replied, adding that her reaction pretty much confirmed my suspicions.

Sure would like to know WTF it's doing flying around Albuquerque.

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We had something similar a while back. A 182 spent several days flying circles around our neighborhood. No one at the airport knew anything. A few weeks later a guy knocks on my door and wants to sell me a nice aerial photo of our house:rolleyes2: I told him I had plenty. He then showed me a photo of the Organ mountains taken from the east side. I asked him how he got that photo from the middle of the Restricted area over White Sands Missle Range? He says " what restricted area?":hairraise:
 
Don Jones said:
We had something similar a while back. A 182 spent several days flying circles around our neighborhood. No one at the airport knew anything. A few weeks later a guy knocks on my door and wants to sell me a nice aerial photo of our house:rolleyes2: I told him I had plenty. He then showed me a photo of the Organ mountains taken from the east side. I asked him how he got that photo from the middle of the Restricted area over White Sands Missle Range? He says " what restricted area?":hairraise:
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Yeah, we fly photographers fairly often
 
Threefingeredjack said:
I think it is safe to assume the government is making baseline sensor passes over major urban areas. While it may be disconcerting to some, I think it is a prudent move given that I am convinced radiological attacks will be made against us at some point.
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CAP used to have a Radiological Monitoring mission, and qualifications a couple decades ago. Many still wear the qualification patch if they did it.

Back then, I remember thinking it'd be a bummer of a way to die. ("Hey bob, that needle is off the scale on the Geiger counter, and that city over there is kinda glowing... You suppose we should abort and RTB?" ;)

I guess we're not as sexy as a new 182 with a pod, or secret enough for DHS to "hire" us again. Pilots are just as expendable, though. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
CAP used to have a Radiological Monitoring mission, and qualifications a couple decades ago. Many still wear the qualification patch if they did it.

Back then, I remember thinking it'd be a bummer of a way to die. ("Hey bob, that needle is off the scale on the Geiger counter, and that city over there is kinda glowing... You suppose we should abort and RTB?" ;)

I guess we're not as sexy as a new 182 with a pod, or secret enough for DHS to "hire" us again. Pilots are just as expendable, though. ;)
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Word on the street is the Wyoming wing is getting your CAP plane..:dunno::confused:
 
Holy cow! We had that exact bird come in to Beaver County about 2 weeks ago. Same decal and camera on the side and everything. The guy came in, asked for fuel and nothing else, didn't look at anyone, and then walked back to the airplane. Couldn't start the thing for a bit and then he was off.... Interesting....
 
Let's see... C-182s droning around the clock.... Sounds like a time-building operation to meet the FAA's 1,500 hour rule!
 
N801BH said:
All he has to do is admit he is a tea party member...:eek::hairraise::yikes:;)
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Maybe you would like to come to work for my new nonprofit. It's the tea drinking patriot constitutionalist Aerial mapping ministry
 
N801BH said:
Word on the street is the Wyoming wing is getting your CAP plane..:dunno::confused:
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??? Not sure what this means???

There's multiple aircraft per Wing/State.

(And "your" is a stretch... I don't own any of 'em. Heh. Heck I don't even fly 'em. I'm too busy with my personal life and the Communications side of the house to even do a checkride.) :) :) :)
 
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