[yes, actual aviation]Massive aerial search effort[/yes, actual aviation]

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
So I was on a bike ride in Roseville, California (80M from Oakland) and I noticed a group of four, what appeared to be Sheriff's Department helicopters, all playing follow the leader, circling a huge area for roughly the twenty minutes I was riding and they were flying over me.

I guess they were looking for something. As I drew south towards the Sacramento county line, I stopped and observed them. The lead was a Jetranger, second was what looked to me like a Gazelle (tubular helicopter with close mounted skids and a ducted fan tail rotor), another Jet Ranger and a Huey, and it was apparent they were from different agencies. I think one of the Jet Rangers might be Sac County but it was hard to tell. They were all different agencies, except maybe the Jet Rangers were from one but it was hard to tell. None were CHP.

I don't know what they were doing. I assumed they were looking for someone or something, but their circling radius (more like a rectangle bounded by roads) was about 3x2 miles. Couldn't find anything in the news about it.

Anyway, that's my aviation content for the year. Carry on.
 
We passed the jet ranger while inbound to OAK this morning. Didn't know there would be a congregation of ghetto birds.

It would be funny if some wiseacre popped the coliseum TFR in some ultra-STOL bushplane then decided to land out and hide on a hiking trail while the heat passed.
 
schmookeeg said:
It would be funny if some wiseacre popped the coliseum TFR in some ultra-STOL bushplane then decided to land out and hide on a hiking trail while the heat passed.
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Gotta get rid of the WANTED stars somehow!
images
 
Could’ve been related to the funeral and burial of former Hells Angels leader Sonny Barger. The funeral was in Stockton and he was buried near Sac. They had thousands of bikers attending, and no doubt a heavy law enforcement presence.
 
ateamer said:
Could’ve been related to the funeral and burial of former Hells Angels leader Sonny Barger. The funeral was in Stockton and he was buried near Sac. They had thousands of bikers attending, and no doubt a heavy law enforcement presence.
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I kind of doubt it. He was buried in Dixon, which is about 40 miles west of the helicopters and Stockton is even further away. They were in the middle of no place, far from any major travel corridor.
 
Sac Arrow said:
like a Gazelle (tubular helicopter with close mounted skids and a ducted fan tail rotor),
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Gazelle? Last I knew none were flying in US anymore. Regardless sounds more like a aerial photo op than a SAR ops with that collection of rotors.
 
Bell206 said:
Gazelle? Last I knew none were flying in US anymore. Regardless sounds more like a aerial photo op than a SAR ops with that collection of rotors.
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I don't doubt that. I don't think it actually was a Gazelle, I just didn't have a better descriptor.
 
ateamer said:
I think Sac SO flies the EC-120 or whatever they’re called now. Those have a shrouded tail rotor.
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They have a couple EC 130s but this wasn’t that.
 
It looked closest to “Fenestron 50Th Anniversary” which I believe is a Gazelle, but I suppose it might have been an EC 120.
 
Okay, just for s**ts and giggles I pulled up the list of Sac County Sheriff's helicopters and plugged in the tail number of their newest UH 1, and got a hit. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N911GC

So that racetrack pattern on the map was what I was watching fly overhead. It was at the tail end of three other helicopters.

Here is a screenshot in case the link updates to something else:

Screenshot 2022-09-27 080341.png
 
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