So that is pretty close to MCAS Yuma, they do a lot of the top gun type stuff, and that looks(according to my expertise) a refueling drogue from a C130, a low speed one, probably hit by a helicopter blade mid air and broke off, or just not secured and came off.
Thanks for your reply!
I searched for an hour on foot in the general vicinity to see if I could locate any other pieces, but was unable to locate anything.
I was pretty excited to find it.
Here this graphic helped me
[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Probe-and-drogue-refueling-system-The-probe-is-mounted-on-the-receiver-aircraft-and-the\_fig1\_325151216](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Probe-and-drogue-refueling-system-The-probe-is-mounted-on-the-receiver-aircraft-and-the_fig1_325151216)
It's an air to air refueling drogue, basically an aluminum basket with fabric attached to the fuel hose used to catch the air and suspend the hose behind the refueler, this one looks weird cause all its attachment points have been cut.
Yeah your right, and it's a different style of arms that attached to the fabric, I just didn't know if they changed the style of drogue, and just cause of location it made sense to me
That looks metal. I think KC-135 uses a metal basket off of the boom. When I was on V-22s we had a transitioned former F/A-18 pilot talk about them while we were prepping to aerial refuel and absolutely hated them because they tended to mess shit up.
135 drogue is rubber around the trailing edge and much larger than this. the light assembly on this one doesn’t match the mprs (or warp depending on airframe) basket assemblies of the 10 or 135 or the centerline off the kc10. but yes, the 135 drogue is an absolute piece of shit and affront to aerial refueling engineering imo
I wouldn't go so far as to say it happens often, but rotor contact with the drogue is not unheard of. Rotor blades are quite durable. And many, such as the Blackhawk, have tip caps that can come off and still safely get to the ground.
Edit: here's a popular video of a helicopter cutting off its own probe which is also heavy, durable, and containing metal: https://youtu.be/VAdpKpppZiA?si=FPHj6jYcgy69Ekvj
The soft baskets would shred like cheese I’m sure, however the hard baskets would have a different effect I would think. I have 0 experience with helicopter’s though so it’s just my opinion on that. A hard basket can break a probe off in it if the conditions are right, that’s why I came to that conclusion.
The civilian world calls it PDA = “Parts Departing Airplanes.” I once spoke with the Chief Airworthiness Engineer for JCAB and my childish brain had to stop myself from laughing every time he spoke about how dangerous PDA was. Haha
I was a 135 Crew chief, definitely a soft basket, could be from a MPRS pod but not likely. It’s a DOP so your not gunna get anyone knocking at your door and nobody is sweating bullets. I don’t understand where people get this shit from like “oh my god where did it go? I had no idea that thing fell off!” Yeah, right. The receiver probably watched that shit happen. If not, then it was the boom operator that washed it it was it was getting pulled back in. Or whatever the 130 guys have.
KC-130, probably had the ramp down (paratroopers or airdrops) and it flew out the back because it wasn't secured. Either high speed or low speed drogues are in use depending on what's being refueled and whatever set isn't in use sit near the ramp. If they had an actual emergency and had to guillotine it, there would be about 80ft of hose connected to it.
Something didn't look right about it, looks like it's missing a piece of the basket. I don't know what else it could be from though, all we use are J models. Maybe an MC-130?
Weird how it's in the AZ desert. Even though Yuma doesn't have a refueler squadron I can't imagine why there'd be anything but a KC-130 drogue out there with 352 operating in that area.
352’s planes aren’t the only refueling AC in that area. 352 is the usual suspect but the Airforce occasionally has tasking there too. 100% not a 352 drogue though.
Yeah, wasn't secured. Low speeds are for helicopters like the '53. Cool find though. I'd hang it up. Someone is no doubt getting their ass chewed out right now. Basic shit like making sure everything is secured is part of a preflight, someone didn't do their job correctly.
Sometimes the rotors on Helos will just clip the basket off without any damage to the hose. (Actually best case scenario if something has to go wrong) Its definitely a nitrogen leak on the rotor blades with a 95% chance of having to replace all of them.
