[Scan-DC] mystery helo

[Alan Henney]

Hi Albert,

Funny you should mention this.

A couple weeks ago we had a similar helo fly over us in Takoma Park.
It looked like a Bell 412, but I'm no helo expert.  The color was
distinctive, either white with a blue bottom, or just the opposite.

I would expect some gypsy moth spraying to start soon in our area
(usually first week of May?).  But the sighting I had was before the
leaves started budding.

The helo I observed flew back and forth as if it were
mapping/surveying the area.

The famous Dept. of Energy radiation survey perhaps?

I checked the tail number you noted on landings.com, and it doesn't
appear to be anything obvious:

http://www.landings.com/evird.acgi?pass=62436543&ref=-&mtd=41&cgi=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fnph-search_nnr&var=0&buf=66&src=_landings%2Fpages%2Fsearch_nnr.html&nnumber=4120E

If you can figure it out, please let us know.

Alan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Albert LaFrance" <lafrance@att.net>
To: <Scan-DC@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 5:50 PM
Subject: re: [Scan-DC] Incident or Exercise???


> In the last approximately 15 minutes (it's 13:30 now) a helo has
made four
> passes (north-south-north-south), very low, beginning just west of
my
> location near the Annandale Rd./Arlington Blvd. intersection, with
each pass
> being further east.  The first pass might have been over the
Beltway, while
> the last was directly over my house.
>
> I think the tail number is N4120E.  The upper part of the fuselage
is white,
> with a blue "racing stripe" along the lower portion of the sides and
running
> vertically up the back.  There are two tanks or pods on the landing
skids.
>
> Possibly an aerial land-surveying/mapping operation?  Seemed like it
was too
> low for that, but I don't have any expertise from which to judge.
>
> Albert
>
>
>
>
>
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