Just what is going on up there in the air ?

[elcheapo]

Well that can be a good question at times.....

What is china up to ??  to me the most telling thing is this....if this was a weather ballon...if is at "the mercy" of the upper winds aloft.....but it seems this thing could move around...most "civilian" weather ballons don't have that ability.

Another interesting thought is that of "shoot it down"......sorry, when ever I hear that term, I think of Troy Landry on "Swamp people" say when they have a gator on the line "shoots em".......

Rather than hit them with a missle, etc.....remember.....this is a ballon.....not metal....if you just hit it with a couple of hits from the gun on the jet, it would start to slowly decend, due to the small hole and the air going out....don't want to make a big hole, it will then come crashing down.....

If you are wondering just what is going on overhead, here are a couple of websites that is sometimes fun to look at...

first is flightradar24.com......here you can see must planes in the air and where they are at....so if you see or hear something weird going over, you can pull this up and see what it is, maybe even see it's path.....after a while on it, you might figure out what certain planes look like on the screen, then pull their id up and there are sometimes some really interesting things going over your head....and yes, every once in a while, you will see a ballon on the screen...there is a company that sends them up that does things like provide wide area wifi and research....you can look them up on the internet when you see them......it is interesting at times......

then, if you really are a snoop....go to awareflight.com  you can enter in the plane id, that you can either read direct or find it flying over on flightradar24.....it will give you more details, as to who owns the plane, where it is going etc, and you can find out quite a bit more......

these two things are sometimes interesting to tinker with......

and then get an idea what's going over your head.

What gets me, seeing planes from far far away, flying overhead.....I find that united emerates flying over, planes from turkey, mexico, and others.....kind of makes you wonder.

just think how easy it would be to tape a camera under the wing under one of those planes.......

just make sure it's gorella tape tho !!!!

gets cold up there and kind of windy.

enjoy !

[r3020]

The Question is why was it ever allowed to enter US air space.

[Packard27]

MSM misdirection faux news for the masses.

Not much more, but certainly nothing less either.

And so it goes...

[rsbs]

Republican demands Joe Biden, Kamala Harris resign after 'catastrophic Chinese spy balloon spectacle...

President Kevin McCarthy?

[r3020]

* said he ordered it shot down as soon as possible. Well if he knew he was going to shoot it down why wait until after it floated all the way across the US. Why not shoot it down before it entered our air space. Makes zero sense to me.

[elcheapo]

Well in fairness.....this happened 3 times when Trump was president, according to the defence department...but just now he is saying shoot.

Much easier being quarterback in the recliner than on the football field.

[r3020]

Well I'm sorry cheapo but if the president is planning to shoot it down wouldn't it makes sense to do so before it enter our air space instead of waiting until after it flew over the whole country?

[elcheapo]

in my humble opinion....best option would have downed it over the area of wide open canada...choice #2 the wide open space of the northwest...but seems military was the one wanting to wait.....hindsight is 20/20 tho.

I would normally tend not get all concerned about it, knowing how ballons can do things you are not quite planning

(an amatuer radio group that I was with used to send ballons up and they got quite high...normally left them go early sunday morning, and would usually come down later in the day in the next state....it was sure nice when we finally was able to put a gps set in the package and then broadcast the location).

but....when the ballon in question, started to move against the upper winds, then we were in a totally different ballpark.

[r3020]

So you are fine with sending retired Abrams tanks to Ukraine but not with shooting down a chinese balloon before it enters our air space.....interesting.

[rsbs]

Those of us that are still in a position to comment will have to remember these threads a decade from now and see how everything aged, and what type of a society we are living in. At the rate that voices of reason are trying to be quieted, maybe no one will be commenting about anything.

I remember the ones all riled up about the need to take out Saddam and his sons, purportedly to let the good people in Iraq take over, too when they supported Bush Jr. and his idiotic crusade (remember when you were not supposed to say "crusade'?).

More Alice in Wonderland events.....we support the nazis in the Ukraine and don't support defending our own borders.