View From Low-Flying Plane?

[DuskrayTroubador]

Hello everyone,

I was at a guerilla plot of mine recently. It is not at all unusual for planes to be flying around at various altitudes. Usually propeller type planes, I see them often. I'm told their gas company planes, but I don't know for sure.

Anyway, on one occasion there was a plane was flying particularly low. I'd say maybe only 500 feet off the ground. Lowest I've seen a plane there. He made maybe 4 or 5 passes, circling the area I was in (I'd say he was circling an area roughly 4 football fields in size). Now I was on one end of the area he was circling, basically right beside part of his flight path.

I've never been in a plane at that altitude or even a propeller plane at all, but I have to imagine he saw me. The area I was in wasn't super exposed (it's only maybe a 100 sq feet area with trees/tall vegetation on all sides) and I'm not sure how much he could decipher/see from his point of view. Tiny seedlings at the time, but in clear plastic cups and chicken wire cages, each with a weathered for a few years wooden stake. Ground is covered in clover, so no giant black dirt circles (only black dirt circles roughly 3 inches in diameter around the tiny seedlings). Very tiny plot, too. Only four small plants.

I've seen planes there fly in circles before, but never at that low of an altitude and never that close to me/my plot.

This was several weeks ago now. Plants are still there, cages and everything intact. No signs of any foot traffic in the plot. Haven't had any run-ins or anything like that.

What would you guys make of this? Anything? Anybody familiar with the view from a low-flying plane?

Would you abandon the plot? It's a pretty significant chunk of my harvest that comes from this plot, and it's otherwise very secure and have never had any issues. Also been using it for several years, so the soil is nice and built up.

 

[Three Berries]

You should see what you can see on Google Earth when you zoom in.

 

[flylowgethigh]

There are a lot of reasons a small plane could have been circling. If the plane didn't seem focused on your plot, it may have been something else that caught their eye. May not have been cops either, just someone out looking around. How far is the nearest airport/airstrip?

 

[40degsouth]

Hey DuskrayTroubador,
as luck would have it l have quite a bit of experience flying over a couple of my patches in light aircraft. Although l haven’t flown over them at 500 feet, probably more like 1500, l think you will be safe as long as you weren’t wearing highly visible clothes. The pilot and or crew would have to be looking right at you and unless you made yourself visable through movement or clothing l’m pretty sure you’re good. Even small patches cut out of relatively thick bush(es) can go unnoticed.
One of the best things to cover up or camouflage is your face and arms or any exposed skin, particularly with sun on it. So if you do have someone buzzing you and you can’t take cover, get into a ball, pull your sleeves down and don’t look directly at them, you’re trying to look like a bit of rubbish on the ground.
They could of been looking at or for anything so it could be a bit of a knee jerk reaction to abandon years of hard work when you don’t know what they’ve seen through their eyes and thought with their brains. Worst case scenario, they did see you but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to rip you but if that is their intention, again, it’s extremely difficult without GPS coordinates to do an air to land based search.
I’ve been buzzed by hellos twice and have had countless plans fly over me and so far I’ve only had one of these patches discovered.
I did spot a blue plastic 44 gallon drum from the air once, after the paint got washed off. This was the patch that got ripped but l don’t think it was because of the high vis drum from the air, my gut instinct tells me it was the ten eight feet tall Chanell + from Medical Seeds that smelt like skunk from 150 meters off that gave me away
Anyway Duskray, stay cool, stay calm, take precautions and see what happens. Pre determined plausible deniability for every dodgey situation is a must, remain silent and in the immortal words of Shaggy.....”it wasn’t me”.
Cheers,
40.