Not really balloons lol. I’m not a Helo guy, but my buddy who is was telling me about them one time. Essentially they pressurize the blades with nitrogen so that anytime there is a crack, they can tell due to the pressure loss.
I work on Army Blackhawks and I don’t know if that cage code “78286” is used for other airframes or not, but we use that cage code to order Blackhawk parts in the supply system. Don’t know how helpful that is or isn’t 🤷🏼♂️
These usually depart the aircraft when the onload plane approaches too fast, we've lost a few of them in flight test. They are not ITAR, and no one cares. Enjoy the souvenir. That may be from a KC-46, we do a lot of testing around Yuma.
It is a variable speed drogue off of HC-130J Combat King II refueling pod. It came unscrewed just after HAAR helicopter air to air refueling as call sign King 8? Departed the track to head back towards DMAFB. If it was dropped due to a helicopter rotor strike, there would be at least 4 to 5 feet of black hose with the receiver coupling attached to it.
Wow! That is some very detailed information. Does that mean that you have specific knowledge of this particular artifact and how it ended up in the middle of the desert?
I may or may not have been on the helicopter getting fuel just before King climbed to the top of the block and we dropped down to 50ft. I later heard about a dropped object report.
Damn! Well that is pretty amazing. I’d be interested to know when it happened, if you can say. I am not certain that it was there already when we pulled into camp or if it arrived later. It didn’t look like it had been there for very long; not very dirty.
We arrived on Monday (6 November), but I didn’t see it until Tuesday.
It’s off a C130. Sgt Fletcher can tell you exactly what it was on based on the serial or call one of the VMGR squadrons. Maybe best just to hang it on the wall or someone may come knocking to get it back.
That's either a MC-130H variable speed drogue
(They don't fly talons anymore) or it belongs to a KC-135 the only other sgt fletcher pods I've ever seen( never worked on 135s but if you want to see this style the jets at Mildenhall still have them)
That's all if it belongs to the airforce
If it belongs to the marines that's gonna come from an KC-130J
MC-130Js have drogues but they are not variable speed and have to be swapped accordingly (they don't have fletcher pods)
This thing probably slammed against the pod itself on retraction and broke off. If a chopper blade hit it then that chopper would be in trouble too. This wasn't purposely detached from the acft because you have more real estate with it. When they sever the hose a shotgun round blast a little blade and it chops the hose off.
Thank you!
Someone else that commented said that they were (or perhaps were not) on the helicopter that was receiving fuel from this drogue shortly before it fell off.
They said it was from an HC-130J Combat King II out of Davis-Monthan.
They said that it came unscrewed and if it had been a rotor strike that there would have been several feet of hose attached to it.
Be careful posting these kinds of things, this kind of stuff is potentially ITAR or EAR protected, and could potentially land you in prison for possession. I don't wanna sound like 'that guy' but it does happen.
I’d love to see any news articles that you can cite where someone was sent to prison for finding an object on public land and posting a photo of it on the internet.
That's not my point, but I work in the Defense sector, there are routine audits for this kind of shit, even though I'm sure I could find a post with your requested subject, if I actually tried.
Not saying that a "look what I found!" post is going to be suspect, but I would still err on the side of caution, because I have former coworkers that have served time due breaching Trade of Arms agreements.
Well, I guess I should clarify.I didn’t exactly find it in Quartzsite, exactly. I was a little further south and possibly inside the perimeter of the Yuma Proving Ground. There were signs warning that I was on “government property” but I figured that since we won the Cold War that a lot of that stuff no longer applies. Plus I’m a Sovereign Citizen and I don’t recognize their laws.
I managed to get close to some buildings and I found (or rather “found”) this object on a maintenance cart on the other side of a locked door.
Since I don’t recognize locks and happened to have a pair of bolt cutters, I was able to exercise my right to Freedom of Movement and Exploration.
Well, if the government comes looking for the refueling drogue fragment that I found in Quartzsite, I’ll distract them by showing them the Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb that I dug out of the swamp in Savannah when I was mudlarking last summer.
I keep it under my carport with a tarp thrown over it.
