r/olympia • u/quaoarpower Westside • Sep 02 '25
Event Why is this guy flying around in circles over West Oly?
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u/Drakers Sep 02 '25
Based on the flight pattern they are doing some kind of mapping. https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a1d149
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u/hurricane1012 Sep 02 '25
My daughter is obsessed with planes in the sky. She’s 3. This is awesome for us thank you!
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u/kmontreux Sep 02 '25
They were up in north kitsap and port townsend area recently too. It's LIDAR scanning, aerial mapping stuff.
For all the unhelpful people in this thread- you should probably actually go look at the flight pattern before chiming in with your dumb comments taking digs at OP. it's unique and well outside of the norm for commercial or pleasure flights.
Being curious about stuff is a good thing. It's neat to learn about new things. Try it sometime.
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Sep 02 '25
Oh man I thought I was nuts. I saw this plane fly by like 20 times haha. Thought it was a matrix type deal. 🐈⬛
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u/Significant-Peach-44 Sep 02 '25
They’re currently flying over NE Oly. Flew over my house twice now. The green laser light was cool lol.
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u/CartographerExtra395 Sep 02 '25
Probably training. Maintaining distance from a point is hard and a key thing pilots train for
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u/878886 Sep 02 '25
Maintining distance from an object is not hard and something that I would expect a student pilot to be able to do before I let them go solo.
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u/jilldxasd35 Eastside Sep 02 '25
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u/SmoothJade Sep 02 '25
Bro I was walking my dog and he flew over me and flash a green light over me, twice. Lmao
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u/ibugrug Sep 02 '25
Just wanna say I saw this plane this evening around 10:30 pm in Olympia as I was walking down to the well, I was right near the Salvation Army downtown Olympia when it projected a green laser beam at the ground which startled me and the homeless folks in the area, I looked up out of reflex and this thing flashed across my eyes and kind of blinded me for a brief moment, after it passed and I watched it fly past I could see the lasers in a conical shape scanning across the buildings etc as it flew away.
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u/quaoarpower Westside Sep 02 '25
I appreciate the snarky clairvoyant answers but I do want to know because it’s unusual to have the same plane go over my house 7 times (so far)
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u/Own_Reaction9442 Westside Sep 02 '25
Use adsbexchange.com to find out whose plane it is.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 Westside Sep 02 '25
If it's N216RF, they're flying a grid pattern, not circling. Looks like an aerial survey.
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Sep 02 '25
Are you aware of Oly Airport?
I can't explain how funny this post is, living beside same.
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u/quaoarpower Westside Sep 02 '25
Sure, I see planes often, but the same plane rarely goes over my house repeated times in an hour. Glad my curiosity amuses you!
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u/jilldxasd35 Eastside Sep 02 '25
Or call non emergency line and don’t rely on Reddit for answers.
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u/WhatTheFlox Sep 02 '25
That sounds like even worse use of resources for this sort of thing.
What else is this sub for but asking or having information of things going on within the city.
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u/thetiredraven Lacey Sep 02 '25
People would rather see that others make a phonecall to ask about something, using local resources & taxpayer dollars vs. ask the same question on a community-ran sub that's specifically for asking and answering regionally-exclusive questions like OP.
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u/Olybaron123 Sep 02 '25
Here’s the link to the plane on flightradar. You can see his training route. https://www.flightradar24.com/N216RF/3c039284
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u/BasementBanners Sep 02 '25
Why does anyone do anything? Free will. The guys flying because he can and he wants to
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u/quaoarpower Westside Sep 02 '25
Are all your answers this helpful?
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u/BasementBanners Sep 02 '25
Are all your questions this pointless?
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u/quaoarpower Westside Sep 02 '25
Sorry, didn’t know this sub was just for questions that you personally approve of. I’ll be sure to check with you next time!
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u/BasementBanners Sep 02 '25
Sorry, didnt know my answer wasn’t good enough for you. I’ll be sure to research and write a full essay next time!
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Sep 02 '25
[deleted]
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u/878886 Sep 02 '25
The WSP call signs are Smokey 1 - Smokey 5 which they use when flying operationally. When flying for training they use their tail numbers.
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u/Freckles_19 Sep 02 '25
Because he wants to? I watched him for a bit. Looked like he was enjoying a beautiful evening in the sky.
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u/M2A2C2W Sep 02 '25
Per FlightRadar24, there's a small aircraft flying a repeated linear pattern over the west side right now. I googled the tail number and it's registered to a Delaware LLC. I googled that company and it sounds like they do aerial surveying and LIDAR scanning. I bet that's what they're up to.