Outdoor helicopter evasion

[Lazyman]

I recall reading an article on GC (might have been RUI) where a CAMP chopper pilot was a member, and pretty friendly. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but he said:

The only time I can't find plants is if they are under camo netting. I recall one time a ground crew radioed me to come back to a spot I had overflown maybe 6 times that day, where they had found a large grow. Hovering overhead I could not make out anything at all, even when I was told I was directly over the plants.

Use that how you will, gentlemen.

Also, FLIR detects the dark fresh earth under the plants that is typically well watered and maintained, making bright circles on the FLIR (as the dark earth absorbs more sun radiation.)

 

[phrike]

LOL< I know the feeling phrike. I can hear air traffic like I have super human hearing. Stay safe.

Yeah, LOL. I was there 2 1/2 hours today and ran to my darker "safe spot" about 5 times due to propeller aircraft noises pretty much overhead. I ignore the passenger jets now.

Chopper was the 6th craft and I was done anyway so went to the darkest spot until he seemed to be gone, then fast walked to my garage just in time to hear him coming back for another circle.

 

[phrike]

try not to lose sleep or otherwise worry too much. i really can't see you getting more then a smack on the wrist for those 3 plants. that is if they even find them, which is unlikely as the patch is just too small to be seen well from above. also the way you trained them low to the ground should make it extra hard to recognize.

speaking of mash you could always put a army net over the plants, or make a frame for some milky plastic tarp over the top and half way down the sides. then they will not see them even if they hover 20 yards above, as long as you build it well enough that the tarp doesn't go flapping off in the down wind from the chopper roflmao.

i feel for ya though, all that air traffic is a pain in the ass.

Yeah, slap on the wrist, especially with no record of arrests even. Read a sentencing today for a large commercial grower who also had some weapons charges. He got "time served" (don't know how long that was but I presume minimal until bail) and 1 year probation.

But as mentioned the bigger "penalty" would be the shock, embarrasment and pain of going through a SWAT style raid and full search. And having one's kids carted off, even for a few hours, while the wife and I get processed would be no fun. My wife's employer would also NOT be happy if she called in from the "cop shop" to say she can't make it (and that call could come hours late.) And yes my wife has a VERY straight job.

Yeah, army camo net is good idea, just have to find one locally. As for a milky tarp I was thinking I might need a greenhouse type structure when first frosts start around end of this month.

Was also reading a thread from a guy who has a plastic Costco car parking thingy and has monsters inside. If I try something like that next year I could put it where the plants will get sun all day, which even at 50% light transmission would likely make up for the mere 5 hours of direct sun I'm getting in forest.

 

[phrike]

I recall reading an article on GC (might have been RUI) where a CAMP chopper pilot was a member, and pretty friendly. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but he said:

The only time I can't find plants is if they are under camo netting. I recall one time a ground crew radioed me to come back to a spot I had overflown maybe 6 times that day, where they had found a large grow. Hovering overhead I could not make out anything at all, even when I was told I was directly over the plants.

Use that how you will, gentlemen.

Also, FLIR detects the dark fresh earth under the plants that is typically well watered and maintained, making bright circles on the FLIR (as the dark earth absorbs more sun radiation.)

Yeah I've read all the posts by that CAMP chopper pilot, LOL. But thanks for the reminder about camo netting. I'm pretty sure I'll get some, perhaps for next year.

As for FLIR, I'm not sure I've ever read anything about it being used here in Canada. Not for outdoor anyway. My medium is soil-less mix in grow bags. I only water and nute every 2-3 weeks this summer as there's been plenty of rain. Maybe my bags are too big but the medium never really gets fully dry.

 

[phrike]

OK, here's an article from today about the (perhaps well known on this board) emotional AND physical harm that can come from a pot bust in Canada. Yes, legal penalties may be a slap on the wrist, but the bust itself has penalties.

In this case, even if you're an old couple growing nothing more than tomatoes and legal flowers: (Note LEO loves to raid when you're going to, or are asleep)

(Note the cops likely lied about a marijuana smell.)

http://www.canada.com/Ooops/3491413/story.html
Ooops
RCMP drug bust nets tomatoes and dahlias

...
On Aug. 29 (Sunday) at about 10:30 p.m., the man was sleeping upstairs in his room. His wife, who was preparing to head to bed, saw several police cars pull up in front of the house.

The man said he awoke to his wife's shouting. He came downstairs to see his wife standing on the porch in handcuffs and a police officer told him he was under arrest for growing a controlled substance.