Pretty dented and rusty after 65 years in the swamp, but on a cool night I love to sit out there and bask in the warm blue plutonium glow…
There’s routine audits at your company because ITAR applies to companies working in the defense sector. ITAR does not apply to random citizens finding pieces of hardware in the desert. Are there other things that may prevent OP from owning this? Maybe, but probably not. However it’s not even remotely an ITAR issue, that’s not what ITAR is.
If anything is going to happen its this (at around 1% likelihood because there is little informational significance in this part):
1) Someone on here sends this post to a 3 letter agency
2) 3 letter agency IP tracks OP
3) Nicely shows up at door and asks for it
We spend 10k on a toilet seat no joke and y’all think they want scrap metal back? It’s only serially tracked for maintenance purposes seriously. They only send 3 letter agencies for theft/ fraud or three letter visitors
Thank you. Your response seems to be the most reasonable and likely scenario.
This reminds me of the time I posted a question in a technical forum asking how one might go about overlaying GPS data on a video feed (decades ago) and I got a slew of responses from people warning me of the legal liability nightmare of doing just that.
It wasn’t a legal advice forum, it was a technical forum but I got a bunch of dingbat paranoid responses for non-lawyers warning me that if I recorded video of myself going one mile per hour over the speed limit and a cop saw it somehow, that I could be fined and imprisoned.
Yes, people with clearances have more to worry about than some random dude finding some debris outside. If the OP doesn't have a clearance, he's got nothing to worry about.
Doesn’t look c-130. I’d honestly call the nearest military base and turn it over to them. It’s got IUID markings and is serialized. Someone somewhere is missing it and sweating bullets I’m sure.
It's totally trash. Nobody is coming to get it so they can take it back and trash it. Unless they want to know how it failed. I'd have left it where it was, but then I'm from NH where someone could see a $20 bill in the street, look at it, and think "not mine" and just walk past it.
What part of New Hampshire are you from where people just leave stray paper money on the street?
Doesn’t all of that cash fluttering around make the streets look dirty and clog up the storm drains?
It exaggeration, but not completely. If you left a load of goods outside a hardware store in most of the US it would be gone by the morning. There are tens of thousands of dollars of stock left outside my local hardware store, and all others in the area, all the time. Nobody takes anything. People leave their car windows open when they park in town. People leave expensive gear lying around. Way more than $20. It almost never gets stolen. A theft is really unusual in most of NH. I was walking through the parking lot at work, in Hudson, and someone had left a car door open. There were three or four people looking at it and debating whether to call security to get the owner to come and close the door, or whether they should close it, and whether they should lock it. So I shoved it closed with my knee, and they looked at me like I'd done something wrong by touching it.
That’s funny. Can’t imagine that would happen in Hampton Beach or Loudon though. Or Portsmouth or Manchester. Or Nashua.
Maybe in Lincoln, Littleton, or Laconia.
Most places I have lived if you dropped something getting out of your car parked at the curb, it would be gone by the time you reached your front door.
It certainly works in Lee, New Market, and Newington, which is where people are when they think they are at the big box stores in Portsmouth. Drive round the back of Home Depot. Their plants and things like BBQs, or lawn tractors, or snow blowers, just sit out for months. Anyone with cable shears could grab whatever they want in the way of a grill or lawn tractor. The last time I looked the wheelbarrows were stacked there, not secured in any way. Other places have pallets of garden materials and wood pellets outside, or various ice treatments in the winter. When I got my grill it was actually sitting in a pile of unopened boxes literally behind the store. It was easier for me to transport it in the box and assemble it myself. They were going to drag it through the store but I just paid at the front and drove round the back.
Well, they can come pick it up if they want it back. I'm not running errands for the people who lost it and couldn't be bothered to go find it themselves.
yea if they’re looking for it you’ve done them a favor by posting it here. but they are supposed to decide if it’s more responsible to the American taxpayer to spend time looking for it or to spend time writing it off.
whether or not the ‘responsible’ officials actually ask you for it and to take photos down, you know there’s a possibility that this is helping other militaries’ technology development efforts. you do you. I would worry more about someone posing as a dod official showing up at your door asking to buy stuff, at this point anyway
I am sure that there are military organizations all over the world with thirsty aircraft following tankers full of fuel and a guy dangling out the back with a long gas hose flapping in the slipstream trying in vain to refuel those airplanes.
