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Low-Flying Helicopter


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#1 ducky

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 08:36 AM

Does anyone know why there was a low-flying blue & white helicopter over Sutter Middle and East Bidwell Street this morning about 8:30? It almost looked like it was going to land on the field so I told my son not to walk across yet until it flew off over East Bidwell Street. It then later took another loop around the middle school

I've called FPD and they know nothing about it. I've called FAA and they said unless I had the numbers off the side they wouldn't be able to find out what it was about.

Weird.

#2 NorCalGal

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 08:39 AM

I saw it as well. I live in Orangevale around Main and Madison. I too, thought it was weird for it to be flying around so low!

#3 keyplayer

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 03:55 PM

I saw it this morning too. It was headed back towards the river after circling over Sutter. It kept getting lower and looked like maybe it was going to land at the lower field below the rodeo grounds but I think it kept going. No markings that I could see.

#4 texson

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 07:29 PM

Its been doing inspections on power lines in town.

#5 ducky

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 08:10 PM

Its been doing inspections on power lines in town.


So it's a SMUD copter? It looked like a Bell of some type maybe. Blue & white.

#6 Darth Lefty

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Posted 01 October 2010 - 09:30 PM

Are your missiles going into launch abort mode? Might be a UFO.

(Can it really be more cost effective to check power lines by helicopter? It's got to be money equivalent to ten guys in trucks)
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#7 Bill Z

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Posted 02 October 2010 - 05:37 PM

Its been doing inspections on power lines in town.

That makes sense, cuz I saw a low flying helicoptor right over the lines next to Oak Ave Pkwy between North & South Lexington Drive around 10 or 11 AM today, I was thinking if he wasn't careful he might get hung up in the lines he was getting so close to them.
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#8 john

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Posted 02 October 2010 - 07:48 PM

saw some dude dangling midair today from a helicopter today! Looked like fun!


#9 ducky

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Posted 02 October 2010 - 08:07 PM

saw some dude dangling midair today from a helicopter today! Looked like fun!


Where?

I'm not buying the power line thing. There's only one set of small power poles and on the side of the SMS field where they flew low there aren't any. There has got to be a better way of checking lines on small power poles. The people in the office said it sounded like they were landing on the building.

Now along the river I could buy because it might be easier to see that way.

#10 john

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Posted 02 October 2010 - 08:14 PM

They were near Oak Avenue, by Cummins Park... they definitely appeared to be doing something related to the power lines.


#11 ducky

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Posted 02 October 2010 - 08:31 PM

They were near Oak Avenue, by Cummins Park... they definitely appeared to be doing something related to the power lines.


Those are the big tall metal tower power lines, right? The only thing by Sutter are those small, wooden-pole types and there aren't any big poles over East Bidwell in that area.

#12 03Evan

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Posted 08 October 2010 - 01:02 PM

They are servicing the power lines. They use the helicopters because lots of heavy equipment has to make its way to the top of the tower as well. The helicopters aren't owned by SMUD, but probably Western Area Power Administration or similar (actually most of those big towers you see aren't owned by SMUD either).

Here are a couple of pictures we took.

Attached File  IMG_0510_2.jpg   171.95K   18 downloads

Edit: We took a few pictures but the forums won't let me upload any other than this one...

#13 texson

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Posted 08 October 2010 - 02:39 PM

There is a separate helicopter lowering HVAC units on a commercial bldg, but don't know which one.

#14 ducky

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Posted 08 October 2010 - 03:07 PM

They are servicing the power lines. They use the helicopters because lots of heavy equipment has to make its way to the top of the tower as well. The helicopters aren't owned by SMUD, but probably Western Area Power Administration or similar (actually most of those big towers you see aren't owned by SMUD either).

Here are a couple of pictures we took.

Attached File  IMG_0510_2.jpg   171.95K   18 downloads

Edit: We took a few pictures but the forums won't let me upload any other than this one...


Thanks for the pic. I saw what looked like the same helicopter fly over yesterday, but it was much higher and faster. They are obviously doing some sort of work in the area.




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