What to look for on a chopper

[B00st3d]

Just curious what to look for on a chopper. I seen a chopper near my house with a re dlight flashing underneath it. It was flyin prolly a few thousand feet at the very most , it was def alot lower then I usually see them fly by me. I see choppers all the time but never quite this close and never with that red light flashing. Anyone?

 

[la resistance]

the ones with FLIR all have a basketball sized thing underneath them I believe... as far as the light, that was probably to tell other flying things not to hit it. how many watts/lights are you using? that'll determine if they would be able to see anything or not

 

[B00st3d]

at the time he flew over only a 600 and a 400 side by side, not air cooled tho. On the very bootom level of a multi level house. There was something on the bottom of the chopper tho that had the flashin light, I could see it very well. wasnt just a light on the chopper, it was a piece of equipment that had the light on it. How low do they have to fly to get a reading ?

 

[RudolfTheRed]

How do you know he was looking at your house and not just flying over and you happened to notice it? I really wouldn't sweat it to much.

 

[B00st3d]

Its just that I see choppers all the time cuz they are around alot where I live, however I never seen one with a red light flashing under it like that. Not to mention it wasnt even dark yet, it was maybe 15 minutes b4 it started to get dark. Maybe Im just paranoid , who knows. Its better to be safe then sorry tho.

 

[RudolfTheRed]

Was it a helicopter for the local news or something I've noticed they have cameras mounted under them... or was it the ghetto bird?

I to see a lot of choppers... mostly from the national guard though which sucks a lot during outdoor grow season. They look like this...

 

[B00st3d]

Doubt it was a news chopper. It did have some markings on it and was shorter then that chopper i n the pic. Looked at FLIR's website and noticed that the chopper IR systems they sell do have a red lookin lens on them, whether or not it flashes or not is beyond me tho , I couldnt find that out .

 

[ahssensi]

Red light flashing from the bottom is generally light for other aircraft to see so they don't collide. They will be on all the time day or night unless they have cleared the airspace of other airtraffic. Flir can be mounted underneath on the belly or up front under the nose, little large than a basket ball doesn't have to be round. It also can be on top above the rotor.

 

[ahssensi]

Here's some pics to illustrate what I was trying to say.

 

[JJScorpio]

With the flir units there is an image sensor that mounts to the outside of the chopper. This is connected to a control panel and screen that are inside the chopper. Depending on the size of the unit, they can range from a few inches to a unit the size of a basketball or larger. They are like a large web cam. You're not going to see a light on them and if the choppers high youre not going to see the unit very well....

 

[Saelin]

thanks for the info, I had heard about the IR systems talked about for years but never seen pictures of what it looked like on the helicopter. Do they penetrate the entire structure, or would a room in the basement area be safer?

Here's some pics to illustrate what I was trying to say.

 

[ahssensi]

My experience with them is only on military craft for military use. They detect differences in heat signatures and can be fine tuned for whatever heat signature you are looking at. Not sure how the civilian ones work. Trust me when I say the civilian ones are probably not as good as the GI versions, much bigger budget. However I do know the sometimes use National Guard craft in their search.

 

[xu2x]

Personally, I've seen choppers flying low that have a rod sticking out of the side with something black on the end(maybe a camera of some sorts?).....and other times nothing out of the ordinary chopppers flying low. But this was in the day time and not looking for 'hot spots'.

 

[Vermonster]

they aint looking for 1000 watts your good, although you havent re-posted, you in jail? i had a chopper like 100 feet off my house once w. a bunch of outdoors going out back, but they were looking for a suspect who was hidin in yards, get a scanner.