Dr. G
Active member
Verger OG, do you have any idea how aircraft stay in the sky?
They move massive amounts of air across their bodies. It is impossible to get a reading of air particles that are below them at normal operation heights.
A helicopter must produce more downward force than it's gross weight. A light Kiowa (OH58) has a max gross weight around 2500 pounds, a typical, small, police or military helicopter has a weight of 5000-6000 pounds. It is pulling air from above and pushing it down with very high speeds. The only chance that aircraft has of getting air that originates at ground level is when it is 50' or lower from the ground (which police only do when the public safety is in danger, or unpopulated areas). Even then, it would be taking ground air samples of everything within 200'+ in every direction (160,000+ sq ft measured horizontally or 1,600,000,000+ cubic feet at 50' above ground level). A football field (from end zone to end zone) is 300'.
So, if a helicopter were hovering at 50', put a football field, length wise, on every side of it. That would be the air sampling area. All of the air in that area will be combined and impossible to single out an individual house, or know if it's just a joint or a grow (or even sage).
Bomb sniffing devices look for explosives in a very small area in front of them. A bullet or fertilizer will trigger a bomb sniffing device.
So, unless some miraculous discovery is made to cause aircraft to stay airborne without disrupting the air, scent sniffing from aircraft will not be feasible.
what he said