posted on May, 14 2009 @ 03:26 AM
reply to post by Malcram
The cameraman estimated the distance of the lights at about 37 miles from his location. Based on that estimate, he then estimated the distance they
covered and thereby the speed. You, from viewing the video, also believe that the lights are beyond Santiago. The problem is, there is nothing to base
the estimated distance upon. From the video we know only that the lights are between the mountains and the camera. There is no way to judge the
distance of points of light.
Sure, the lights
could be 37 miles away (very bright lights!). But...
We know that the Chilean Air Force is based at Cerrillos. We know that they fly T-35's. We know that they fly in fairly large formations. We know
that T-35's have a single, nose mounted landing light. We know that the cameraman was about 7 miles to the ENE of Cerrillos. With what we know, it is
very reasonable to assume that these are aircraft landing at Cerrillos.
When airplanes are preparing to land they usually fly a pattern consisting of a downwind leg, a base leg, and a final leg
(
Landing pattern). Military pilots do vary from this basic pattern sometimes. I
believe we are seeing the aircraft flying their downwind leg toward the camera. As they turn onto their base leg their landing lights turn away from
the camera causing them to dim. At the same time they fly across the field of view.
Below is a rough (I'm getting sleepy) diagram of what I am talking about. As I said, it is impossible to judge from the video exactly where the
planes are but a landing pattern would look something like this. The geometry would be similar. The base leg could be nearer or farther from the
camera. Since we don't the the exact direction of the camera, the downwind leg could be more to the east or west. In the video we only see the first
part of the base leg because the aircraft leave the frame. Since the planes are much closer than 37 miles the speed would be significantly less than
the cameraman estimated.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/9dee4dca84772e24.jpg[/atsimg]
[edit on 5/14/2009 by Phage]