Mysterious low-flying plane circling over Marietta

Originally posted by byeluvolk
Lockheed Martin has a production facility there. The plane you saw is probably some new prototype in testing. Or even just a common aircraft you are not familiar with that they happen to make.

Yeah we all know about Lockheed and are used to the "Greenies" that fly out of there. I don't see the residents being spooked about those because they see them all of the time.

Originally posted by byeluvolk
Or as pointed out, it may be doing the "Birds Eye" view things for google maps, or one of those types of things.

Could have been, but I wonder why the airfield didn't want to comment. They could have said that plane's flight plan is normal and registered and that be that. I also forget to mention in the original post the Dobbins AFB said that they didn't give that plane access to their airspace, so it wasn't military.

Originally posted by sevensheeps
Nasa flying low over cities to measure airpolution

Perhaps it's this?

edit on 26/7/11 by sevensheeps because: spelling

Very well could have been, but that plane is rather large. I take it that the plane spotted from the article was a smaller plane such as a Cessna. Plus, I'm willing to bet NASA would depart from Dobbins ARB rather than McCollum Airfield, but that's just an "educated" guess on my part.

Originally posted by StratosFear

Originally posted by majesticgent

Mysterious low-flying plane circling over Marietta

mdjonline.com

“The McCollum tower said they knew what it was but they weren’t allowed to say what they were doing,” said Ardice Saffold.

(visit the link for the full news article)

. Guy with the P-51 i mentioned had alot of complaints to the little tower at the field and they used to tell people we dont have any idea what he`s doing. Buzzing the town is kindof the thing to do now.

I hear what you're saying, but in this case the tower told the people they knew exactly what that plane was doing, but they were not allowed to tell. I'm not a pilot, so I'm not sure if the tower can comment on a private plane's destination or whereabouts for security reasons, and maybe you need a warrant to get access to that kind of information?

reply to post by getreadyalready


Do aircraft control towers have to respect a private plane's right to privacy and can not reveal their flight plan or intentions in that airspace?

Originally posted by Frira
Civil Air Patrol (a.k.a, US Air Force Auxiliary)-- a four seat Cessna is the standard.

Primary mission is to look for downed aircraft, but from time to time they can be and are activated for various missions from the mundane (looking for marijuana crops) to the exotic (flying radiation detection equipment). Several days over one area means it is probably neither of those examples.

Very possible, and I think it was some type of police activity. The reason why I want to rule out military activity though is due to an important part of the article that I didn't have room enough to post. Here it is:

Dobbins Air Reserve Base spokesman Shaun Shank said the plane did not originate from the base and the controllers did not give it clearance to fly.

“We have limited control around the air space,” he said. “Our air space we control is more immediate to Dobbins.”

Source: mdjonline.com...

reply to post by majesticgent


Actually, I don't know the answer to that. I've never heard a tower ask for any plane's intentions. In all likelihood, the tower has no idea what they are doing there, but if they are in contact with the plane, and no FAA restrictions are being broken, then they have no reason to move them along.

I went up with a friend to take some pictures for Christmas cards. We alternated between me flying the Cessna and him flying the old Cub, and then vice versa. We were in tower contact when we were over the town, circling the football stadium, capital building, etc., and then we moved on out of town and took pictures over the beach, and some swampy areas, and a light house. The tower never asked what we were doing, and we were up there for about 2 hours. The only tower contact was to inform us of approaching commercial traffic, and even that was just a courtesy, because they had no responsibility to do it. It was our responsibility to stay below the tower controlled airspace and out of the approach paths for the airport.

I would guess that the tower was aware of the plane, had radio contact, and therefore didn't see it as any kind of threat, but they probably had no idea what the plane was doing.

I also want to mention that a few weekends ago, I did see a small private plane land at Dobbins Air Reserve base while driving down Cobb Parkway (Highway 41) I thought to myself hmm that's weird normally only see cargo planes and J-Stars land there.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I see. I find it strange that the article mentions that the tower knew what the plane was doing, but were not allowed to say. Either someone is pulling our chains, or it was some official police business.

A friend of mine from school grew up to work for NASA. Check out these pics he posted on FB...One of them is A Scaled Composites Proteus high-altitude aircarft.

Link

reply to post by majesticgent


I think it is just a miscommunication. If you call an Airtraffic Control Tower, you are not going to get the controller on the phone, you are going to get some admin person. It might be true that the admin person is not allowed to discuss any details of air traffic. It might be an office policy, or it might be a security issue, or it might be an actual law. I can see lots of reasons that the ATC shouldn't be discussing any details with the general public.

If someone calls my job, we are not allowed to confirm or deny the existence of just about anything. There is too much legal liability for letting something slip that should have been confidential. So instead, we just talk in generalities. We say that we cannot confirm or deny any specific situation, but in general, X can legally be doing Y, and Z, and if there was a violation, the normal procedure is P, Q, and R.

It was not Civil Air Patrol. All corp CAP planes are clearly marked on the underside of the wings with "CAP" and "Civil Air Patrol". There is a CAP plane at McCullum and the HQ for the GA wing is at Dobbins but this air craft did not seem to have any markings to indicate it was CAP.

The FAA flies a survey plane that does circles and low passes over the runways to check the magnetic headings of the runways but IIRC its a multi engine. This is most likely Georgia Aviation Authority doing Counter Drug operations with GASP and Cobb County police.

THE DRONES ARE HERE - BUT THEY FLY AT 65,000 FEET SO YOU WON'T SEE THEM.

AND HERE COMES THE US "EXTREMEST" EARLY WARNING SYSTEM:

Grand Forks Air Force Base is slated to receive 10 of the new Global Hawk Block 40 drone surveillance aircraft.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Andersen, who oversees acquisition of weapons systems for the Air Force, said the first one could arrive by July.

AND

An unusually high number Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) across the nation have been declared by the FAA for this week.

The twenty-two no-fly zones for “Security” are in effect during the last week of July, 2011.


Is there a relationship between the two?


Look here and decide for yourself - pstuph.wordpress.com...

reply to post by webworker


link not working
2nd

reply to post by Mikeyy


Small planes don't require a destination. I live very close to a small airfield and the planes that take off from there very often fly in circles and at very low altitude ( i.e. approx 150 ft.). Those flights do appear to have increased lately along with military air traffic.

I have often thought that with how low they are flying that they are probably doing some sort of radiation sweep and/or detection. (That is complete speculation though)

reply to post by majesticgent


Searching for weed plants. It was probably a newcomer who moved into the area. The rest of us who have lived here most of our lives are pretty used to it by now. Every summer, without fail, here in Ga, you will have low flying planes and helicopters. This usually brings about 4-6 busts a summer.

New google earth protocol
Need to get head shots now........ lol