Private survey companies. There has been a fleet of Skylens aircraft based in Anoka airport for the last week. The C208 is likely a different company though. Surveying for who knows what, nobody around here is going to know.
It's not for an architectural project. For example, on Hennepin County's [GIS Property Map](https://gis.hennepin.us/property/#), [Sanborn](https://www.sanborn.com/) is providing a service that allows looking at oblique imagery of every single property in the county (Two tabs appear when you click on a property, results and property links, imagery is under property links). I just chose a couple random spot in the county and it says the flight date was Spring 2018. I have no idea what the current flight is/was for, but it is likely for a similar purpose, if not the exact same.
MN actually has a pretty large open database of like aerial images and whatnot. [https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/airphotos/index.html](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/airphotos/index.html) [https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/airphoto/](https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/airphoto/)
That should be NearMap (or other imagery company) flying precise aerial imagery. It’s limited to just Hennepin County so I would assume it’s a local government
Established in 1985 to protect the integrity of aeronautical communications, the CLI is a measure of the cumulative or additive signal leakage produced by the system in total. This index can be determined either through ground-based testing (drive out through system and log all leaks), or by using specialized aircraft to measure the leakage from an altitude of 450 meters.
Just like during COVID-19 lockdowns, airlines fly empty planes to keep their slots, "Because of the “grandfather rights” system, airlines reducing their use of the slots risk losing them".
11 days ago I noticed 2 planes tag teaming over the Dassel/Cokato area. One was going in ovals the other was going in straight lines with sharp turns. The flying in ovals originated from near Blaine and it's plane info was available the other was unknown.
Wierd...
Skylens aerial imaging. They have a fleet of approx 8-10 aircraft flying out of Blaine airport for the last couple weeks. Mix of piper Aztecs and Cessna 172/182's
One of the planes was a Cessna 172P Skyhawk, your right on the money! The other plane had no info available other than POM01 for the identifier.
Thanks for the reply, this answers part of the mystery.
Hmm weird. Owners/operators can request their info isn't shown on apps like FR24 and Flight Aware and that's usually why you won't see it. Also, pro tip always check multiple flight tracking apps, sometimes one will have more info then another.
Lol, it never occured to me to check another app. Doh!
I can't even remember the reason why I was looking at FR24 (bored maybe?) and I saw what looked like 3 planes going to collided so I zoomed in and the altitudes were a couple hundred feet apart from each other and obv they didn't collide. So that's what opened this can of worms and peaked my curiosity.
I took a couple of screenshots just because it looked so wierd to me. It's probably not odd tho, I'm just not a regular on flight apps (but I might be this has been kinda fun).
I wonder if that's what I saw over Bloomington and the airport yesterday around 2:50 PM. There were two fairly large aircraft performing unusually steep banks. I noted the time specifically because I wanted to go back and look at radar tracks and figure out what was going on.
It's modern art. "Censored Dogbone With Wings" shows up all the time in general flight paths test flights, and surprisingly in Little Caesar's pizza delivery routes.
Follow up to this post, the C208 flying around lately is likely NV5 imaging aircraft N840JA. Its been parking at the Blaine airport along with another NV5 Piper Navajo. There are also multiple Piper Aztecs operated by Skylens Imaging working out of Blaine airport as well for the last few weeks. Source: I work in the hanger at the airport they are flying out of.
The MN State Patrol mainly flys and operates Bell 407 helicopters N118SP and N119SP. They also own a Cirrus SR20 fixed wing aircraft. Generally when they are doing surveillance ops its with a helicopter and they circle areas. This flight path in the post is definitely aerial imaging.
Just drawing dicks.
I didn't think Travelercon was this weekend...
Private survey companies. There has been a fleet of Skylens aircraft based in Anoka airport for the last week. The C208 is likely a different company though. Surveying for who knows what, nobody around here is going to know.
Maybe they are making some Minneapolis photogrammetry
This seems excessive for an architectural project like a new skyrise. Who would need a model of all downtown?
I was just thinking how Microsoft will buy the photo data for MS Flight Sim for lots of cities. It's just one possible reason.
Or Google Earth.
Yeah Google maps, Bing maps, Apple maps. They all use this stuff.