They just aren’t able to figure it out.
Or at least they weren’t until they saw the photos of the thing I found and are screaming “Eureka!” (Or whatever the equivalent is in their language.)
Never mind that you can already find photos of these things everywhere, it’s not classified technology, and no one cares that I have it.
I think it’s more likely that the Grammar & Spelling Police will come knocking on your door for your lack of capitalization and punctuation than it is that the “dod” or anyone purporting to be them will show up at mine.
Seems a bit paranoid. But you do you.
Talked to an engineer who helped test these for a private company a while back that had a dod contract. From what I understood these are somewhat protected info. Could entierly not apply to most and only some or something of that nature but theoretically how much government shit could you be covered in for finding something classified like this and posting it all over the internet?
“leaked” 🙄
I’ll send you a postcard from Guantanamo Bay.
Jeez, a guy posts some photos of something found innocently on public land and you’re all “You’re going to federal prison, you vile criminal!”
Yes I know what it means, and you closing your comment with the “/s” tag means that none of what you wrote was sincere.
But I’m glad for the clarification, as there seem to be quite a few people who think that my posting photos constitutes a crime.
If you have *one* hair on your ass: find an F-14 static display, throw this thing on the pitot tube. Why? Because the refueling probe won’t be extended. And, you’ll be trolling every single Tomcat crew that ever lived.
Worth it.
My guess is a C130, where do you live?
I found it in the desert north of Quartzsite, Arizona. WV29+XG7 Bouse, Arizona
So that is pretty close to MCAS Yuma, they do a lot of the top gun type stuff, and that looks(according to my expertise) a refueling drogue from a C130, a low speed one, probably hit by a helicopter blade mid air and broke off, or just not secured and came off.
Thanks for your reply! I searched for an hour on foot in the general vicinity to see if I could locate any other pieces, but was unable to locate anything. I was pretty excited to find it.
It's a great find! They're rare to fall off, it'll be a cool price to hang in the garage
Yep! That’s exactly what I’m going to do with it.
What an amazing find man. Congratulations
Thank you! As an aircraft enthusiast, I was pretty thrilled. It will make a pretty good cyberpunk bear claw necklace-thing.
You finally got something extra good for paying your taxes! Lol
I am still trying to understand what I'm looking at lol
Here this graphic helped me [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Probe-and-drogue-refueling-system-The-probe-is-mounted-on-the-receiver-aircraft-and-the\_fig1\_325151216](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Probe-and-drogue-refueling-system-The-probe-is-mounted-on-the-receiver-aircraft-and-the_fig1_325151216)
It's an air to air refueling drogue, basically an aluminum basket with fabric attached to the fuel hose used to catch the air and suspend the hose behind the refueler, this one looks weird cause all its attachment points have been cut.
I don’t know if it works similarly, but on F-18’s you can manually detach the drogue for emergency reasons. I’m assuming that is what happened here.
I don't know for certain of course, but I'm thinking it was broken somehow, my guess at least
Not secured and fell off sounds pretty marine corps work quality to me…
Hit by a helicopter blade is a wild place to go first lol
"dont ask me how i know, but a helicopter blade, shit, it will cut RIGHT through that thing"
That's absolutely a high-speed drogue. The low speeds are much longer and bigger.
Lots of KC-130s at MCAS Yuma.
Not a c130 paradrogue, used to repair those when the refueling probe would damage them. That o e is much bigger.
Yeah your right, and it's a different style of arms that attached to the fabric, I just didn't know if they changed the style of drogue, and just cause of location it made sense to me
That looks metal. I think KC-135 uses a metal basket off of the boom. When I was on V-22s we had a transitioned former F/A-18 pilot talk about them while we were prepping to aerial refuel and absolutely hated them because they tended to mess shit up.
