Timbo

It's obviously the TSA, CIA and FBI out looking for more pressure cookers.

Now if they had only talked to each other, back when the Russians told them;

"You might want to keep an eye on This Guy".

JamesNoBrakes

A 5 minute search turned up a STC and a company that sells a modification that allows for this (infrared) to be fitted to a C182:

FLIR (Inframetrics) Mounts | Paravion Technology

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Gu...57562004E8FCA?

There are some good pictures on their website which look exactly the same as this story (diff aircraft maybe).

Edit, actually, they have a picture of a white one that has the exact same paint scheme as the airplane in the article.

MikeB525

And there's the obvious juxtaposition to Boston.

My crystal ball says this is the FBI or other agency. The FAA spokesman quoted in articles (Jim Peters) says "we have to be very careful this time". Sounds interesting.

savall

Weird... I'd be curious too.

11Fan

Nothing to worry about. It's just the IRS.

JohnnyG

Yeah,

you gotta read these articles. I'm mildly intrigued:

1. It flies from dusk until dawn and has for weeks on clear nights, on a pattern over this one town.

2. It's been acknowledged that they are keeping a secret purposefully, and the FAA isn't even allowed to know.


It's not a big deal, but does make a cool story.

Cubdriver

It probably is the FBI and my guess is they use rotating grass strip 100 miles or so out and bring avgas out to them to keep anyone from gathering too much data on anything. I have done secret ops myself in the GA operating environment, and even if someone was curious about one of our crews (often), you would never know what we really did or for whom. There were layers of secrecy to it, and some of the pilots did not even know very much. It would be very tough to figure out who they are if they did not want you to know. They could have a shell company set up to study magnetometer readings in the area and have the real mission mixed in with that, for example.

On the other hand it is hard to maintain strong secrecy levels in an exposed environment for long because people are people and they tend to leak facts. Circumstantial info like who you are getting mail from also gets compromised over time in the field.

Airhoss

It is definitely a dry chemtrailer.

Cubdriver

Well you have to wonder how secure our local skies are sometimes. If the FBI can do this sort of thing this conspicuously and with this little resistance from the target public, then some bad guys with enough money to burn could probably do it as well.

Airhoss

Cub have you used the new dry rub chemtrailing products yet? They are awesome and you can't disperse them with vinegar like the old mod 4 - 10 liquids.

This stuff causes erectile dysfunction and paranoia and is sponsored by a large pharmaceutical company.