UFO's!

[mmilano]

until i drove down the road to see what it really was. at first i thought i saw a shooting star, .. then, i noticed multiple lights and it was heading down. i thought a plane was going down. but then it came back up.

it was a circle of lights. they looked light blue. then i saw another. both were flying in circles, but not in one place. they would do figure 8s.

i drove closer to the UFO's into a shopping center and got out of the car. there is a park next to the center. so i walked to the park and there it was. 2 guys flying RC's.

one landed and it was a total home made job. cardboard, tape, and exposed RC parts. they were circular in shape with holes in the center. the guy said he was selling them. $600!!!!! lol.

it was pretty cool how they flew very very slow. before they came down, i thought they were flying like rotocraft.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

An old friend of mine had an RC built from scratch... in the shape of a 18" red flying saucer. VERY unstable airplane but a real eye catcher. I thought it would be neat to have a ring of sequenced flashers around the circumference, and fly it at night.

 

[gismo]

An old friend of mine had an RC built from scratch... in the shape of a 18" red flying saucer. VERY unstable airplane but a real eye catcher. I thought it would be neat to have a ring of sequenced flashers around the circumference, and fly it at night.

Heck you can go pretty far with something much simpler. When I was in grade school I made a string of flashing lights and attached them and their battery to a kite that I flew on a 1000 ft line one night. About half the neighbors were sure it was a UFO!

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

1000 ft line one night

1000'?! Big wind? I imagine you with a large pulley hooked up to a winch on the front of a jeep.
Sounds like fun!

 

[gismo]

1000'?! Big wind? I imagine you with a large pulley hooked up to a winch on the front of a jeep.
Sounds like fun!

'twas a small kite. I actually have flown a hang glider towed behind a boat on a 1000 ft line and that was 3/8" poly rope, but the "UFO" kite was on regular heavy duty kite string.

 

[poadeleted20]

The RF-4C had a "flash" setting on its nav lights (which we used on low-levels since flashing lights stand out better than steady ones) and glowing green formation "strip" lights along with the regular red flashing anticollision lights (top and bottom). One night, my wife is working at the news desk at WHAS radio in Louisville, when she gets a call from some woman out in the state that a UFO just flew past her house -- "flashing red and green lights, and green glowing lights." The woman insists it couldn't be an airplane because of its high speed and low altitude. Knowing I'm out flying with the Guard that night, she calls the unit and gets hold of me. Sure enough, the woman lives a bit north of the centerline of VR1064. After cross-checking the times, I tell Fran, "Call her back, honey, and tell her, 'That was no alien, that was my husband.'"

 

[Alan]

Picture a dry cleaning bag taped up that is full of hydrogen. This will make a very irregular shape. Go to the up wind side of town at night. The lights of town will make the bag visible. Folks will have no idea of the size or agl of the bag because they have never seen one floating across town. This can cause all kinds of UFO stories.

My first job was cooking burgers at a Burger King. One summer they had a helium baloon give give away and we filled 5-6 trash bags with gas and turned 'em loose. I'm probably too old for such now, but I sure caused a stir back then.