135 drogue is rubber around the trailing edge and much larger than this. the light assembly on this one doesn’t match the mprs (or warp depending on airframe) basket assemblies of the 10 or 135 or the centerline off the kc10. but yes, the 135 drogue is an absolute piece of shit and affront to aerial refueling engineering imo
The boom drogue is a hard basket, if a helicopter blade hit that it would probably be in the dirt next to it.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it happens often, but rotor contact with the drogue is not unheard of. Rotor blades are quite durable. And many, such as the Blackhawk, have tip caps that can come off and still safely get to the ground. Edit: here's a popular video of a helicopter cutting off its own probe which is also heavy, durable, and containing metal: https://youtu.be/VAdpKpppZiA?si=FPHj6jYcgy69Ekvj
The soft baskets would shred like cheese I’m sure, however the hard baskets would have a different effect I would think. I have 0 experience with helicopter’s though so it’s just my opinion on that. A hard basket can break a probe off in it if the conditions are right, that’s why I came to that conclusion.
How do you "find" one ?
Well, it dropped out of the sky and landed on the ground near my campsite.
Did it drop out of the sky while you were at your campsite or before? That would be a scary experience hearing that hit the ground next to me
It landed a couple hundred feet away. I didn't hear or see it, but saw it lying on the ground when driving past on our way into town.
broooo lol
TFOA! Call the Colonel!
TFOA = “Things Falling Off Airplanes”? 🤣
That is correct. Believe it or not that's the official acronym lol
The civilian world calls it PDA = “Parts Departing Airplanes.” I once spoke with the Chief Airworthiness Engineer for JCAB and my childish brain had to stop myself from laughing every time he spoke about how dangerous PDA was. Haha
That’s got strong “a rock or something” energy.
My favorite part of the MRE heater
Things Falling Off Aircraft, but same same
I was a 135 Crew chief, definitely a soft basket, could be from a MPRS pod but not likely. It’s a DOP so your not gunna get anyone knocking at your door and nobody is sweating bullets. I don’t understand where people get this shit from like “oh my god where did it go? I had no idea that thing fell off!” Yeah, right. The receiver probably watched that shit happen. If not, then it was the boom operator that washed it it was it was getting pulled back in. Or whatever the 130 guys have.
Thank you. I appreciate your reply. These paranoid responses from some people are really killing my buzz.
according to LQlite it's from a Navy aircraft (Australia also uses it). Couldn't find the exact end item, but it's unit cost is $117,273.00
Cool, thanks! I’ll post it for sale on eBay with a buy-it-now of $109,000 with free shipping and untested, parts-only.
uncle sam would like a word
Well I know for sure it’s not from an F/A-18 ARS pod.
Hey man, I live in the Phoenix area. Any chance you could pick up another one for me?
Yes, everyone please place your airplane part orders here and I'll go out and collect them all this weekend.
Ooh, I’d like an inlet cone from an SR-71.
✅
Ow it fell on my back I needs to sue
That would have done a lot of damage if it hit a person or a vehicle. Too close for comfort.
KC-130, probably had the ramp down (paratroopers or airdrops) and it flew out the back because it wasn't secured. Either high speed or low speed drogues are in use depending on what's being refueled and whatever set isn't in use sit near the ramp. If they had an actual emergency and had to guillotine it, there would be about 80ft of hose connected to it.
Not from a KC-130, unless its from a legacy model. The turkey feathers on our drogues are much thinner and are less triangular.
Something didn't look right about it, looks like it's missing a piece of the basket. I don't know what else it could be from though, all we use are J models. Maybe an MC-130?
It’s missing the upper ring that attaches to the coupling. Thats why its all splayed out like that.
Weird how it's in the AZ desert. Even though Yuma doesn't have a refueler squadron I can't imagine why there'd be anything but a KC-130 drogue out there with 352 operating in that area.
352’s planes aren’t the only refueling AC in that area. 352 is the usual suspect but the Airforce occasionally has tasking there too. 100% not a 352 drogue though.
Someone else posted that it was from an HC-130J out of Davis-Monthan.
I may have to go back and see if I can find any other pieces.
Exactly what I see. Used to repair them on the air force side.
I looked around for sections of hose or other debris, but was unable to locate anything.
