Rob
September 9th 05, 12:36 AM
Unidentified by me, anyway.
Last Sunday a group of friends from work went down to Skydive Arizona
in Eloy, AZ to make tandem jumps. Although I took my first jump last
time the group went down there, and boy is it a hoot, I didn't jump
this time. I did however round up a couple of friends to fly down with
me from DVT in the Tiger to socialize, take some pictures, and grab a
$100 green-chili-mushroom-cheeseburger.
Late in the morning as I was standing in the grass landing area looking
up into the sky I saw a large hawk soaring along overhead, probably a
couple of hundred feet in the air. Then I noticed what looked to be a
little white airplane flying in a triangular circuit. To my eye the
airplane appeared to be one fourth or one fifth of the size of the
bird. The airplane had an incredibly fast - almost instantaneous -
turn rate. It would fly along in one direction for a few seconds, then
practically instantly be flying along in another direction, maybe 120
degrees off, for a few seconds, then turn again. The motion reminded
me of a bat or other bird eating insects or something, except that even
though the thing was small (or maybe very high up), I could clearly see
the classic airplane shape of a fuselage, a wing, and horizontal
stabilizer.
My best guess is that I saw some kind of UAV. The only man-made thing
I've ever seen with that type of fast-turning flight characteristic is
maybe a small remote-controlled model airplane.
The thing was either very small and very close to me, or large and way
up. It appeared smaller to me than the Twin Otter jump planes did as
they passed slowly overhead at 13000 with a stream of jumpers that
appeared as little dots coming out the back. I could hear the jump
planes from 13000. I couldn't hear the UFO.
If it was a UAV I certainly hope it was above 18000, because I might be
sharing that airspace in the tiger and certainly the jump planes and
jumpers were. I obtained DUATS briefings both late the previous
evening before sleeping and early in the morning before heading to the
airport, and I sure didn't see any relevant NOTAMs.
Anyone have any idea what it was I saw?
-R
p.s. Getting into and out of Eloy, even with all the jump traffic, was
a snap. The runways are 2-20 and all traffic is requested to approach
from the west (the DZ is on the east side). Light wind procedure is to
land on 20 (right traffic) and depart 2 (left traffic). There were two
jump planes carrying 15 or 20 jumpers each operating round-robin all
day, but they were polite about coordinating other arriving and
departing traffic on CTAF. I timed their climb to the drop at about 22
minutes, so there's plenty of time between departures to come into the
area, fly the traffic pattern, and get to the ramp. Watching a new
wave of parachute landings every 10 or 15 minutes is a blast, and the
restaurant/bar was very accommodating. I highly recommended Eloy for a
$100 burger trip.
Last Sunday a group of friends from work went down to Skydive Arizona
in Eloy, AZ to make tandem jumps. Although I took my first jump last
time the group went down there, and boy is it a hoot, I didn't jump
this time. I did however round up a couple of friends to fly down with
me from DVT in the Tiger to socialize, take some pictures, and grab a
$100 green-chili-mushroom-cheeseburger.
Late in the morning as I was standing in the grass landing area looking
up into the sky I saw a large hawk soaring along overhead, probably a
couple of hundred feet in the air. Then I noticed what looked to be a
little white airplane flying in a triangular circuit. To my eye the
airplane appeared to be one fourth or one fifth of the size of the
bird. The airplane had an incredibly fast - almost instantaneous -
turn rate. It would fly along in one direction for a few seconds, then
practically instantly be flying along in another direction, maybe 120
degrees off, for a few seconds, then turn again. The motion reminded
me of a bat or other bird eating insects or something, except that even
though the thing was small (or maybe very high up), I could clearly see
the classic airplane shape of a fuselage, a wing, and horizontal
stabilizer.
My best guess is that I saw some kind of UAV. The only man-made thing
I've ever seen with that type of fast-turning flight characteristic is
maybe a small remote-controlled model airplane.
The thing was either very small and very close to me, or large and way
up. It appeared smaller to me than the Twin Otter jump planes did as
they passed slowly overhead at 13000 with a stream of jumpers that
appeared as little dots coming out the back. I could hear the jump
planes from 13000. I couldn't hear the UFO.
If it was a UAV I certainly hope it was above 18000, because I might be
sharing that airspace in the tiger and certainly the jump planes and
jumpers were. I obtained DUATS briefings both late the previous
evening before sleeping and early in the morning before heading to the
airport, and I sure didn't see any relevant NOTAMs.
Anyone have any idea what it was I saw?
-R
p.s. Getting into and out of Eloy, even with all the jump traffic, was
a snap. The runways are 2-20 and all traffic is requested to approach
from the west (the DZ is on the east side). Light wind procedure is to
land on 20 (right traffic) and depart 2 (left traffic). There were two
jump planes carrying 15 or 20 jumpers each operating round-robin all
day, but they were polite about coordinating other arriving and
departing traffic on CTAF. I timed their climb to the drop at about 22
minutes, so there's plenty of time between departures to come into the
area, fly the traffic pattern, and get to the ramp. Watching a new
wave of parachute landings every 10 or 15 minutes is a blast, and the
restaurant/bar was very accommodating. I highly recommended Eloy for a
$100 burger trip.