The man said that his wife, who is in her sixties and suffers from tendonitis, was handled forcefully by police and suffered "considerable pain" as a result.

He was presented with a search warrant for marijuana plants and told that he and his wife would be taken into custody to the police station.

The man said he was allowed by the officers to go upstairs and change clothes, but once he was downstairs, his wife's handcuffs were removed and he noticed police officers with flashlights searching their back yard.

He said he turned on the garden floodlight to allow the police officers more light for their search.

"Almost in the blink of an eye there was a change in the atmosphere as the cop that accompanied me upstairs advised us that there had been a mistake," said the man.

Once the error was discovered, the man said the officers were alternately apologetic and embarrassed. They left the residence soon after.

The man said the fear he and his wife felt that night was replaced by anger in the morning. They hand delivered a letter outlining their concerns on Wednesday to the RCMP. On Thursday, Inspector Tom Gray, the officer in charge of the Courtenay detachment, personally delivered a letter of apology to the couple.
...
According to the resident, a police officer involved in the investigation told him he had patrolled near to the residence several times before and had smelled the distinctive odour of marijuana plants. It is not known where the smell came from.
...

 

[whodair]

I'd be more worried about mold than choppers with all that lush green !! Very nice plants !!

I had to go thru the dreaded swat u describe and reading about it is one thing but going thru that is almost surreal !!

 

[OMountainMix]

Interesting that this thread got a bump, b/c we had a lot of helicopter traffic last night and it made me slightly anxious, but mostly made me think about this thread! We live a block from a major hospital and we live at a nexus of flight paths to various military installations, so my assumption was night patrols/training for the military and/or transport of military personnel between installations, but of course it makes you think twice. Usually, though, since this is an urban area, I think they use the helicopters in repeat patterns for finding people. I think I'm more scared that some criminal (other than myself, my husband, and people like us) is loose in my neighborhood. Also, there is a psychiatric hospital nearby, so I have to wonder about that. There's also an alzheimer's facility. So I worry about somebody's grandma wandering around in her nightgown or some poor person who is mentally ill wandering around. Still, the FIRST thing I thought about was not "CUT DOWN THE PLANTS" but about you and this thread!

 

[phrike]

I'd be more worried about mold than choppers with all that lush green !! Very nice plants !!

I had to go thru the dreaded swat u describe and reading about it is one thing but going thru that is almost surreal !!

Yeah, SWAT sucks, I wish they'd do a little old fashioned surveillance first to see if it's a gang house or peaceful seeming people with kids etc. My grower friend got busted 1st time earlier this year and described some 1-2 dozen black clad men with very menacing weapons.

Yes I AM very concerned about mold. Currently thunders-torming and we've had lots of 80-90+% humidity nights recently. My defoliation should reduce mold chances. I'm also using aspirin in the water/nutes to help. Considering a 10% skim milk solution I've seen posted here.

I'll post today's pot and chopper pics below once posted to imageshack. Security-wise I've seen other posters use that site so I presume it's reasonably trustable.

 

[phrike]

Interesting that this thread got a bump, b/c we had a lot of helicopter traffic last night and it made me slightly anxious, but mostly made me think about this thread! We live a block from a major hospital and we live at a nexus of flight paths to various military installations, so my assumption was night patrols/training for the military and/or transport of military personnel between installations, but of course it makes you think twice. Usually, though, since this is an urban area, I think they use the helicopters in repeat patterns for finding people. I think I'm more scared that some criminal (other than myself, my husband, and people like us) is loose in my neighborhood. Also, there is a psychiatric hospital nearby, so I have to wonder about that. There's also an alzheimer's facility. So I worry about somebody's grandma wandering around in her nightgown or some poor person who is mentally ill wandering around. Still, the FIRST thing I thought about was not "CUT DOWN THE PLANTS" but about you and this thread!

LOL. I figure even if the pot patrols are not running in your exact area you might see higher chopper activity now due to the ones travelling to and from areas. They've got to park and maintain them somewhere.

So yeah, I've seen more night activity but they may not be looking so much as going "home".

Yes, today's circling chopper could have been LEO looking for some escaped vehicle or felon or even psych-ward escapee. Or there might have been a forest fire they were watching. Who knows...


But cops running through your backyard after someone else and finding your plot IS one of those "axe of god" moments (as some other ICMag poster put it) that could bust even the most careful of us.

 

[phrike]

Slap on the wrist pisses lots of cops off. So some resort to other forms of punishment (and growing disincentive), like attempts at embarrasment:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2469076
NRP defends drug raid signs

Signs used by Niagara Regional Police to alert the public when it's conducting marijuana grow-op raids are unlike ones that landed police in another Ontario city in hot water with the provincial privacy commissioner, the service's deputy chief says.