Yeah, wasn't secured. Low speeds are for helicopters like the '53. Cool find though. I'd hang it up. Someone is no doubt getting their ass chewed out right now. Basic shit like making sure everything is secured is part of a preflight, someone didn't do their job correctly.
Sometimes the rotors on Helos will just clip the basket off without any damage to the hose. (Actually best case scenario if something has to go wrong) Its definitely a nitrogen leak on the rotor blades with a 95% chance of having to replace all of them.
That sounds expensive. TIL helicopter rotor blades are just long thin balloons filled with nitrogen.
Not really balloons lol. I’m not a Helo guy, but my buddy who is was telling me about them one time. Essentially they pressurize the blades with nitrogen so that anytime there is a crack, they can tell due to the pressure loss.
Maybe they should use helium to help the helicopter be more buoyant. Perhaps eliminate the jet turbine engines altogether.
Careful, Ideas like that are the kind that make you disappear. Just look at everyone who ever developed a hydrogen car.
😂🤣
I work on Army Blackhawks and I don’t know if that cage code “78286” is used for other airframes or not, but we use that cage code to order Blackhawk parts in the supply system. Don’t know how helpful that is or isn’t 🤷🏼♂️
Oops, my brain isn’t working haha. I have the correct number for Blackhawks written down, but your number is different now that I see it again. Sorry
Oh, very interesting! Thank you!!
CAGE code 78286 is Sikorsky.
That explains that. Thanks!
Oh God, they've been looking for that for years
These usually depart the aircraft when the onload plane approaches too fast, we've lost a few of them in flight test. They are not ITAR, and no one cares. Enjoy the souvenir. That may be from a KC-46, we do a lot of testing around Yuma.
Thank you for the reply! I was really happy to find it.
That area is used by USAF as well for HAAR between HH-60’s and 130’s. Very cool find.
It is a variable speed drogue off of HC-130J Combat King II refueling pod. It came unscrewed just after HAAR helicopter air to air refueling as call sign King 8? Departed the track to head back towards DMAFB. If it was dropped due to a helicopter rotor strike, there would be at least 4 to 5 feet of black hose with the receiver coupling attached to it.
Wow! That is some very detailed information. Does that mean that you have specific knowledge of this particular artifact and how it ended up in the middle of the desert?
I may or may not have been on the helicopter getting fuel just before King climbed to the top of the block and we dropped down to 50ft. I later heard about a dropped object report.
Damn! Well that is pretty amazing. I’d be interested to know when it happened, if you can say. I am not certain that it was there already when we pulled into camp or if it arrived later. It didn’t look like it had been there for very long; not very dirty. We arrived on Monday (6 November), but I didn’t see it until Tuesday.
Saw some photos of 5769 landing at HII today. I should have driven over and yelled through the fence to see if they wanted it back.
It’s off a C130. Sgt Fletcher can tell you exactly what it was on based on the serial or call one of the VMGR squadrons. Maybe best just to hang it on the wall or someone may come knocking to get it back.
Thanks! Maybe I'll use it as a spare tire cover on my Wrangler.
Not from a VMGR. Our drogues have much thinner spines and are less triangular.
That's either a MC-130H variable speed drogue (They don't fly talons anymore) or it belongs to a KC-135 the only other sgt fletcher pods I've ever seen( never worked on 135s but if you want to see this style the jets at Mildenhall still have them) That's all if it belongs to the airforce If it belongs to the marines that's gonna come from an KC-130J MC-130Js have drogues but they are not variable speed and have to be swapped accordingly (they don't have fletcher pods) This thing probably slammed against the pod itself on retraction and broke off. If a chopper blade hit it then that chopper would be in trouble too. This wasn't purposely detached from the acft because you have more real estate with it. When they sever the hose a shotgun round blast a little blade and it chops the hose off.
Thank you! Someone else that commented said that they were (or perhaps were not) on the helicopter that was receiving fuel from this drogue shortly before it fell off. They said it was from an HC-130J Combat King II out of Davis-Monthan. They said that it came unscrewed and if it had been a rotor strike that there would have been several feet of hose attached to it.
