has anyone ever been caught speeding by a plane?

Question

I have seen the signs that say that the area is patroled by aircraft. How do they pull you over? Is there a way to aviod them? Has anyone ever been caught by a plan? Does anyone know anyone that has this job?

Answer 1

The aircraft fly over the area and look down for cars traveling faster than other traffic. There are white lines across the road spaced about 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart. They watch as you cross the first marked line and then hit a stopwatch. When you cross the next white line they hit the stopwatch again and measure the time versus the distance you traveled in that time. This gives a speed measurement.

Speed = distance divided by time

Answer 2

In Minnesota there is white cross marks on the side of the road of a specific distance apart. Planes can run a stop watch when you cross line to line and calculate the average speed of travel.

STATE PATROL AVIATION SECTION
From the very beginning the State Patrol aircraft proved their worth in traffic law enforcement as the pilots assisted the road troopers with their enforcement duties. The State Patrol's only tool in 1957 to combat the speeder, besides a speedometer car clock with the squad, was the traffic corder. The traffic corder consisted of two tapes stretched across the highway that measured the speed of a vehicle as it passed over the tapes

http://www.mspta.com/Airwing.htm

Answer 3

The general consensus here is indeed correct. The aircraft, being either fixed wing or rotary, utilize many types of markers on the ground below. They use these markers to determine your position on the road at a given time. If you reach a specific distance before a given time, they radio to their ground units and proceed to give you a ticket.

This method is extremely flawed though, because of human error. Be it known that man does not have instantaneous reflexes. You can assume that a person will be able to react in the same amount of time each time they need to push the button on a stopwatch. But, this just is not the case.

Anyone who enjoys a day at the drag strip can tell you what a "prefect light" or "perfect tree" is. Either term serves to identify an individual who reacted the quickest, but didn't jump the gun. It is understood that the average human will typically react within .2 seconds. The car should take about .3 seconds. This would make .5 the "perfect tree."

Each and every driver has their ups and downs, just like the rest of us though. They each have days with reaction times well over a full second. The drivers of these vehicles spend countless hours trying to perfect their reaction times, and make their times more consistent. But, even they are not perfect.

My argument with my ticket, was that there is no feasible way for a man to effectively time someone in this manner without completely screwing it up. It may take him .5 seconds to start the watch, but what if he jumps the gun and it takes him .1 seconds to start that same watch? How can I know that I have had a fair go at it if they aren't using lasers like the racing community? So, I made a graph for the judge to see it. I started with the distance traveled. The less time that I was said to have used to travel that distance, the greater my speed would be measured as. So, if it takes one minute to travel a mile, you are traveling at 60mph. If it takes you 59 seconds, then you are traveling at approx. 61.01 mph. Even at a full mile, the difference is an entire MPH. But, at one city block, the difference is even larger.

That is why I did not have to pay my ticket. Human error is just too prevalent, and nearly impossible to take out of the equation in this particular situation.

Answer 4

i havent been tagged by a bear in the air, but i know that he haunts certain sections of i-680 near youngstown, oh. my dad got zapped by 1. radar detectors are useless against aircraft. ny state uses them on the i-90 thruway, and i've seen dozens of cars on both sides yanked over, and a 2 or 3 mile strech infested with highway patrol ground units; even 1 being an unmarked car callin em out.
save the cash an gas...keep it under 70. what u cant see can cost u a bundle, u cant see the plane that's trailing u. he's a good 1-1500' up.

Answer 5

Probably 4 or 5 years ago I was riding with my parents down the highway when a sheriff came out of no where and pulled us over.
Through all the questioning the sheriff said something like, " our air craft saw you were doing 70mph in a 60mph".

I am not too sure how they figure it out, but I was told by someone that there are white bars on the highways every once in a while and if they time you getting between the two points faster than you should, they can figure out how fast you are going.

That's just a theory on how they actually do it, but I know they do.

Answer 6

The interstate spillway between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La. is patrolled in this fashion. The bridge is about 20 miles long and is very unsafe to pull folks over on the bridge because of the high incidents of accidents. They have the white bars periodically on the roadway and aircraft radio down to the troopers on the ground to pull you over as you come off the spillway on either end. Rob U had a great answer as it also cited the "traffic corder" units that are still used to check traffic patterns when they are considering road work or traffic light programming. You can see them as a small metal box on the side of the road with two rubber hoses running out into the street that you pass over as you drive by. This unit counts the number of cars, but also gives the "speed" determined by the time it takes to roll over both hoses with both axles of the car. I remember these well from childhood as used to be used for "speed traps" as patrol units would set one up on the road in such as way as you wouldn't notice it until it was too late to slow down. Then one cop would be watching the dials on the box for the speed and would notify another in either a car or on motorcycle to "go get 'em" if you were speeding. The aircraft thing though is sneaky as heck and can really catch you off guard. All this is still totally legal as radar is just one of the tools with legal status to be used to cite you. All the older technology is still valid including simply watching your speed vs the troopers speed on his "certified" car speedometer in his patrol car. No way to avoid the aircraft except not speed in areas patrolled by them. Even the older Vascar system is still legal in most places and it also predates radar and uses "stop watch" and visual technology. Also emits nothing so there is no way to know that you are being "clocked" by Vascar. More places are going back to some of these ideas in light of the newer radar detectors being so good. Folks buy a radar detector and think they are "immune" and speed like hell only to wind up with a huge ticket. In short gotta use prudence as to where you speed if at all and keep your eyes open.

Answer 7

Yes. The Highway Patrol pulled us over and said we'd been clocked by their "fixed wing aircraft." They fly over the freeway and radio ahead to waiting cars as to the identity of who's speeding.

Answer 8

The aircraft lets the highway patrols on the road know you're speeding, so then they pull you over. Dork.

Answer 9

I have been tracked but never ticketed since I am fully aware ot the procedure.

Answer 10

it happened to a friend of mine years ago, he had a good lawyer. plead not guilty,they dropped it they would have had to produce the pilot , you might do it without a lawyer,what have you got to lose