Why does military use helicopters around DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone keep saying this (and other) helicopters come “out of Langley”? Do they mean “CIA Headquarters”?

This confuses me, because I live very, very close to CIA, and almost never see or hear helicopters on the obvious approach/departure paths from the facility. Not only that, but if you look a Google satellite view, there isn’t even a proper helipad there at all. Yes, you can land a chopper in a parking lot, but if there were as many helicopters coming and going from there as you people are implying, there would be a proper helipad, with markings, lights, wind sock and probably a small ramp area with refueling and additional area for several aircraft.

The only helicopter you see on the satellite photos of CIA is the retired Marine One chopper that’s displayed as part of an outdoor lunch spot.

I don’t think a lot of you know what you’re talking about.

The helicopter came from Fort Belvoir. It was on a routine training and evaluation mission but its general regular mission is transporting Government VIPs around town to avoid traffic.

Yes, I understand that. But why do people here keep saying that helicopters are regularly landing and taking off from “Langley”?

Are they trying to sound like insiders or something? Because it makes them sound dumb to everyone who knows anything about CIA.

There are insider reading these forums. And Langly is often used to mean cia HQ. Speculate away but no one will "know" the "truth" as to why or wha happened with the BH.

[Anonymous]

Are you really this dim? You think there aren’t flights taking personnel to and from Quantico and Andrews? You think they don’t run drills in case there’s—oh, I don’t know—an attach on our Nation’s capital?

[Anonymous]

Lots of helicopters/planes Trump term 1. Quiet during Biden. Now our neighborhood hears their constant nuisance overhead flights again. Little man needs to show off again. Next we will have a huge military parade no doubt July 4. Perhaps a gold encrusted stage as well for the emperor toddler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of helicopters/planes Trump term 1. Quiet during Biden. Now our neighborhood hears their constant nuisance overhead flights again. Little man needs to show off again. Next we will have a huge military parade no doubt July 4. Perhaps a gold encrusted stage as well for the emperor toddler.

It’s not about Little Man showing off.

It’s that Republican political elites use helicopters without any regard to cost to the taxpayer. They see it as a perk of the job. Democrats put the kibosh on wasting that money. Republicans DNGAF about the optics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The military pilots were practicing presidential extraction from the White House in the event of an attack. It's in the news.

Did he our his staff ask for the training to occur? Do you have a link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live out all the way in Rockville. During Trump's first term, I definitely heard more low flying helicopters over Rockville. Towards the end of his term, one flew so low over my neighborhood at night, I thought it was going to crash.

The low flying helicopters over Rockville seemed to stop during Biden's term.

But then last week, I heard a few low flying helicopters over Rockville again. Who knows how the rest of the term will play out.

That is not what I observed. I live in North Potomac, next to Rockville. I saw more helicopters during the Biden administration, several times with 3 helicopters close to each other (could be the president's ride). I think Biden used camp david more often than Trump since this is the route between the white house and camp david.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live out all the way in Rockville. During Trump's first term, I definitely heard more low flying helicopters over Rockville. Towards the end of his term, one flew so low over my neighborhood at night, I thought it was going to crash.

The low flying helicopters over Rockville seemed to stop during Biden's term.

But then last week, I heard a few low flying helicopters over Rockville again. Who knows how the rest of the term will play out.

That is not what I observed. I live in North Potomac, next to Rockville. I saw more helicopters during the Biden administration, several times with 3 helicopters close to each other (could be the president's ride). I think Biden used camp david more often than Trump since this is the route between the white house and camp david.

Rockville's a big place. Could you have been in different parts of it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live out all the way in Rockville. During Trump's first term, I definitely heard more low flying helicopters over Rockville. Towards the end of his term, one flew so low over my neighborhood at night, I thought it was going to crash.

The low flying helicopters over Rockville seemed to stop during Biden's term.

But then last week, I heard a few low flying helicopters over Rockville again. Who knows how the rest of the term will play out.

That is not what I observed. I live in North Potomac, next to Rockville. I saw more helicopters during the Biden administration, several times with 3 helicopters close to each other (could be the president's ride). I think Biden used camp david more often than Trump since this is the route between the white house and camp david.