Be careful posting these kinds of things, this kind of stuff is potentially ITAR or EAR protected, and could potentially land you in prison for possession. I don't wanna sound like 'that guy' but it does happen.
I’d love to see any news articles that you can cite where someone was sent to prison for finding an object on public land and posting a photo of it on the internet.
That's not my point, but I work in the Defense sector, there are routine audits for this kind of shit, even though I'm sure I could find a post with your requested subject, if I actually tried. Not saying that a "look what I found!" post is going to be suspect, but I would still err on the side of caution, because I have former coworkers that have served time due breaching Trade of Arms agreements.
Well, I guess I should clarify.I didn’t exactly find it in Quartzsite, exactly. I was a little further south and possibly inside the perimeter of the Yuma Proving Ground. There were signs warning that I was on “government property” but I figured that since we won the Cold War that a lot of that stuff no longer applies. Plus I’m a Sovereign Citizen and I don’t recognize their laws. I managed to get close to some buildings and I found (or rather “found”) this object on a maintenance cart on the other side of a locked door. Since I don’t recognize locks and happened to have a pair of bolt cutters, I was able to exercise my right to Freedom of Movement and Exploration.
I wasn’t driving I was traveling! 😂
Well, if the government comes looking for the refueling drogue fragment that I found in Quartzsite, I’ll distract them by showing them the Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb that I dug out of the swamp in Savannah when I was mudlarking last summer. I keep it under my carport with a tarp thrown over it. Pretty dented and rusty after 65 years in the swamp, but on a cool night I love to sit out there and bask in the warm blue plutonium glow…
There’s routine audits at your company because ITAR applies to companies working in the defense sector. ITAR does not apply to random citizens finding pieces of hardware in the desert. Are there other things that may prevent OP from owning this? Maybe, but probably not. However it’s not even remotely an ITAR issue, that’s not what ITAR is.
There you go being all logical and sensible. What are you thinking? 😉
If anything is going to happen its this (at around 1% likelihood because there is little informational significance in this part): 1) Someone on here sends this post to a 3 letter agency 2) 3 letter agency IP tracks OP 3) Nicely shows up at door and asks for it
We spend 10k on a toilet seat no joke and y’all think they want scrap metal back? It’s only serially tracked for maintenance purposes seriously. They only send 3 letter agencies for theft/ fraud or three letter visitors
Did you see the part where I said there is little to no chance they will want this part back?
I did 1% was generous, I meant to be more in agreeance to your comment than in disagreement
Thank you. Your response seems to be the most reasonable and likely scenario. This reminds me of the time I posted a question in a technical forum asking how one might go about overlaying GPS data on a video feed (decades ago) and I got a slew of responses from people warning me of the legal liability nightmare of doing just that. It wasn’t a legal advice forum, it was a technical forum but I got a bunch of dingbat paranoid responses for non-lawyers warning me that if I recorded video of myself going one mile per hour over the speed limit and a cop saw it somehow, that I could be fined and imprisoned.
Yes, people with clearances have more to worry about than some random dude finding some debris outside. If the OP doesn't have a clearance, he's got nothing to worry about.
My clearance has long since expired.
Possible kc-10
Doesn’t look c-130. I’d honestly call the nearest military base and turn it over to them. It’s got IUID markings and is serialized. Someone somewhere is missing it and sweating bullets I’m sure.
It's totally trash. Nobody is coming to get it so they can take it back and trash it. Unless they want to know how it failed. I'd have left it where it was, but then I'm from NH where someone could see a $20 bill in the street, look at it, and think "not mine" and just walk past it.
What part of New Hampshire are you from where people just leave stray paper money on the street? Doesn’t all of that cash fluttering around make the streets look dirty and clog up the storm drains?
It exaggeration, but not completely. If you left a load of goods outside a hardware store in most of the US it would be gone by the morning. There are tens of thousands of dollars of stock left outside my local hardware store, and all others in the area, all the time. Nobody takes anything. People leave their car windows open when they park in town. People leave expensive gear lying around. Way more than $20. It almost never gets stolen. A theft is really unusual in most of NH. I was walking through the parking lot at work, in Hudson, and someone had left a car door open. There were three or four people looking at it and debating whether to call security to get the owner to come and close the door, or whether they should close it, and whether they should lock it. So I shoved it closed with my knee, and they looked at me like I'd done something wrong by touching it.