Cornwall's police department came under fire last year after it began a controversial practice of posting signs on the lawns of homes that had been searched for illegal drugs.

The large signs carried the notice, "Drug Search Warrant Executed At ...," giving investigators space to fill in the street address.

But shortly after the first sign — about the size of a standard real estate sign — was planted in front of a small Cornwall apartment complex last January, complaints began rolling in from civil liberty advocates.

The office of Ontario Privacy Commission Ann Cavoukian launched an investigation and concluded in October that the signs breach privacy laws. Investigator Mark Ratner ruled the signs provide personal information by listing addresses where police executed search warrants.

The commission ordered the police service to stop posting the drug-search signs.
....

 

[phrike]

Some pics. This is the security forum so I'm trying to post security related pics, but as I have no grow thread yet, I'll take the liberty of throwing in a bud pic... LOL.

I was inspired by the very popular defoliation thread (87 pages in 3.5 months!): https://www.icmag.com/ic//showthread.php?t=174163

Primary reason is to hopefully enhance yield and finish time, but also serves to fight mold and to help prevent plants from being seen (security). My indicas were so bushy and extra-leaved it wasn't funny. I was considering removing some branches (to "sample" LOL) as full sea of green would still seem in effect, but went with defol of almost all fan leaves and several smaller leaves that were shadowing buds.

I also untied my plants today. I think at this point in flower it's appropriate. As a security plus all those different green wire ties are almost gone now. (I still have a few to pull some branches in desired way.)

First, the chopper. Requires full 2Kx1.5k resolution and blowing up to see it's a chopper, but very little detail. Where's Waldo/Chopper ? About 40% from left to right (just left of center), and about 1/3rd up the way from the bottom. On the plus side, if he was using naked eyes, I looked even smaller standing inside my deck door snapping pics, LOL.

Indica 1:

Indica 2:

Sativa: ("sampled" some pretty nice bud today. Much farther in flower; maybe seeded?)

The best Sativa "bud porn" I could get today. Can't focus cam close up so I back up, use the optical zoom and hope the light levels and optical image stabilization do their magic. This bud had just been sprung from it's LST tie so leaves aren't in normal sunward direction.)

BTW, I'm still a bit of a newb to modern growing but did have 2 decent (200g or so?) harvests 13 years ago under 400 watt HID. I read all I could from several books and turned my brown thumb green.

This is my first outdoor grow to go this far. First was pulled due to thread mentioned chopper paranoia. Been spending WAY too much time reading this and other boards to cram on modern techniques and issues.

 

[OMountainMix]

Like I said earlier, the staties are running the pot patrols in most states, mine included, and there is a NOTORIOUS mountainous area in my state. I used to live in that area, and man, I got the FINEST bud for half the price people pay. Basically, it was super green, super strong, but had some seeds. I'm fairly sure in hindsight that it was locally grown outdoor, kind bud with a few seeds. I got it from a local dude whose family was all plugged in around there, so I am fairly sure it came from the next county over that is well known for old locals doing big outdoor grows. My hubby worked in that area a few years ago and a man at his job was all in with the dudes who did the helicopter flights. I think my state puts most of the money they've got for flir into busting large outdoor grows up in that area. The only recent busts in my area were a dude who was growing outdoor in his back yard and also operated a home-based business. When his pot plants got too tall to hide behind his fence, he TACKED ON A PIECE OF FENCING AT THE TOP OF HIS PRESENT FENCING. Like REALLY? You didn't think your business's customers would wonder about your crazy looking fence and the smell??

Also, there was a large indoor bust in a rural area of my city where the man was running a big grow in a barn (that area is infamous for having great afghani cuts) and he got busted b/c he got a mistress and cheated on his wife and fucked everything up.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you see it, my area is also having some serious gang problems, so I think flying around looking for home grows is just not a priority. The big drug busts are all rings of coke or crack users/dealers. Even my sweet little neighborhood has got major drug problems. Lines of cars pulling up at one house, dropping someone off, leaving and coming to pick them back up. Other known drug dealers doing hand to hand in the streets. The civic association even tried to get the drug squad involved and got nowhere. The way they dealt with it was to write a threatening letter on RED PAPER and post them on everyone's doors EXCEPT the suspected drug dealers. (Like wouldn't the drug dealers notice everyone having a red sign on their door except for them???) Even my neighbor two doors down is a recently retired cop and he tried repeatedly to get the drug squad on the neighbor between us (the kid, not the parent) b/c the kid was having 4-6 different car loads of kids pulling up after school and staying for short periods of time, every day. He was told they just didn't have the man power to worry about things like that. They wouldn't have even had to do anything but hang out one afternoon in an unmarked and watch. Oh, and the house with the most traffic (right now anyhow, we have a lot of drug dealers for a neighborhood with less than 100 homes)? They are most probably running a brothel. Even Mr. Mountain has always thought they did. We (the civic association, and yes, I'm a valued member) signed a petition to the landlord to get those people out, to no avail. The lady thinks the civic association is picky and snobby, so when she moved out, she turned it into section 8 housing. WOOHOO! So yeah, any day is the day you or I could get busted, that axe of God thing, and all that, but honestly, I'm just not even on the radar . . . . I doubt you are, either.

