I guess I was looking at the wrong video. An anomaly within the pod doesn’t explain how they got vectored to it from a ships radar
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Odd article for the New York Times - UFOs
- Thread starter jmcquate
- Start date
Yup.
Whatever the explanation has to also account for an S-band radar looking up from the surface holding firm track on it, apparently all day.
I think that's a pretty far stretch. The pod isn't going to take an auto track on an optical anomaly...anyway, that would be easily ruled out by comparing it with other video from some other time during flight.
Whatever it is they're looking at, it's flying through the sky and manuevering. Probably a Growler trying to find the tanker.
How does it track? Contrast? Just trying to understand. It’s either an object, or an optical anomaly. That’s why I’m asking what others have observed. Again, I think it’s significant that the rotation happens when the flir azimuth crosses the ADL. That’s quite a coincidence and may be associated with whatever gimbal is inside that pod.
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There is definitely something there. The way the videos are presented is weird though. It looks like two different FLIR videos with different PRFs and time syncs. At the beginning, the F/A-18 is in a left hand turn for a bit and then roles out with the object on its nose (ish) and that's when you see the object rotate. It's also weird that they can't get a lock with their CATM, but this was 2004, so probably a 9M and a piece of crap. As the thing rotates, the video cuts to a different FLIR video with an earlier time sync from a different aircraft.
I don't know the ranges they are at but things on the FLIR look pretty weird at longer distances.
I don't know the ranges they are at but things on the FLIR look pretty weird at longer distances.
From the WaPo article about what they're calling "the Nimitz incident" (which is bullshit...everyone knows that's when they went back in time and almost stopped Pearl Harbor):
Assuming Sex was quoted correctly, sounds like the shotgun CG had seen these contacts before and this was just the first time they'd had anyone airborne to go take a look. Which also seems weird...they had non-squawking, non-player air tracks acting weird in an oparea for several weeks during workups and nobody gave the air wing a heads up? And during a time which, as I recall, everyone was twitchy as hell about that sort of thing (not that long after 9/11 and all).
The cruiser tracked these things, sounds like the Rhinos had them on their radar as well. WSO says at one point there's a "fleet" of them and says to look on the SA page, so the whatevers were in the Link too. Obviously they held them on the ATFLIR, and the way Sex described it sounds like they were visual on them at some point (said he didn't see anything like rotor wash when it was close to the water). So something was there.
Fortunately Oumuamua came through and picked them up.
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RadicalDude
Social Justice Warlord
The video shown in the article was taken in 2015, not 2004. I was there. People are conflating the video with the story in the article.
I can attest that it is very real, not a flir artifact, and there were several other videos made in that timeframe that were submitted as well. Some aircraft were able to get tone, some were not.
I can attest that it is very real, not a flir artifact, and there were several other videos made in that timeframe that were submitted as well. Some aircraft were able to get tone, some were not.
"Unidentified Flying Object"
I'm confused about why this is suddenly such a big story. It's as if the NYT, CBS, and a few others just collectively decided "We're tired of bitching about Trump 24/7. Let's do a 13 year-old story on UFOs!" a few days ago. What's up with that? I'll ask my standard question when things get strange... Who stands to benefit from this story?
I've seen ATFLIR tracks on real aircraft which looked like what I've seen in the videos, due to exhaust plumes and my aircraft's distance from the track. One of the "UFO" videos I've seen online is so out of focus, it could be just about anything. It appears to by flying, based on the background movement, but is otherwise not identifiable. So in a literal sense, it's a U.F.O. But I see no obvious "impossible" maneuvers out of it.
Quick story: I had an opportunity once to meet with a distant in-law relative. He's a Hollywood actor, you've probably seen him in some things. Pretty interesting dude, despite being wayyyy further left on the political spectrum than I am. His wife is incredibly nice and an amazing cook. We were having a pleasant evening, until he asked me out of the blue "Have you ever seen a UFO while flying?". I answered honestly that I had never seen anything in the air that I felt was unexplainable. He actually got angry with me, and started citing all these stories he'd allegedly been told by pilots who saw alien spaceships. He told me a story about a "UFO" that he saw, and then gave a perfect description of what one of those oscillating Hollywood spotlights looks like when it illuminates the bottom of an overcast cloud layer. He was certain that The Truth Is Out There, man! I knew better than to try and explain how difficult it can be to VID another aircraft, even with sensors like radar, FLIR, and CIT. For politeness, I tried to change the subject.
The evening went downhill after that.
I'm confused about why this is suddenly such a big story. It's as if the NYT, CBS, and a few others just collectively decided "We're tired of bitching about Trump 24/7. Let's do a 13 year-old story on UFOs!" a few days ago. What's up with that? I'll ask my standard question when things get strange... Who stands to benefit from this story?
I've seen ATFLIR tracks on real aircraft which looked like what I've seen in the videos, due to exhaust plumes and my aircraft's distance from the track. One of the "UFO" videos I've seen online is so out of focus, it could be just about anything. It appears to by flying, based on the background movement, but is otherwise not identifiable. So in a literal sense, it's a U.F.O. But I see no obvious "impossible" maneuvers out of it.
Quick story: I had an opportunity once to meet with a distant in-law relative. He's a Hollywood actor, you've probably seen him in some things. Pretty interesting dude, despite being wayyyy further left on the political spectrum than I am. His wife is incredibly nice and an amazing cook. We were having a pleasant evening, until he asked me out of the blue "Have you ever seen a UFO while flying?". I answered honestly that I had never seen anything in the air that I felt was unexplainable. He actually got angry with me, and started citing all these stories he'd allegedly been told by pilots who saw alien spaceships. He told me a story about a "UFO" that he saw, and then gave a perfect description of what one of those oscillating Hollywood spotlights looks like when it illuminates the bottom of an overcast cloud layer. He was certain that The Truth Is Out There, man! I knew better than to try and explain how difficult it can be to VID another aircraft, even with sensors like radar, FLIR, and CIT. For politeness, I tried to change the subject.
The evening went downhill after that.
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Appearing on the SA page doesn't mean they were in the link.
I think the whole thing is pretty interesting, primarily the fact that there was a special access program to look into such reports - the most credible of which I always would have assumed could be explained by our own similarly-classified programs. Of course, compartmentalization being what it is, that's still a viable explanation.
I stand corrected; I thought if it was on the SA page = remote or local MIDS track.
I guess it's not surprising that there is such a program, though I would've thought it'd be more like a clearinghouse. Something weird is reported, you'd need an office with contacts and clearance to at least ask around and see if someone knows what it is, even if they can't tell you. "Yes, we know what that thing you saw in W-291 was. No, we can't be more specific."
Such an office would be an awesome premise for a TV show, you know. A military-themed X-Files.
Having seen what raw radar picks up I'm not surprised that there may have been a track out there even if it wasn't for reals, even all day.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the raw input part of that radar screen and doing radar clutter screening T&E too.
For that particular radar set, as described, still unusual.