Was this a drone?

Yesterday morning 30 minutes west of Chicago, IL I observed this drone type plane make circular fly-by's for a good hour and half. It was fairly high up in the sky. It just kept flying by over the same path and I snapped like 25 pics us a minute or two of video because living here for over 8 years I have never observed this.

I am wondering if they are surveying the town and mapping out something. I















I didn't observe it leave because after smoking 4 cigarettes and staring up in the sky for so long, I got bored
Of this thing but I wanted to share the pics and my input and maybe we all should pay more attention to the skies.

Doesn't look like one to me but I'm not an aircraft expert.

If it was a drone doing survey would that bother you as opposed to a human pilot?

reply to post by 2ndSEED


Nah, looks too fat to me to be a drone. Large wings, large body... looks like there was a human in there. Good shot, though!

reply to post by Hopechest


Well it did bother me because I kept asking myself is it going to run out of fuel? What if its being pilot by a person who might've had a stroke? It must've been up there for 2 plus hours because it was there prior me taking a look and after I left it still kept circling, wasn't sure what it was all about. This area is highly traffick by airliners and this was in their paths so it strikes me odd of not a common thing. If it was a survey for land property wouldn't it be proper to use a chopper?

reply to post by swan001


Thank you for the input. Thank you for the compliment. I used my iPhone.

Originally posted by 2ndSEED
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Well it did bother me because I kept asking myself is it going to run out of fuel? What if its being pilot by a person who might've had a stroke? It must've been up there for 2 plus hours because it was there prior me taking a look and after I left it still kept circling, wasn't sure what it was all about. This area is highly traffick by airliners and this was in their paths so it strikes me odd of not a common thing. If it was a survey for land property wouldn't it be proper to use a chopper?

Yea a chopper would probably be used now until drones become cheaper and more common. As for running out of fuel well I imagine they have more than one operator around who would notice that. If the operator had a heart attack I'd imagine the guy sitting next to him or in the room would pick up the joystick, plus thier fuel capacity is pretty good from what I hear.

Much safer than if a piloted aircraft sees the pilot passing out or having a medical emergency. The list is really endless of why it was circling, it happens around where I live all the time, I live on a mountain so its usually forest helicopters watching controlled burns or lifeflight waiting for the ok to land somewhere. I can basically see all the aircraft around me so its interesting sometimes.

I haven't seen any drones that I know of yet....some very silent things flying around but that's about it.

is there a base near by? usually they do testing a drone at a base (i seen 5 flying overhead here in ohio)