Sometimes it's a police helicopter looking for someone or a medivac looking for a place to land. The scary part is when they have the searchlight sweeping across yards! Yikes!

It's most likely a traffic/news helicopter. I live near the Beltway and we always know when there's an accident nearby, even before turning on the tv, by the noise. It is very loud and annoying. Have you heard about the cases where someone gets in trouble for flashing a laser pointer at a pilot? This is what's happening. Some mornings it's like Da Nang in 68.

I don't know what it was, but it could have been a traffic helicopter at that point. Rush hour starts even earlier up County.

For a couple of nights recently, including last night, I was awoken by a pretty loud and constant helicopter/aircraft sound. During this most recent occurrence, I decided to look outside, and indeed, there was a large aircraft holding the same position steadily. It looked to be possibly over 270, but hard to tell exactly. I'm in Gaithersburg. Did anyone else hear/notice this, too? This last one (when I decided to get up to see what's going on) was before 6 a.m.