helicopters coming

I woke up, started the coffee, and heard a helicopter go over my house.  I folded the futon and heard a helicopter go over my house again.  I poured my first cup—oh! that first cup is always so glorious—and my windows and walls shook from a helicopter again passing over head. 

I became curious. 

You know a helicopter is close when you can hear a ringing whistle sound from it in addition to its throbbing bass.  Such high frequency sounds do not travel as far as the lower pitched sounds, and are usually drowned out by them.  As I took my first piss I heard that shrill ring from the air machine, and I thought, “I have to get outside.”  I grabbed my new camera. 

It made seven more passes after I got outside.  It had probably made twice as many flyovers while I was puttering indoors.  I must say the best photo is the very first one I took.  I didn’t even know how to set the camera for a daylight shot—or for any shot for that matter; it’s brand new.  I just spun the mode dial to the symbol of the little green camera as I ran through the front door.  I looked up and shot. 

My house was on the southern extent of a small circular pattern which the helicopter was following repeatedly.  At its furthest from me, it was only about a quater mile, and it was banking to the left throughout its course.  I thought I would feel awkward, standing on a street pointing a camera in these code orange days.  I suppose if it had been marked clearly as a police helicopter, I might have felt naughty photographing its surveillance—but I would have anyway. 

But it was not marked clearly, and in these post 9/11 days the unexpected behavior of aircraft gains a whole new significance.  I felt almost patriotic, standing in the street, camera braced against a no parking sign, brazenly setting up for a N824AH, and after some web searching, I was able to locate still other photos of my mysterious airborne visitor’s siblings: 

policeHelo2.jpg

policeHelo5.jpg

And lastly, this very informative page. 

In this image, a dangling square structure beneath the body of the helicopter, directly in front of the floodlight, seems to me to be perhaps the airborne equivalent the directional antennae arrays I see on the roofs of some police cars used for locating stolen cars. 

Need I say more?  I love my camera.