About 6:40 PM tonight (20 or so minutes ago as I write this) I was walking to my car parked in the local Tremonton grocery store’s parking lot when I heard a helicopter flying around. As helicopters are a relative rarity out here in the Utah sticks, this caught my attention. Since it was well after nightfall, I figured the helicopter would be easy to see due to its running lights. It took a minute or so for the chopper to clear the trees and come into view, but when it did, it turned out to be *two* vehicles, one apparently chasing/tailing/following the other. The second vehicle was the helicopter I could hear, but it was equipped solely with a blue light up front and a red blinking light on the tail. The first vehicle, however, I could not hear. It was equipped only with a single orange light that faded to nothing as it passed my position (most likely due to it simply being a forward-pointing light). Once that light was gone, there was nothing else to see.
<> Who the hell flies without lights?
The chopper sounded like a fairly substantial turboshaft chopper, not a bitty piston engine chopper.
7 Responses to “Well, THAT was damned odd…”
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You’re up by Dugway, right? Spec Ops have done training over there because it simulated Afghanistan pretty good. Bet it was the 160th doing a practice run with a MH-60 and a Little Bird.
There was nothing unusual in the sky at your location tonight. Now stay in your home and tell no one about what you didn’t see or hear. Someone will be around to “interview” you shortly…
> You’re up by Dugway, right?
Not even close. Dugway’s southwest of the lake; I’m northeast. However, your theory makes as much sense as anything, though it seems odd that they’d do such training flights over towns. Without proper lights, they’re liable to get slammed by an ag plane. Shrug.
A helicopter chasing a drone that slipped it’s leash?
This is totally pulled out of random brain cells, that should of been tracking something like tv theme songs. But I recall hearing that formation like that count as one aircraft for lighting purposes and of course that you would like to arrange the lights such that the guy following is not trying judge distances while staring at a bright light.
Possibly a IFR flight training run, most likely, as we called them back in “the day” a loach and a slick. Used to do night insertions by chopper, one bird running forward, the slick trailing. Slick goes to ground, troops unass, slick pulls pitch and runs low&fast OVER any suspected enemy watchers. The loach goes into a tight orbit as the slick settles and follows it out. Or provides closeair support if the lrrp element becomes engaged immediately. A most hairy siteeation, believe you me.
Or they were escapees from Area 51! Saw today that they lost track of yet another alien baby. It was in the World News, has to be true!!!!
Drug enforcement copters up here in North Dakota sometimes fly without night ID lights so as not to clue in those being observed.
I’ve never seen two in formation though.