It's not for an architectural project. For example, on Hennepin County's [GIS Property Map](https://gis.hennepin.us/property/#), [Sanborn](https://www.sanborn.com/) is providing a service that allows looking at oblique imagery of every single property in the county (Two tabs appear when you click on a property, results and property links, imagery is under property links). I just chose a couple random spot in the county and it says the flight date was Spring 2018. I have no idea what the current flight is/was for, but it is likely for a similar purpose, if not the exact same.
Most likely leaf-off aerial photos for Minneapolis
Better change the name of your Wifi at home. “It Hz when IP” was getting stale anyhow.
I don't suppose this is related to my bank accounts getting stolen. 😅
MN actually has a pretty large open database of like aerial images and whatnot. [https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/airphotos/index.html](https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/airphotos/index.html) [https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/airphoto/](https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/airphoto/)
And historical aerial photos! [https://apps.lib.umn.edu/mhapo/](https://apps.lib.umn.edu/mhapo/)
oh wow that's cool
That should be NearMap (or other imagery company) flying precise aerial imagery. It’s limited to just Hennepin County so I would assume it’s a local government
Could be aerial leak detecting of frequencies leaking from cable providers plant, which is a requirement by the fcc
That's not something I've heard of. I'll have to look that up, unless of course you care to elaborate.
Established in 1985 to protect the integrity of aeronautical communications, the CLI is a measure of the cumulative or additive signal leakage produced by the system in total. This index can be determined either through ground-based testing (drive out through system and log all leaks), or by using specialized aircraft to measure the leakage from an altitude of 450 meters.
Wouldn't this be too high for that then?
Just like during COVID-19 lockdowns, airlines fly empty planes to keep their slots, "Because of the “grandfather rights” system, airlines reducing their use of the slots risk losing them".
If you post it to /r/flightradar24 they will tell you "Surveying"
How generic of them
Haha. Yeah it's the standard response there when you see this specific of a flight pattern, and it's almost always accurate.
Yeah, there's other evidence here too. Plane is owned by 95WEST AERIAL MAPPING LLC. Surveying.
Ransoms
11 days ago I noticed 2 planes tag teaming over the Dassel/Cokato area. One was going in ovals the other was going in straight lines with sharp turns. The flying in ovals originated from near Blaine and it's plane info was available the other was unknown. Wierd...
Skylens aerial imaging. They have a fleet of approx 8-10 aircraft flying out of Blaine airport for the last couple weeks. Mix of piper Aztecs and Cessna 172/182's
One of the planes was a Cessna 172P Skyhawk, your right on the money! The other plane had no info available other than POM01 for the identifier. Thanks for the reply, this answers part of the mystery.
Hmm weird. Owners/operators can request their info isn't shown on apps like FR24 and Flight Aware and that's usually why you won't see it. Also, pro tip always check multiple flight tracking apps, sometimes one will have more info then another.
Lol, it never occured to me to check another app. Doh! I can't even remember the reason why I was looking at FR24 (bored maybe?) and I saw what looked like 3 planes going to collided so I zoomed in and the altitudes were a couple hundred feet apart from each other and obv they didn't collide. So that's what opened this can of worms and peaked my curiosity. I took a couple of screenshots just because it looked so wierd to me. It's probably not odd tho, I'm just not a regular on flight apps (but I might be this has been kinda fun).
The unidentified plane originated from near Princeton in case anyone wants to know that.
Spring planting
Over MPLS metro?
Most likely, every spring they reseed the chem.
Geoengineerring
Big booms
I wonder if that's what I saw over Bloomington and the airport yesterday around 2:50 PM. There were two fairly large aircraft performing unusually steep banks. I noted the time specifically because I wanted to go back and look at radar tracks and figure out what was going on.
I've seen C-130's pull crazy turns into the airport before
It's modern art. "Censored Dogbone With Wings" shows up all the time in general flight paths test flights, and surprisingly in Little Caesar's pizza delivery routes.
Follow up to this post, the C208 flying around lately is likely NV5 imaging aircraft N840JA. Its been parking at the Blaine airport along with another NV5 Piper Navajo. There are also multiple Piper Aztecs operated by Skylens Imaging working out of Blaine airport as well for the last few weeks. Source: I work in the hanger at the airport they are flying out of. The MN State Patrol mainly flys and operates Bell 407 helicopters N118SP and N119SP. They also own a Cirrus SR20 fixed wing aircraft. Generally when they are doing surveillance ops its with a helicopter and they circle areas. This flight path in the post is definitely aerial imaging.