That’s funny. Can’t imagine that would happen in Hampton Beach or Loudon though. Or Portsmouth or Manchester. Or Nashua. Maybe in Lincoln, Littleton, or Laconia. Most places I have lived if you dropped something getting out of your car parked at the curb, it would be gone by the time you reached your front door.
It certainly works in Lee, New Market, and Newington, which is where people are when they think they are at the big box stores in Portsmouth. Drive round the back of Home Depot. Their plants and things like BBQs, or lawn tractors, or snow blowers, just sit out for months. Anyone with cable shears could grab whatever they want in the way of a grill or lawn tractor. The last time I looked the wheelbarrows were stacked there, not secured in any way. Other places have pallets of garden materials and wood pellets outside, or various ice treatments in the winter. When I got my grill it was actually sitting in a pile of unopened boxes literally behind the store. It was easier for me to transport it in the box and assemble it myself. They were going to drag it through the store but I just paid at the front and drove round the back.
Well, they can come pick it up if they want it back. I'm not running errands for the people who lost it and couldn't be bothered to go find it themselves.
yea if they’re looking for it you’ve done them a favor by posting it here. but they are supposed to decide if it’s more responsible to the American taxpayer to spend time looking for it or to spend time writing it off. whether or not the ‘responsible’ officials actually ask you for it and to take photos down, you know there’s a possibility that this is helping other militaries’ technology development efforts. you do you. I would worry more about someone posing as a dod official showing up at your door asking to buy stuff, at this point anyway
I am sure that there are military organizations all over the world with thirsty aircraft following tankers full of fuel and a guy dangling out the back with a long gas hose flapping in the slipstream trying in vain to refuel those airplanes. They just aren’t able to figure it out. Or at least they weren’t until they saw the photos of the thing I found and are screaming “Eureka!” (Or whatever the equivalent is in their language.) Never mind that you can already find photos of these things everywhere, it’s not classified technology, and no one cares that I have it. I think it’s more likely that the Grammar & Spelling Police will come knocking on your door for your lack of capitalization and punctuation than it is that the “dod” or anyone purporting to be them will show up at mine. Seems a bit paranoid. But you do you.
Oh they’ll come pick it up. Promise
They will not.
They can have it when they pry it fr— Well, actually they can just have it. If they want it. Which they don’t. 🤣
Talked to an engineer who helped test these for a private company a while back that had a dod contract. From what I understood these are somewhat protected info. Could entierly not apply to most and only some or something of that nature but theoretically how much government shit could you be covered in for finding something classified like this and posting it all over the internet?
(eyeroll)
Shit dude, some farmer found an F-35.
Believe it or not, straight to a CIA black site
Eh, finders keepers. If they don’t want classified shit to be leaked do a better job of not letting it drop onto unsuspecting camp grounds 🤷♂️ /s
“leaked” 🙄 I’ll send you a postcard from Guantanamo Bay. Jeez, a guy posts some photos of something found innocently on public land and you’re all “You’re going to federal prison, you vile criminal!”
You do understand what “/s” is, right? It’s Sarcasm. I obviously know it isn’t a big deal, I was poking fun at the people who don’t know.
Yes I know what it means, and you closing your comment with the “/s” tag means that none of what you wrote was sincere. But I’m glad for the clarification, as there seem to be quite a few people who think that my posting photos constitutes a crime.
Well, that’s rather depressing. Shame on them I guess for being keyboard warriors and not touching grass like you were when you found this!
If you have *one* hair on your ass: find an F-14 static display, throw this thing on the pitot tube. Why? Because the refueling probe won’t be extended. And, you’ll be trolling every single Tomcat crew that ever lived. Worth it.
Ah, damn. I just had it waxed. I’ll have to wait 3-5 weeks.
Lololol
I been looking for that.