How about a free flight model or an RC model out of range flying on it's own. I fly RC planks and rotaries and It's possible someone flying an RC plank had a radio problem or lost sight of the model and off it went. A well trimmed model could fly on it's own and if it had a tiny bit of rudder it could orbit and with a small amount of elevator and the C of G moving aft as the fuel got used up it could easily climb, with enough fuel a flight time of up to 30mins could easily be achieved.I've seen this happen and the model never found.
R

Rinker, I'd argue strongly with the word "easily" in "could esasily climb".

A model in anthing other than perfect s and l flight would crash quickly. I agree, it could haappen aand I too have seen moddels fly away quite happliy - but ive seen them crash far more often as a result of comms loss. I think your argument for the UFO is weak old bean.

D

Very likely. Last night it did look a bit like rain, dear. :ok:

But are you sure it wasn't man in a green flying suit?

Hey Sid, got that paperwork?

From another PPrune forum:

Santa's Pre-Christmas Flight Check

Santa Claus, like all pilots, gets regular visits from the CASA Flight Operations Inspectors, and the CASA FOI arrived last week for the pre-Christmas flight check.

In preparation, Santa had the elves wash the sled and bathe all the reindeer. Santa got his logbook out and made sure all his paperwork was in order. He knew they would examine all his equipment and truly put Santa's flying skills to the test...

The examiner walked slowly around the sled. He checked the reindeer harnesses, the landing gear, and Rudolf's nose. He painstakingly reviewed Santa's weight and balance calculations for the sled's enormous payload.

Finally, they were ready for the check ride. Santa got in and fastened his seatbelt and shoulder harness and checked the compass. Then the examiner hopped in carrying, to Santa's surprise, a shotgun.

"What's that for?!?" asked Santa incredulously.

The examiner winked and said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this ahead of time," as he leaned over to whisper in Santa's ear, "but you're gonna lose an engine on takeoff.

More of 'em...!

Last night...!

Just down the road in Halesowen...!

Must be true, it's on Sky...!

N:p

Shy torque: I agree but as professional fliers we really ought to try to rule out earthly explanations first!


Why? That's a biased view. As professional fliers we should be interested in the TRUTH first, regardless of whether it is terrestrial or extra. That's how I was taught science anyway.

David

Lol, this thread is so entertaining! :ok:

A similar image could be made by shooting the reflection of christmas tree lights in a window.
Echo of voices indicates it was recorded indoors.

One angle/background and they don't appear to move relative to each other is not conclusive!


Mickjoebill

Each to his/her own ideas of logical. Who taught you science?

Most things can be explained by what is already known and although I keep an open mind, we have relatively very little evidence of extra-terrestrial goings on. As I said, I have seen a similar thing, doing the same job in similar circumstances and discovered what it actually was. Metallised foil balloons.

As an aside, on another occasion, in my capacity as chief pilot of a neighbouring police ASU, I was approached by two very excited chaps from a local UFO group and asked for comments on a video of strange airborne lights they had in their possession (a steady red, a flashing red,a steady green and a moving blue beam). I was able to explain that it was our police helicopter and showed them our tech log sheets proving that we were operating over the same spot at the exact time of the video, using the nightsun (it was me flying). The person with the video camera was four miles away and had the lens on max zoom, causing amplification of camera shake which explained the "erratic movement" of the UFO.

I could sense their intense disappointment.....

On the other hand, I saw something in the sky in the 1970s in broad daylight which is still unexplained.

Back to the incident which prompted this thread...

I have been in touch with the pilot concerned (thank you if you are reading this) and obtained the following information:

Position of Airprox - 8Nm NW of BHX
Aircraft heading - Orbit
True airspeed - 80 kts
FL/Alt/Ht - 1500ft QNH 1022
Aircraft attitude - Turning right
Phase of flight - Cruise
Weather conditions - Visibility 30km + CAVOK Night
Date and time - 02 May 2008 2250 BST

Description of other aircraft;

Type - Unidentified/Radio controlled aircraft
Markings, colour, lighting - 2 blue/green lights
Aircraft attitude - Controlled flight level orbit
First sighting distance - Est. 100m
Minimum horizontal and vertical separation - Possibly as close as 50m

Form of avoiding action taken - Orbit tightened to maintain
visual contact. Once established tried to ID + then I flew away.
Tried to re-establish visual contact, but not able to.

Other relevant factors - Vision good

ACAS (eg TCAS)- Fitted, TA indicated - No, RA indicated - No
How did you report the airprox - By radio, to Radar, Freq 118.050
Classification of flight - Public Transport, Police Operations,
Non scheduled passenger, Commercial.
Description of Airprox - Front observer saw strange lights flying
around a/c. Visual contact established by pilot and a/c
manoeuvred to avoid collision + identify lights. Lights circled
a/c at same height, flew away North then returned. Contact broken
by flying East to Birmingham city and from a lower height, to
enable lights to be seen against a dark sky, a/c returned to
area. No sighting. Open land in area searched with thermal camera
for radio controlled a/c landing site, but nothing obvious found.
I believe it was a radio controlled fixed wing a/c with lights to
assist with night flying. It was purposely flown around us.
The intent could be sinister or just someone "messing about."
However, in Northern Ireland a threat to aircraft was believed to
be radio controlled planes. Which could be flown to "cause damage".
Birmingham Radar was informed at the time, and as would be
expected, nothing was seen on radar possibly due to size.

- Ground speed of aircraft at particular stages of the event. - 92mph/69mph

- Direction of orbit of lights - Anticlockwise

- did the crew attempt to capture the lights on camera? If so,
what was the outcome? - Yes. Nothing captured on video.

- Event duration: Approximately 10 minutes

Called Dudley...:E

N:p

Let me see if I've got this straight -- the pilot concerned was flying a R orbit, and saw lights moving anticlockwise, i.e. L relative to him...

Definitely aliens.