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

Hey DuskrayTroubador,
as luck would have it l have quite a bit of experience flying over a couple of my patches in light aircraft. Although l haven’t flown over them at 500 feet, probably more like 1500, l think you will be safe as long as you weren’t wearing highly visible clothes. The pilot and or crew would have to be looking right at you and unless you made yourself visable through movement or clothing l’m pretty sure you’re good. Even small patches cut out of relatively thick bush(es) can go unnoticed.
One of the best things to cover up or camouflage is your face and arms or any exposed skin, particularly with sun on it. So if you do have someone buzzing you and you can’t take cover, get into a ball, pull your sleeves down and don’t look directly at them, you’re trying to look like a bit of rubbish on the ground.
They could of been looking at or for anything so it could be a bit of a knee jerk reaction to abandon years of hard work when you don’t know what they’ve seen through their eyes and thought with their brains. Worst case scenario, they did see you but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to rip you but if that is their intention, again, it’s extremely difficult without GPS coordinates to do an air to land based search.
I’ve been buzzed by hellos twice and have had countless plans fly over me and so far I’ve only had one of these patches discovered.
I did spot a blue plastic 44 gallon drum from the air once, after the paint got washed off. This was the patch that got ripped but l don’t think it was because of the high vis drum from the air, my gut instinct tells me it was the ten eight feet tall Chanell + from Medical Seeds that smelt like skunk from 150 meters off that gave me away
Anyway Duskray, stay cool, stay calm, take precautions and see what happens. Pre determined plausible deniability for every dodgey situation is a must, remain silent and in the immortal words of Shaggy.....”it wasn’t me”.
Cheers,
40.

If I remember correctly, I had a jet black shirt on that day, and it was daylight.

My immediate thought is they probably saw me , but I kind of doubt that they would have been able to notice the chicken wire cages or tiny seedlings.

Chicken wire is easy to not see only 100 feet away, 500 feet away they're probably invisible. Same goes for little circles of black dirt three or 4 inches across.

I was sitting down with my pack when they flew over. At the time, I kind of thought they were circling in case they thought they saw someone in trouble and once I moved, they didn't make another pass.

I'm also not sure about their angle/visibility. I was under but also to the right of the cockpit, and the direction they were flying brought them over a hill I was at the base of. I was at the base of the hill, and they were flying from the other side of the hill coming over it, with me below them and to their right once they got onto my side of the hill.

There are a lot of reasons a small plane could have been circling. If the plane didn't seem focused on your plot, it may have been something else that caught their eye. May not have been cops either, just someone out looking around. How far is the nearest airport/airstrip?

There's at least one airport not super far away (not super close, but not terribly far). Not a huge airport, but it does have a decent amount of small planes flying in and out of it.

 

[Three Berries]

Ha, my first grow was out in a corn field. Sticks out like a sore thumb around the end of August.......

 

[flylowgethigh]

Use this ap and center on your location. If the plane/chopper have their IFF turned on, you can see who it is. You can also see what planes are flying around your patch when you are gone.

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

 

[Three Berries]

Use this ap and center on your location. If the plane/chopper have their IFF turned on, you can see who it is. You can also see what planes are flying around your patch when you are gone.

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

That's neat. I live south of Chicago and use to be right on the flight paths out of there. Every 10 minutes a jet flew either to the right or left overhead. But 9/11 changed all that.

 

[Chunkypigs]

don't stress that encounter, pilot was circling the thing he was looking at. some of the things an instructor has a student do during a lesson could also look like the plane might be searching for your weed when they are just trying to follow a road or circle some landmark that the teacher points to. some people are just up there flying around in circles with nothing better to do, most are going somewhere and in a straight line up high.

I had several small planes and was always looking for weed patches when I flew them but never spotted one.

I still stress every time a plane crosses my grow and I hear it, can't ever quiet the drug war still happening in my imagination...

 

[Creeperpark]

Don't hang around your plots, do your business and leave. I used strings tied across any open ways and if they were broken I stayed away. I hung weeds on the string so you can see the string in the photo

. Never had a string broke and never got busted.

 

[Three Berries]

I came home once and could smell the 2,4,D and went and looked at the plants. They had just been sprayed by the electric company right of way crew with weed killer. I dragged a sprinkler out there and ran it for three hours and they all survived. Got a few twisty branches though......

 

[f-e]

If planes circle regularly, it's perhaps a holding area. Airports stack planes up in such a manner, when they can't land right away.
4 football fields is aerobatics like tight. Perhaps it was higher than it looked.
Could you see the tyres on the wheels. The gap around the door or the handle. These are detals the size you don't want them seeing as they look back. How much detail you can see, doesn't address them looking back with binoculars, but you need to get some attention before they are using things like that.

