Eye On The Sky

So last Thursday evening I was out in my yard, watering my flowers and watching the planes go over.

When I was growing up in Toledo I'd watch the planes, too, but they were pretty high up. Toledo Express Airport is so far away from the city that many residents just drive to Detroit's airport instead. I suppose planes landed at Toledo Express in the 1960s, but you couldn't have proved it by me.

The Columbus airport, in contrast, is only about 10 minutes from downtown and a good chunk of the rest of the metropolitan area. Columbus also has many more people. These two facts mean Columbus not only has more planes coming and going than Toledo ever did (or can ever hope to), the planes that come and go fly at rather low altitudes over densely populated areas.

This means, of course, that they're much easier to see.


Here's a shot I took of one plane that was coming in Thursday evening:




Columbus also seems to have a lot of small planes buzzing around.

Here's a picture I took of one of those Thursday evening:




As you might have guessed, Columbus also has a relatively high number of helicopters. The choppers of law enforcement agencies, hospitals, and TV newsrooms are well represented in central Ohio's skies. (I suppose it's only a matter of time until the Columbus Zoo decides it needs a helicopter of its own in order to more safely and efficiently feed its polar bears.)

When one of these choppers popped into view Thursday night, I didn't think much of it.




When it came closer and my S.O. took charge of the camera, it almost seemed as if it was posing for us. Guess it was our lucky day!




Then things got a little weird....




Apparently it wasn't posing for us - it was checking us out!

Had our camera looked like a gun??

If so, the confusion was soon cleared up and the pilot quickly moved on to other things.

It wasn't until later that we learned that those other things involved looking for a man on the run after killing his girlfriend.

That man was killed later that night in a shoot-out with the police.

Had I known all this ahead of time, I think I would have waited until Friday to do my watering....