This guy was buzzing the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday. I don't know why, they have security cameras all over the bloody bridge. Training mission? Joy ride? Hmm.
The bridge is showing distressing signs of age and poor maintenance. Bare rusty rebars have popped out of a lot of the concrete on the pillars and such too. I wouldn't say that Golden Gate Bridge is falling down. But it's showing the same signs of distress as the rest of America's infrastructure.
Note: As usual, clicky on the pictures to embiggen them... but that photo of the chopper don't get that much bigger. I tried, but that's the best photo I got, he was moving *fast* and by the time I zoomed further he was gone.
-- Badtux the Golden Gate Penguin
golden gate is falling down...
ReplyDeleteI think they have cams bc of suicide jumpers. That an the whole paranoid Amarican way...
ReplyDeleteEmbiggens? That's a cromulent word. . .
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, Evil Spock will usher in the age of the Jetsonian flying car in 2012. Evil Spock says let the bridge crumble!
That's a Coast Guard "Dolphin". They could be checking out a new pilot on flying around the bridge, or someone may have reported a problem.
ReplyDeleteGiven the way he was swooping around the bridge, I think they were probably checking out a new pilot on flying around the bridge. It didn't look like they were looking for any problem in particular. Unless they were just hanging around waiting for one of those insane sail-boarders or kite-boarders to get whacked by one of the container ships. (Those little specks on the water under the chopper? Those aren't whitecaps, those are sail-boarders and kite-boarders right smack in the middle of the shipping lane, they scatter to either side as container ships pass through, then swoop back in to ride the wake of those big mothers).
ReplyDeleteYeah, the red colour and white stripe should be a dead give away, although I'd expect USCG emblazoned prominently somewhere on the body [1].
ReplyDelete[1] Then, again, if I were a terrorist with my own helicopter, I'd probably paint it red with a white stripe and USCG on it.
I hope he wasn't flying under the bridge. As best as I remember, the FAA has some stringent rules about pilots flying under bridges (almost certainly prompted by dumb pilots crashing while doing it). Of course, since the FAA rules don't apply to military pilots (which the USCG is), then they could do that.
As for terrorists scoping out the bridge, why would a terrorist want to bomb the bridge when they could just wait for the crumbling infrastructure to take it down on it's own (perhaps assisted by a mild earthquake)?
Dave
Let's see, it has a four-digit tail number though the digits aren't clear in the photo, and there's writing the correct length to say "U.S. Coast Guard" immediately below the rotor and above the U.S. military emblem. Finally, as far as I know no Dolphins have been sold to private partners, and the Dolphin has a pretty unique shape, so yeah, I think it's pretty clear this is a USCG Dolphin.
ReplyDeleteHmm, the Dolphin is a militarized version of the Aérospatiale Dauphin 2 (Eurocopter Dauphin). Interesting. So my notion that one could not be purchased privately and repainted in USCG colors is wrong. But this particular one was a USCG Dolphin.
ReplyDeleteIf you look closely you can see the Coast Guard emblem in the middle of the white stripe. It isn't very prominent which is odd given that they used the color US wing flash rather than the subdued.
ReplyDeleteThe Air Force uses the two digit year of delivery followed by a four digit incremental number on the tail.
The Cal Air Guard flies out of Moffett Field, but they use camo Low Pave HH-60s.
I don't remember the priest telling me when I went to Confession when I was a kid, "Well, Lance, it was wrong of you to disobey your mom and talk back to her like that, but since you set the table every night and do your homework and sent your aunt a birthday card, what the heck! You're a good kid. Your sins are forgiven automatically. No need for you to do any penance."糖尿病 糖尿病 心脑血管 文秘 糖尿病症状 糖尿病饮食 妊娠糖尿病 糖尿病预防 糖尿病治疗 糖尿病的预防 糖尿病的预防措施 糖尿病并发症 糖尿病足 糖尿病药物 低血糖 胰岛素 血糖仪 胰岛素泵 什么是糖尿病 并发症治疗 糖尿病急救 糖尿病中医治疗 糖尿病常识 糖尿病食谱 糖尿病的预防 糖尿病人饮食 糖尿病肾病 And maybe it's happened a few times and I haven't heard about it but I can't recall a judge ever letting somebody walk on the grounds the crook was a good guy and his friends really like him.
ReplyDelete