The signs are everywhere...at least in Kalif...but has anyone actually been ticketed for speeding by an aircraft?

Just curious

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PW -- Plant Whisperer

I've seen these signs in nearby Virginia, and it never fails to illicit a hearty "WTF?" response from me. I'm so sure that law enforcement has the time, money and resources to hunt down speeders with helicopters.

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Like some mythical nazca-like lines, Interstate 80 by me still has the marks of an odd era in vehicle speed enforcement.

C'mon. You don't think the aircraft operators do the ticketing, do you? They do the spotting, the observation, the measuring. They communicate with friendlies in surface vehicles and have them do the ticketing. They use a new thing called "radio".

Ever notice the presence of markings on the highway, little Xs, perpendicular lines, or in some states even airplane silhouettes, that are 1/10 mile apart, convenient for groundspeed calculations with equipment as simple as a stopwatch? Like that Google aerial image above. That's speed-limit-enforced-with-aircraft territory.

The Hook: NEWS- Air war: Speed limit really is enforced by planes

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I did once see a helicopter flying above the Pennsylvania turnpike. For the ~ 2 miles that it was in view, it was clearly tracking the road (ie, it followed the curves), but I have no idea if it was an official aircraft, or merely a private one using the road for simple navigation.

An answer from the Washington Post (about Virgina's enforcement)
A web page for Maryland's State Police Aviation Command

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How could anyone think this isn't done? That's just plain goofy.

My father got a ticket this way once. He showed up in court to defend himself instead of just paying it, and won on the grounds that the vehicle description that the "bear in the air" gave to the ground cops wasn't unique enough for the ground cop to be sure he'd gotten the same vehicle that the pilot had seen. (He also won another case that didn't involve any aircraft, just by showing up, because the cop didn't.)

Speed limit enforcement.

In a high profile event (media-wise) they nailed a guy on a bike from the air in this area last year (or maybe the year before). I believe the police claimed he was doing 180, but some folks in the know about the particular model said it was not capable of more than 160. Either the police estimation was off, or the bike was well outfitted.

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Man, he must have been pedaling awfully hard!

Around here, it's the generic single-engine airplane outline painted white, and spaced every 1/10 mile.

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Rounding error from measuring the speed over too short a distance. Measurement residuals multiply. If you're measuring over only 1/10th of a mile, a quarter of second error with the stopwatch means an error of 2.5 seconds worth of distance over an entire mile. At highway speeds, that can definitely mean you get targetted for a ticket even though you've got the cruise set to exactly hold the limit.

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I've heard one story of a police aircraft actually landing on the road in front of a car that was being driven at an extraordinary rate of speed. It was a road rally modified Triumph, and the road was one of those endless straight highways in the midwest with no powerlines next to it.

The officer supposedly said something to the effect that he was having some difficulty staying with the driver from the air.

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There's a video on youtube or somewhere of a suzuki hiyabusa running from police. A news helicopter starts filming him and he actually manages to outrun it too!

I'm confused, Doodler. (Yeah, I know, that's nothing new!)

The pilot was having difficulty keeping up with the car, but he landed his aircraft in front of it?

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SeanF

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Cars need to follow road curves. Planes don't. The plane may have been able to cut some corners to get ahead of the car just long enough to land in front of it.

It's either that or the plane managed to snag some handy floating nitro power-ups FTW.

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SeanF

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Hmm. Then he might have landed to pick up those "used only once, small stain" JATOs from the Impala UL.

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Ohio uses this too. Altho it's not usually helicopters, but small two-person planes. It's not used often, but they'll selectively use (on heavy travel days, like thanksgiving). Or they'll target a certian area for a week or so that's been having a lot of accidents or chronic speeders. Obviously, it's really only used on highways. So it kinda makes sense that it's the State Highway Patrol that usually heads to the skies. Some states/areas have thier own aircraft, if not they just contract a pilot and craft.

Funniest story I know about said technique is the guy that got targeted by the plane and the patrolman on the ground flagged him over. The driver began ranting that he was only pulled over because he was a minority and that this was descrimination; as if they could see what he looked like from the plane!

(Hint: When driving down the highway and you start to notice a series of white lines running across the road perpendicular to you, slow down. they have to time you from 2-3 different benchmarks before they can pull you over).

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The only speeding ticket I have received was from being tracked from the air. They clocked me at around 122km/h. Thank goodness they didn't see me when I was passing a line of RV's at about 160.

I'm sure a few of you have seen these, but they are appropriate for the thread:
http://www.micom.net/oops/SpeedEnforcement1.jpg
http://www.micom.net/oops/SpeedEnforcement2.jpg

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Ticketed? I was figuring you'd get strafed!

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