Helicopter!!!

[fatcat666]

so a chopper flew right over the main plot the other day.... had a bunch of highly visible items out like bright coloured storage totes and some power equipment painted a convenient bright red. we hit the deck and buried our faces in the dirt and the chopper buzzed directly over us at high speeds. it was probably above us and in view for just over a second. i got a clear look at its underside and it was not a cop chopper. could have been forestry but judging by its colours it was a company rig.

never saw one chopper there the years before but this year they have started clearing out the diseased trees en masse all throughout the region. absolutely no way to avoid them, its everywhere and a widespread problem so the choppers and workers are everywhere but thankfully the area i live in is heavily forested so there remain large swathes of forest that are ok to use. but still, the choppers fly nearby and sometimes directly over particular patches....


my question is this: i've never ridden in a chopper before so i have no idea how obvious things on the ground are. these choppers are going straight to and from wherever and whatever they are doing and i assume they aren't interested in searching around and looking for pot patches. there are absolutely no police choppers out there doing random patrols.

what are the chances these guys spotted the patch??? i made a big mistake and left a bright blue storage tote out in the patch there for almost a week b/c we missed it in the middle of the night. now im super paranoid they saw it. just today another chopper came by, probably a couple miles in east of where i was and a way way way high up. am i fucked?

 

[ArcticBlast]

dude they definitely saw it... good luck though, i hope you have other spots!

ArcticBlast

 

[EmeraldHaze]

Well, the bad news is that if a low-flying helicopter flew directly over it, they probably saw it. Whether they recognized what it was, is totally different.

Remember, too, that unless it was law enforcement they really probably wouldn't care all THAT much. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be paranoid, but you probably aren't fucked. Just hope that if they saw it they won't narc you out.

Good luck...

 

[ArcticBlast]

in my experience, power companies and news choppers are just as bad as 5-0, but i guess it depends on your location. again best of luck!

ArcticBlast

 

[still2big]

crazy how you never see any choppers until you got plants out there aint it!

Honestly i wouldnt worry about it. If the did see it and report it then the stuff will be gone within the week.

1.what if they werent looking that way?
2.what if they are stoners too? Good possiblity
3.what if they just dont give a shit like most peoplel

No worries man..

 

[Mr. Stinky]

flying at 300-500 feet in a chopper or small plane/ultralite, you can see everything. i mean everything. even fresh walking paths thru a patch of grass are obvious from the air. anything that is not natural green stands out like a logger at the lesbian convention. the only thing at the grow site they CANNOT see is the actual plants if they are random.

the question isnt if they saw you, because they did. but what are they going to do about it? and is it worth your life to go find out?

 

[Fast_Pine]

so a chopper flew right over the main plot the other day.... had a bunch of highly visible items out like bright coloured storage totes and some power equipment painted a convenient bright red. we hit the deck and buried our faces in the dirt and the chopper buzzed directly over us at high speeds. it was probably above us and in view for just over a second. i got a clear look at its underside and it was not a cop chopper. could have been forestry but judging by its colours it was a company rig.

thats happened to me a coupple times, my friend Chaco has had it happen to him too. In my case its military doing training missions. The pilots surely arent hanging out the doors with binoc's. In those kind of birds the instrument panell is pretty high, so from what I immagine the pilots would have to be straining there necks to be looking out and down from the cockpit. Hence when they go looking for MJ they open the doors and hang out over the edge(or at least thats what ive seen on the media)...

You have to think, after a coupple rides in a chopper, staring at the ground with all its minute details would get old fast. IMHO these guys are looking at the instrument panel, or the general terrain in front and around them. Not constantly scanning the ground for God knows what..Chances are that most of the time they arent paying attention to details on the forrest floor either. Especially if they have already been flying over hundreds of miles of forrest by the time they fly over you and your patch.

When they flew over me a fiew days ago, I had a coupple of the large green baggs of perlite out,,,..Ms. Fast pine shit a fuckin brick..(4 Apachies at about 300'....

 

[Fast_Pine]

Sounds to me like military training opps..Ive had one of those big b-52 style bombers come flyin up the canyon so low that I could read the letters on the side of the body. He was actually lower in the canyon that I was. Guy was nuts, or real skilled, or both because he was skimmin the tree tops at 120mph!..

 

[fatcat666]

thanks for the tips. where im from they rarely bust outdoors so im hoping things turn out ok.... i sure hope the pilots realize we are all just trying to make a living

 

[Fluke]

Man I dont know what I'd be like if that happened to me. Thankfully I come from a country where theres only around 6 helicopters total.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

it's happened to me a couple of times. lay low from that site for a week or two. if all is well they didn't see it. police aren't going to wait around for 2 weeks for find some people growing a few marijuana plants.

 

[Mr.Jones]

it depends how large the operation was ... i mean if it was a comercial crop i wouldnt go back there - the police might wait for the growers there for a while.
but usually you can go back within 3 weeks i guess and have a very low risk of getting busted.

theres a nice little youtube video which i cant find at the moment on this topic

 

[TheGreatBC]

The main thing is going back there early morning, night to retrieve everything that could be used as evidance, pop cans,grow pots, tools, ect. Also get rid of the shoes you wear while going out to view your plot. That way even if they do come, they have no proof it was yours.

 

[ScrubNinja]

I've flown over rainforest in a chopper. I think it really depends on the tree cover you have around. You mention forest so if the situation is a clearing in reasonably tall tree cover, I'd say there's very little chance they spotted you in the patch at that speed if you were wearing green especially. They might have seen the tote thing though, but again, if it's a clearing in forest situation, you might be okay.

They aren't scanning the ground for weed plants if they're forestry workers. They were talking about last nights game, choosing a new playlist on their ipod, or sleeping. When you work a job like that, you are very keen to take advantage of breaks like that, in between cutting down trees or whatever they were doing, imo.

First time I attempted a serious grow by myself, I'd just spread 300 litres of perlite out in a clearing and a chopper was flying over me 20 seconds later, lol.

Anyways, this is all just my opinion, but regardless, I would still play it safe. Hope it goes okay man.

 

[jakeh]

About 10-15 years ago I was told it cost of $500 an hour to keep a helicopter in the air. Unless they were going very low and slow I wouldn't worry about it. Even if they did see you I doubt highly they marked your spot on gps. They fly over me all the time and there is just no way they can spot these needles in a haystack at high speed flying low. I don't know where it is but check out Backcountry's suggestions on where to plant to avoid helicopters being able to spot your plants.

 

[gobbler3447]

Helicopter!!!

Hey, Jakeh, got it right, the $$$$$$ arent there for flying this early in the year. In my state, I hear that if a county wants to use a State chopper, the State wants money up front to cover pilot, and fuel and INSURANCE.. The budgets for state trooper overtime in the drug task force are cut to pieces. So down here in the south its gonna be fall before there will be an eye in the sky.. I think your safe but it also shows you are trashin up the place. In our business we need to leave a place better than when we came. but sometimes I get careless I guess I'm some kinda pot head!!!!