This is also my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live out all the way in Rockville. During Trump's first term, I definitely heard more low flying helicopters over Rockville. Towards the end of his term, one flew so low over my neighborhood at night, I thought it was going to crash.

The low flying helicopters over Rockville seemed to stop during Biden's term.

But then last week, I heard a few low flying helicopters over Rockville again. Who knows how the rest of the term will play out.

That is not what I observed. I live in North Potomac, next to Rockville. I saw more helicopters during the Biden administration, several times with 3 helicopters close to each other (could be the president's ride). I think Biden used camp david more often than Trump since this is the route between the white house and camp david.

That’s definitely the POTUS entourage. Trump called Camp David a “dump,” IIRC. Only invited the Taliban to hang out there lol

That said, use of CD saves the taxpayers a lot of money relative to POTUS trying to set up at various resorts around the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many political VIPs see the helicopter ride as a perk of doing the job. The pilots need flight hours. The military likes to use their toy; more use means more justification for higher budgets.

Thus, you have a bunch of flights at all hours of the day because VIPs don't want to sit in a car ride to the Pentagon or Langley. But the airspace around DCA is the most congested in the country and the odds of a catastrophic accident go up the more aircraft you put in the air.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It was bipartisan legislation voted in by congress that put even more flights in the air at DCA, to the minority objection of local VA and MD government leaders.

The HELICOPTERS are the problem. Not the number of flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many political VIPs see the helicopter ride as a perk of doing the job. The pilots need flight hours. The military likes to use their toy; more use means more justification for higher budgets.

Thus, you have a bunch of flights at all hours of the day because VIPs don't want to sit in a car ride to the Pentagon or Langley. But the airspace around DCA is the most congested in the country and the odds of a catastrophic accident go up the more aircraft you put in the air.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It was bipartisan legislation voted in by congress that put even more flights in the air at DCA, to the minority objection of local VA and MD government leaders.

The HELICOPTERS are the problem. Not the number of flights.

Absolutely agree. The MILITARY helicopters are the problem. They don't follow civil aviation rules and expect to fly wherever they want. A tv station helicopter would never be allowed to fly across a landing area!

And top it off, they do dangerous training exercises here instead of on their bases only. Why does anyone in the media ask why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of helicopters/planes Trump term 1. Quiet during Biden. Now our neighborhood hears their constant nuisance overhead flights again. Little man needs to show off again. Next we will have a huge military parade no doubt July 4. Perhaps a gold encrusted stage as well for the emperor toddler.

It’s not about Little Man showing off.

It’s that Republican political elites use helicopters without any regard to cost to the taxpayer. They see it as a perk of the job. Democrats put the kibosh on wasting that money. Republicans DNGAF about the optics.

Democrat elites do the same bullspit and are more than happy to waste our public money.

But I think we agree. The US Army should not be running a helicopter VIP taxi service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many political VIPs see the helicopter ride as a perk of doing the job. The pilots need flight hours. The military likes to use their toy; more use means more justification for higher budgets.

Thus, you have a bunch of flights at all hours of the day because VIPs don't want to sit in a car ride to the Pentagon or Langley. But the airspace around DCA is the most congested in the country and the odds of a catastrophic accident go up the more aircraft you put in the air.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It was bipartisan legislation voted in by congress that put even more flights in the air at DCA, to the minority objection of local VA and MD government leaders.

The HELICOPTERS are the problem. Not the number of flights.

Absolutely agree. The MILITARY helicopters are the problem. They don't follow civil aviation rules and expect to fly wherever they want. A tv station helicopter would never be allowed to fly across a landing area!

And top it off, they do dangerous training exercises here instead of on their bases only. Why does anyone in the media ask why?

The mission of the military helicopter that crashed was to train for extracting the president, presumably from the White House, in the event of an attack. That explains why the helicopter was where it was, over the Potomac River.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

a whole lot of joyriding going on.

This. Probably reason #1 for the recent casualty.

You have zero evidence to support this.

[Anonymous]

The only way to come to the bottom of this is to FOIA the helicopter rides for the past three administrations.

We will find out frequency and who is using them and then can make a solid conclusion instead of speculating.