Steve,
Do you know of these folks doing the fly-ups-downs-and-arounds with their equipment also using helicopters? For the last hour we have had a non-military (looking) commercial-type but beefy looking helicopter doing what you have shown us the big aircraft are doing (circles, crazy-8s, double-backs, back and forths). This aircraft has double rudders on the back, a big noisy prop overhead, about a 2 foot dangling cable-looking thing at the bottom of the front and back of the chopper, a very large closed-end tube coming out from where the trail-fins are, and some kind of device hanging out of one of the side doors. There are no names or decals but a number that I was not able to get. . . Steve, we live at the 2500 foot level of the mountains above Springville, California, just across the mountains from the Ridgecrest area-but we are a good ways north of the main study areas. . . Just wondering. S.R.

ANSWER FROM MY SCIENTIST FRIEND-HELLO STEVE:'THE HELICOPTER WAS RUNNING A DEEP GROUND RADAR SET AND GAS ANALYSIS SYSTEM. THEY ARE TRYING TO DETERMINE HOW FAR PAST THE RIDGECREST THE DEEP FAULTS GO AND IN WHAT DIRECTION. THE GAS ANALYSIS UNIT IS TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH MAGMA TO EXPECT IN THAT AREA AND IF IT WILL BE HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE WHEN IT BREAKS THE SURFACE AS WELL'.THE SITUATION IS ONLY FIXABLE BY GOD.

Dec 20, 2019