Witch Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 Out of curiosity, has anyone here ever hear of the Oregon Helicopter Trap? Or more to the point, has anyone encountered said trap? I heard a story some years ago that pot growers in the Pacific Northwest would stretch wire from treetops to the ground to cause choppers to crash. I got to wondering if anyone on the forum had heard or encountered one of these. Any stories? Later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vertrefadmin Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 I've heard of those in Oregon but also in Hawaii, California, Overseas...I've also heard of kites that are strung very high with cable so it traps the helicopter pilot (at night). I have yet to encounter one of those. I hope I never do. I know a sheriff pilot who has seen those boobie traps. Some are for ground personnel some are for aircraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Pig Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 The county I work in includes about 2500 sq. miles of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.....There are power lines strung through there like a spider web....primarily from all of the hydro electric plants at the dams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rookie101 Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 I heard a story some years ago that pot growers in the Pacific Northwest would stretch wire from treetops to the ground to cause choppers to crash. ERR!!! Count on the pot heads to screw everything up. I, along with Witch and a couple others, live in Oregon and are preparing to train here and now I gotta make sure to look out for some wires a stupid stoner strung out. AAAHHHH!!!!, stupid pot heads!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeChin Posted April 20, 2006 Report Share Posted April 20, 2006 Ahhh Oregon pot-growers. Leave it to them to want to take lives just for the sake of a plant. This people of this state annoys me sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrose Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 They tell me that open air pot growing is a thing of the past, as it has a unique temp signature for a infrared heli cam. The feds have that for the narks but when a skier gets lost they are now where to be found. HAI has a cool class on wires each year, night would be tough anyway in a remote LZ. Some of the best and most respected pilots have been downed by a stupid wire. Another reason I pray before every flight. There is a new helmet mounted IR cam I used recently. $12K, any bidders? I know a guy that had his spotter use one to find an excaped prisoner, He buried himself in moss under a log and they hovered over 100ft and told the cops where to dig and presto (this was in Alaska). Oregon, God help this State. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeChin Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Oregon, God help this State.Hey Oregon is not THAT bad ... We just like to do things a$$-backwards here sometimes. Our local goverments being the leaders (multnomah county i'm looking at you). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helomaster Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Open air pot growing is alive and well in Southern Oregon and Northern California. It's not uncommon to find grows in excess of several thousand plants if you have an eye for it. In most cases recon is not done with IR but rather well trained eyeballs. As for helicopter traps, I've been flying dope recon for quite some time and never encountered any wires that were strung out to snag helicopters. In fact I've never even heard of a "Helicopter Trap", sounds like an urban legend. Be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flying Pig Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Outside grows are alive and well in Central Ca. Ive never used a FLIR to search for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DukeChin Posted April 21, 2006 Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Open air pot growing is alive and well in Southern Oregon and Northern California.I'll be darned - a fellow medford-ite on these forums! Amazing what you'll run into on the internet these days. Yeah, I had a friend of the family back, oh 10+ years ago that was working with the US forest service and ended up getting in a small gunfight out in the woods when they went to destroy an open air farm and ran into the "proprietors" of said farm. Ahh the "wild west". heh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witch Posted April 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2006 Hey Oregon is not THAT bad ... We just like to do things a$$-backwards here sometimes. Our local goverments being the leaders (multnomah county i'm looking at you).I think that Governors Taxhaber and Taxandgougeme really screwed a few things up with their socialist agendas. Aaahhh Liberals. As for the trap, might it be urban legend? I talked with my brother-the one who told me to look out for them-and he said that there were several crashes up there in them thar woods caused from these traps, and that several people were charged with manslaughter for the trap. He said some guy bought several spools of 18ga insulated wire, brown, and strung them up in a clearing on the property. The pilot couldn't see it and hit the wire about 50 feet from the ground. The pilot and spotter died from head and neck injuries. I don't know if it's true or not, that's what he told me. Later You know, that reminds me of the time in GLCM training (Ft, Huachuca, AZ) when our crew were setting early warning devices for the area, we had a half spool of telephone wire. We strung it between three trees to restrict access along a path. That night, we came under attack. The next morning, we were called before the commander because one of the agressors had gotten hurt when he hit our trap-we called it "Charlots Web"-and suffered sprains in his wrists and elbows when he was thrown backwards. We got warnings and 500 push-ups. Later our instructor said the Commander-although pissed-said we had initiative in our trap, and that even though not suitable for training, in case of war, use it as much as possible. Later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrose Posted April 24, 2006 Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 Outside grows are alive and well in Central Ca. Ive never used a FLIR to search for it. They sure seal up their windows in the Willamette Valley now and, as I have been told by a check pilot, not much in open air up here because the Fed's have a ship with a special sensor rig to get'em with. Thanks for setting me straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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