 

[phrike]

A news item said there was a 560 plant outdoor bust about 35 km north of here on Sunday. No indication if planes/choppers found them. Other than that I haven't heard of outdoor busts in my large metropolitan area this summer. I wonder when (if?) I'll hear of local finds/busts.

July and most of August there was almost zero chopper activity around here, day or night. My wife and I have both noticed more night activity in the last few weeks. I'm still reasonably convinced it's pot choppers heading home at night from the rural areas north of here.

Just had a small seaplane fly directly over here (but not directly over my plot at least) about 100-150 feet up. I can't imagine that height is legal for a small plane. I've only seen a few military choppers fly at that height around here in the last 5 years. I have no reason to believe it's a pot patrol, but this province does have some fixed wing aircraft for pot and I could imagine a sea plane might be useful to land on small remote lakes where plants might line the edge.

I still find it incredible how many outdoor finds there are in the news this month and mostly large like 500 to several thousand. As expected though, very few busts as most large finds are guerilla. Given they acknowledge they only find a small fraction there must be a WHOLE LOT of outdoor ganga out there !

I've noted the cop news releases in Canada and the US often follow the same scripts. They talk about how many joints the plants represent and pat themselves on the back for how much are taken away from the hands of children. Yeah, "Won't someone please think of the children", LOL.

 

[phrike]

Damn ! Been spotted !!!

Damn ! Been spotted !!!

Damn, damn, damn !

I think I've been spotted !

Pull into driveway and chopper coming from my backyard over my house. About 200 feet up.

He turns around some 1000 feet or so across the street, comes back and flies over the perfect position to see my crop !

He came back a third time from different direction. Seems to be gone now. I have no idea how long he was over my backyard before I got home.


YES, I'm very anxious and nervous ! I may move or pull my plants tonight after dark. Probably should hide some things in the house better, or get rid of them.


Maybe nothing will come of this, I don't know. I hope...

 

[OMountainMix]

I sure hope not! Keep us posted.

 

[gaiusmarius]

shit that's a bummer, i hope they were just looking and didn't see them, they are rather low on the ground due to your training, they are totally untypical in shape for cannabis plants and in the end you have only 3 plants. just move them for now if you can. if you really feel in danger you could chop i guess, but that would be sad as they are so close to finishing now.

a clean house is the main thing, a few plants on your land could have been put there by anyone. move them far enough away. best of luck and stay safe, plants can after all be regrown.

 

[phrike]

shit that's a bummer, i hope they were just looking and didn't see them, they are rather low on the ground due to your training, they are totally untypical in shape for cannabis plants and in the end you have only 3 plants. just move them for now if you can. if you really feel in danger you could chop i guess, but that would be sad as they are so close to finishing now.

a clean house is the main thing, a few plants on your land could have been put there by anyone. move them far enough away. best of luck and stay safe, plants can after all be regrown.

Thank gaiusmarius. If anyone hasn't noticed I start a new thread about this particular day here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=3850315&posted=1#post3850315

Yeah, I'm not about to chop. Did that 4 years ago, nothing happened and I've regretted it ever since. Promised myself I wouldn't do that again.

Since they didn't hover I'm now thinking they either didn't see them, or didn't care about a mere 3 plants.

House is now pretty clean. I think it would take a team with a warrant several hours at least to find anything. Dogs would likely help, but I think they'd be indicating ALL the house areas I frequent, LOL. (But no, I never toke in the house, just garage/shed/outside.)


Yes those plants could have been put there by anyone. Today I'm not going near them, but if no chopper noises today I will likely go see them around dusk, and consider if I should move them a few dozen feet to the farmers forested area.

Thanks all !

 

[KharmaGirl]

Now a double thread. Closed.