Just got buzzed by a hot squad of attack helicopters...?

a reply to: mindseye1609

Yeah, what Zaphod58 said above is great. As long as you're polite and courteous, I'm sure they'll be glad to break the monotony and chat with you.

right on, it's now 6:30 do they pull Late hours or should I wait till tomorrow?

a reply to: mindseye1609

They usually close around 4 or so, so the morning would be better.

Just to update I've sent a couple emails both Friday and today so let's hope someone responds.

a reply to: mindseye1609

Awesome! I was going to head down there yesterday. We were in Gaylord for the Easter Egg Hunt, but the weather was going to take a gnarly turn and decided against it. Made it back right across the bridge as the snow was starting. The usual trip down Route 2 took nearly double the usual 90 minutes.

Did get a couple nice pictures though on the way back North though.

originally posted by: HomerinNC
I'm pretty sure the AH-1's were retired from active service. The airframes on most are over 30 years old. You'll see many in private hands or some are used by the national forestry service....

Super Cobra still in service.

Super Cobra

I wonder if all this activity in multiple states is Jade Helm ?

Jade helm 15

Jade helm - MSM coverage

a reply to: Ex_MislTech

I doubt it has anything to do with Jade Helm. As I said back in the thread, Camp Grayling is the largest National Guard training facility in the country. While it is active all year, Spring through early Fall are the most active times. There is also a lot of training that takes place at Fort Custer, near Battle Creek.

"HOT" would also indicate you saw live ordinance in the tubes.

a reply to: cavtrooper7

It definitely looked like they had something hanging from there little winglets. I couldn't tell if they had blue on them or not tho.

a reply to: mindseye1609

Drove past Grayling last night and this popped into mind. Ever wind up hearing anything back from them?

On a side note, when near Brighton we did see Yankee Lady flying, headed east about 1500 AGL. Was hard to watch while driving and nowhere to stop for a picture. They have the I-96/US-23 interchange pretty torn up right now.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

I actually forgot about this til now, I just checked my email, trash and all, and no luck. From what I've been reading lately 50' AGL isn't uncommon in the ME with all the surface to air potential. Probably a couple marines just trying to do what they always see the 160th S.o.a.r. Doing lol. I would assume you would have to train flying long distances just above ground level lower then towers and some trees. Probably what I saw.

The chinook has been MIA for the last week or so too, I actually called my cousin yesterday to see if he's seen it and maybe I just missed it but he said no. That suckers rattles my dishes and wakes my babies when it goes by but it's comforting knowing that they are on my team lol. I almost miss it now that it's been Mia lol.

I'm thinking maybe Cmdrkeen is right about the spring - fall. The sightings shot through the roof as soon as it warmed up a bit around here. The chinook started showing up 4-5 times a week and then the low fly over About a week into the warmth. I'm going up near grayling morrel hunting soon hopefully they are live when I get up there. I've seen dogfights up there and it's pretty amazing.

a reply to: mindseye1609

Yeah, you'll really get a lot of the low level training in the summer. I've had A-10s fly right over the tree tops in one of the more forested campgrounds. They actually got in trouble for that one. The DNR was doing tree trimmings, literally shook the guy from the tree top, luckily he had a harness on. That was about thirty miles south of Alpena in the Pike West MOA, maybe fifteen years ago now. Every so often you'll hear sonic booms coming in from across the lake, where they do a lot of fun stuff out in Pike East MOA and R-4207. The air has to be just right for it though, since it's pretty far out from shore.

What I'm waiting to see, and from what I've heard from some of the locals when we moved in, is that occasionally the B-1s will use the Hog and Garden Islands just north of Beaver Island in Lake Michigan for practicing low-level passes, but they occasionally circle over Manistique. I was also told they practice touch and gos at the former KI Sawyer base, south of Marquette. I saw one doing that probably twenty years ago at Selfridge once. It's a pretty amazing sight!

And ground traffic has increased too. We're just off US-2 and last week (4/20-21) I was seeing all sorts of ground vehicles heading east, presumably heading to Grayling. On our trip back north on 4/27 we passed a short convoy of Humvees headed north on US-23, just south of the I-75 interchange near Flint.

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid
And ground traffic has increased too. We're just off US-2 and last week (4/20-21) I was seeing all sorts of ground vehicles heading east, presumably heading to Grayling. On our trip back north on 4/27 we passed a short convoy of Humvees headed north on US-23, just south of the I-75 interchange near Flint.

Managed to get some pictures of a convoy stopped in town today. Nothing fancy, just sharing.

Military convoy through the UP.

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid
a reply to: mindseye1609

They were heading directly for grailing so that was my first guess but why travel hot if it's a training excercises for the guard?

Near Grayling, MI? There is a live fire practice area northeast of there. The National Guard trains there all year. Stays east, goes almost as far north as Gaylord. It's on the aviation charts at R-4201A/B.

I've been to Grayling as a child in JROTC. Seen lots of helicopters there. Not as many as Fort Campbell but you get the jest. I've been on many Blackhawks.

In Afghanistan, there are several civilian versions MI 8's flying cargo contracts for the US Army.

MI 8