Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

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gbnz
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Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by gbnz »

Anyone else experienced the above :!:

Following a flat out, 100 mile plus transit through Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire this week (On my return from a week in France), I identified a fairly empty stretch of land in Gloucestershire, a good four miles out of town, a single house out of sight being the only local dwelling within a mile. Noting the fact that the gate to the woodland area obviously hadn't been opened for several months, opted to "wild camp", a good 100 yards into thick woodland.

Being knackered, a quick wash, tent up, ear plugs in and I was "out" for the night, nothing could wake me.

Other than a helicopter hovering directly overhead in the pitch black, the volume sufficient to shake me from sleep. *%&$""% myself, I virtually jumped out of my skin, prior to recognising that it was highly unlikely a private landowner or the state, would descend upon me SAS style :? . Said helicopter then circled overhead, departing once, twice, prior to returning directly over me on each occasion.

There were no people, human habitations, transport or utility networks for said helicopter to be surveying.

I'm assuming my prone body was identified by infra red techniques (Police, Badger culling?). Any ideas?
videoman
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by videoman »

Aliens
thirdcrank
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by thirdcrank »

I think that the area covered by a helicopter which seems to be directly overhead is quite large so they might well have been looking at somebody else. I base this on the area containing people complaining when the police helicopter has operated over an urban area at night. I've no idea of the equipment carried by current police helicopters, but from my own observation when my sleep has been disturbed, they still have a large and powerful searchlight. Discreet operation is not on the agenda.
mercalia
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by mercalia »

Probably GCHQ been tranking u since u came back to UK. it was in the hurried bill that "Parliement" passed a few days ago. Any one can now be followed and spied on.
gbnz
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by gbnz »

mercalia wrote:Probably GCHQ been tranking u since u came back to UK. it was in the hurried bill that "Parliement" passed a few days ago. Any one can now be followed and spied on.


Quite probable......do you think they'll have passed my details to Tesco? (Tesco doing a superb line of FOC bathrooms for the wild camper).
gbnz
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by gbnz »

thirdcrank wrote:I think that the area covered by a helicopter which seems to be directly overhead is quite large so they might well have been looking at somebody else. I base this on the area containing people complaining when the police helicopter has operated over an urban area at night. I've no idea of the equipment carried by current police helicopters, but from my own observation when my sleep has been disturbed, they still have a large and powerful searchlight. Discreet operation is not on the agenda.


Fair point....no search lights used
fluffybunnyuk
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Joined: 1 Sep 2013, 10:58pm

Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by fluffybunnyuk »

I'll have to rethink my nighttime/early morning skinny dips in lakes now :mrgreen:
22camels
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by 22camels »

Brilliant. You should have come equipped with your own remote controlled drone to gather counterintelligence.
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RickH
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by RickH »

Don't forget police helicopters (if that is what it was) have Infra red cameras that will pick out people by their body heat so they could probably see you even without a search light. They may have been looking for someone (but not you) and wanted to double check on you for whatever reason.

Rick.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
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jezer
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by jezer »

If just using infra red they may have spotted what appeared to be a human body on the ground, and wanted to make sure it wasn't someone injured.
Power to the pedals
gbnz
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by gbnz »

jezer wrote:If just using infra red they may have spotted what appeared to be a human body on the ground, and wanted to make sure it wasn't someone injured.


I wondered whether that was the case. I'm fairly clear it was hovering directly overhead and the fact that it had circled and returned on two occasions was an indicator that they were looking at me.

At least it wasn't quite as disturbing as being disturbed by wild boar squealing mm's away, on the other side of 0.1mm of tent fabric at 2.00am in the morning! (Hence the ear plugs)
thirdcrank
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by thirdcrank »

jezer wrote:If just using infra red they may have spotted what appeared to be a human body on the ground, and wanted to make sure it wasn't someone injured.


That seems to assume that a helicopter might be engaged on some sort of general patrol. These things cost megabucks to fly and apart from providing an overview when there's a major incident, they are normally only used to investigate very specific reports. Things have probably advanced since my time, but I don't think that the infra red equipment could tell the difference between a human being in a sleeping bag and, say, a sheep. If they really wanted to be sure, the searchlight would be used.

Helicopters obviously have huge benefits such as speed of travel when compared with surface vehicles, and a broad overview that could not be obtained using any number of observers at ground level, but even with all the technology, they have serious limitations with detail like this, especially when it's dark or visibility is otherwise reduced. A helicopter would normally only be used in support of personnel on the ground.
alans
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by alans »

BIG Brother is watching you :lol:
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RickH
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by RickH »

A quick bit of googling gave me this image
Image
(from this article)

as an example of the sort of resolution the police get from the thermal imaging on their helicopters.

Rick.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
thirdcrank
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Re: Wild camping - helicopter surveillance!

Post by thirdcrank »

RickH wrote: ... (from this article) ....


No doubt technology has improved since I had any first-hand experience, but the first comment I'd make is that the article is largely self-promotion by the unit concerned. At a time of cuts, helicopters are vulnerable. (Ditto dogs, horses, and plenty more.) Then, the story behind that pic demonstrates what I was saying about helicopters being used in support of police working at ground level below, rather than mooching about over remote places on the off chance of spotting something out-of-order.

I have a fund of anecdotes about helicopters, mainly of the "you couldn't make it up" type and all too recent to feature in a trip down memory lane.
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