Strange Aircraft Activity Observed In Southern Utah [View all]
I live in the small Southwest Utah City of St. George. While out for my daily afternoon walk today I observed a low flying aircraft flying in a clockwise rotation that took about five minutes to complete one revolution. This activity was first observed about one hour before dark and continued until dark when the aircraft flew off and disappeared. The only airport around here is a small facility with a half dozen daily commercial flights to and from Salt Lake City, so this activity was non-typical for this area. When I arrived home after my thirty minute walk, I observed the aircraft through my binoculars and determined that it was a Lockheed C-130 and probably an AC-130 Gunship.
It felt kind of weird for me to observe what was going on. I am a Vietnam Era Veteran and my neighbor is a Marine who was a door gunner on Huey's in Vietnam. He saw the plane also but didn't really know what it was doing at the time. Everyone else seemed to be oblivious to the activity.
Does anyone here on DU have any direct knowledge or experience with how these crews train and calibrate their equipment? Is this normal military activity or is there something else going on?
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