I wear a boonie. It changes the shape of your head. Subconsciously we are looking for people, and the most rudimentary of shadows is a shape we don't want to have. Body shapes are varied, but heads we will find in our peripheral vision, and focus on. I also wear a thin snood I can pull up, leaving just my eyes exposed. In real danger.. I shut one eye. Two eyes is a very striking feature. It draws our attention so fast, it can be startling. Though the plane wasn't that close, surely.
Only with my boonie and snood would I be looking towards a plane with my white face in a sea of green. Which is not uncommon.
I have a range of hats and clothes actually. It PPE like my boots. I also write notes about the time/temp/weather and what I wore, along with comfort levels. Mainly this falls into the hike in & out, and the standing around trimming for hours. I even have one of them daft umbrella hats, to keep the sun off and the breeze flowing. My gloves are green. Only my wedding umbrella isn't camo of some sort. As that's just to sit on my head if I'm trimming in a real downpour. I probably look like a jellyfish, but I like to be able to see.

 

[troutman]

It's best not to look at them as a face is easier to spot than the back of your head.
Hiding under trees and not running if possible helps. Wear only green or brown in
the forest. Make sure you don't leave any soil bags or shovels lying around. Try to
go very early in the day and avoid sticky around longer than necessary. I've even
watered plants at night to avoid being seen by planes. Full moon nights are nice.

 

[xet]

It's best not to look at them as a face is easier to spot than the back of your head.
Hiding under trees and not running if possible helps. Wear only green or brown in
the forest. Make sure you don't leave any soil bags or shovels lying around. Try to
go very early in the day and avoid sticky around longer than necessary. I've even
watered plants at night to avoid being seen by planes. Full moon nights are nice.

This and if your skills are up enough plant and don't come back till harvest day. Use the cool fall days to prepare your Spring plot. Use the night if you must.

 

[f-e]

I have done many 4am starts. It's often cold and wet though, depending on your climate. Later in the year, with dew on the ground, it's hard not to make paths when it's like that. I have found waterproof/goretex boot liners can reach up higher than your trouser bottoms, so you don't put your waterproofs at risk unless it's actually raining. Nothing worse than snagging your noisy waterproofs when it's not even raining. The boot liners keep you dry when your in your outdoor running shoes and casual walking trousers. Though long grass may demand the full length trousers. All of which can be bought as surplus.

You need the right gear with 4am starts. The weather will change a lot throughout the day. Sometimes you even want fresh clothes to come out (the site) in. Vac bags are good to keep them dry, and for your dirty clothes to go into.

PPE is totally overlooked by everyone I have taken. I have to kit people out and feed them, or they will get piss wet through and moan all day about going home. Because they ain't up for it without a good feed and proper gear. Literally have to force them to dress and eat properly..

PPE for us includes protection from detection and capture. Which is an element we can't easily explain at the hardware store.

 

[Rider420]

Narcs use drones and cameras, planes and helicopters cost too much per hour. Nor are they going to set a trap other then a trail camera, and if they do find your plot they would just rip it up. Good idea is to store your equipment close to your grow so that your not carrying anything incriminating.

 

[troutman]

I wonder if anyone has a Bigfoot suit?

Fuk You Narc

 

[St. Phatty]

If I remember correctly, I had a jet black shirt on that day, and it was daylight.

My immediate thought is they probably saw me , but I kind of doubt that they would have been able to notice the chicken wire cages or tiny seedlings.

Chicken wire is easy to not see only 100 feet away, 500 feet away they're probably invisible. Same goes for little circles of black dirt three or 4 inches across.

I'm thinking some of my chicken wire is too easy to see.

Was going to spray paint it black.

 

[f-e]

I sprayed mine to take the shine off it. It's galvanised though. You need a primer and some carefully stacking so most of the paint isn't wasted.

I wouldn't bother with it again. The top edge cuts into the plants and if you plant it an inch, the roots pin it down so pulling them up stretches them. They catch everything, and scratch you. Unrolling the stuff and cutting it needs glove and arm protection. I did persist on one site where I could leave them over winter, but they were just not satisfying.

I found plastic much better. Tubes that pack like russian dolls. Plants like it a lot more. I think it's the thermal capacity of them. Catching sun and warming. They get a much better start in plastic. They should soon be out of them and covering them from aerial view.

Really, it's the professionals choice. Nobody is selling tree guards from chicken wire.

 

[xet]

I'm thinking some of my chicken wire is too easy to see.

Was going to spray paint it black.

Burn it in a fire to get the shine off and it will be invisible at your plot