Aerobatic prop planes over Northern CO

So a couple weeks back in Loveland I seen about five prop planes doing aerobatic maneuvers and sometimes using the smoke system. Then a couple days ago they were over head again doing maneuvers with the smoke system.

Since I subscribe to Northern Colorado Regional on Facebook I asked them if they knew what this was all about. This is their response:

The Airport has thoroughly researched this for over the last month. We have received frequent reports from concerned citizens about these pilots. What we do know is that they are not operating out of this Airport and unfortunately we do not have any information on who these pilots are or which airport they are operating out of.

FAA regulations stipulate aircraft are required to operate at least 1,000 feet above congested areas except during take off or landing. However, over sparsely populated areas the requirement is a minimum of 500 ft. To report pilots in violation you will need the aircraft's N number a picture or video can help bolster your case and call the FAA at 303-342-1100 or use their online form at https://www.faa.gov/contact/

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I don't think they are violating any FAA rules. By my estimate they are at least 2 to 3 thousand feet AGL.

So my question is. Does anybody know who or what these pilots are? Have you seen these planes in your town?

They could be located at a private airfield. This may likely be the case. There are quite a few groups similar as the one you're describing that fly around my area, Central FL, which is not near you by any means, but that is not of concern. Point is there are many private airstrips with retired airline and military pilots that perform shows a different events sometimes for free. This may not be the case with the group you are seeing, but believe me most of these guys have plenty of money to be able to do these types of things. I have seen more than a couple groups just in the small area that I cover working as a Repairman certifying planes by performing IFR/VFR testing and certifying. At any rate, just some food for thought. Like someone posted, if you can get an N number off one of the tails, you might be able to find out exactly where they are located. Hope this helps and sorry for the long post. Have a god day.

Several years back I was taking tailwheel airplane transition lessons from a very experienced airline pilot.

He owned his own aerobatic airplane and practiced in the "aerobatics box" northwest of the Longmont airport. He operated out of Longmont.

Is there a problem? Or are you looking to get a ride? (my instructor's plane was a single-seater)

When you see them again, just take a look at the map on this page and zoom in on your area. You will most likely see the aircraft registration and other info about the planes. You can even click on Image Search once you click on the aircraft.

http://global.adsbexchange.com/VirtualRadar/desktop.html#

Click on the "Currently tracking #### aircraft" to get to the map.

Yeah, I know about ADS-B exchange and thought about using it. But if they are squeaking 1200 then I may not get a tail number, correct?

poltergeisty said:

Yeah, I know about ADS-B exchange and thought about using it. But if they are squeaking 1200 then I may not get a tail number, correct?

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Squawking 1200 (VFR) won't change the status of them transmitting their callsign or their tail/reg number through ADS-B.

I took this snapshot of aircraft below and filtered for the ones squawking 1200 (even at 10 pm there are a lot showing) and they are all showing their info.

If they have the ADS-B transmitter (and many or most do), then they will show it most of the time.

Unless ADS/B has become required equipment for all aircraft since I was actively flying I wouldn't expect an acro plane to have it. They are normally minimally equipped to save weight. My instructor would even have minimal fuel onboard and was expert at calculating for usage plus his personal margins.

Yep. ADS-B is becoming required equipment. There is a deadline for everyone to have it. I believe the deadline is a couple years away and mainly the expensive military jets (that require lots of money to mess with their airframe and put the new antenna on) have asked for exemptions.

Jeez. Just look at the page. Almost everyone has it.

dw2872 said:

Yep. ADS-B is becoming required equipment. There is a deadline for everyone to have it. I believe the deadline is a couple years away and mainly the expensive military jets (that require lots of money to mess with their airframe and put the new antenna on) have asked for exemptions.

Jeez. Just look at the page. Almost everyone has it.

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I did a little research. Deadline is 2020. Lots of time to procrastinate - or plan to sell the plane before having to buy another box and install it so the next owner can get it done.

Interesting about squawk 1200. I notice many times in ADS-B Exchange that the callsign is never known, however I can see the registration number and click the Flightaware link and see the route.

I followed a Cessna 182 I seen by my house coming out of Northern Colorado regional and landing at Rocky Mountain metropolitan. Pretty quick considering the speed was around 120 kts.

Just a couple questions about ADS-B Exchange.

I notice a lot of WellsFargo Helis. Why is that? Are they leased from WellsFargo or what? Why would a bank have so many Helis?

I also noticed that a plane will just disappear and I know he's still in the area that can be shown on the map. Is this because they simply turned off the squawk? It happened twice around the Loveland area. Once with a Cessna and another with a WellsFargo Heli near Carter lake.

Wells Fargo "owns" a lot of aircraft. I put owns in quotations since the aircraft aren't operated by or for Wells Fargo but rather financed through them.

Figured that. A Helo I just posted about is owned by a bank in SLC.

poltergeisty said:

I also noticed that a plane will just disappear and I know he's still in the area that can be shown on the map. Is this because they simply turned off the squawk? It happened twice around the Loveland area. Once with a Cessna and another with a WellsFargo Heli near Carter lake.

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Aircraft disappears from the map when they exceed the range of the receiver site that is feeding to the website. They also are affected by geography that physically blocks the signal. You can think of it like Broadcastify, but with ADS-B data. Unfortunately the site listed is not as widely popular as some of the others out there, so aircraft somewhat often disappear off the map. This is especially true of low flying aircraft like general aviation and rotor wing.

There are only a handful of people feeding data to ADS-B Exchange in Colorado. The furthest north feeder is right around the Thornton area, so you can see why aircraft may disappear in certain areas and to the north.

Some of the most popular websites that also provide this data are FlightAware and Flightradar24. Notice that both of these sites are subject to blocking flights from being tracked, which often ends up being things like medical and government flights. This is where ADS-B Exchange is better as it does not block anything.

Where did you get a map of the feeders? I can't seem to find it.

poltergeisty said:

Where did you get a map of the feeders? I can't seem to find it.

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There used to be a list of active feeds on the website, but it was removed as they work on getting a better page up.

When I last saw it, there were 2 in the Denver area, 1 in Colorado Springs, and a couple in the mountains. The bigger networks I mentioned have a whole lot more people, for example FlightAware ADS-B Coverage Map.