UFO sighting

[Drayno]

I'm recording this: Sitting up in my parent's office, at the top of the house, I have a very strong view through two wide windows out into the sky. I just heard the sound of what can be described as almost whale-like, but I can't describe it.. I've never heard anything like it. In my direct line of sight I then very lucidly saw a low flying object, with an irregular shape, and numerous lights moving around, almost alternating, as it curiously moved on above the tree line.. The shape was not a plane.. I can't describe exactly what I saw.

The closest thing would be a rounder, more dimensional shape.

However, its trajectory and actual flight movement were also irregular. By that, I mean it did not stay at a straight flight path, after it passed my line of sight. It stayed straight for about fifteen seconds, and its actual rate of acceleration was like it was moving, and then stopping, but almost like it was doing both simultaneously. I watched it move past my house, almost as clearly as you'd see a car drive by on the other side of the road, from the perspective of a sidewalk, but about 200 yards away. It then moved very sharply to the left, from its original flight path, and even through the tall trees and the morning darkness, I was still able to very clearly see its lights from about half a mile away. What struck me as most odd was that the position it was in, when I saw the lights at this point, was that if it was an actual aircraft, considering the speed and movements of conventional designs, it would have been long past the point of where it was still at, AND it would have made actual flight sounds while moving. From this vantage point, any bypassing aircraft make discernible noise. NO NOISE AT ALL.

After the initial whale-like sound, there was no other indication of its presence other than its material presence, the lights, and its displayed movements.. It was completely silent as it came across like it was slowly hovering.. Wow..... I'm posting this while it's still fresh, for my own sake. This is my first sighting when it comes to UFO's, btw. Just to clarify for you all.

As I've posted in other parts of the forum, my grandfather was a Full-Bird Colonel in the USAF - I am NOT a stranger to planes. I grew up around dozens of stories about them, many discussions with my grandpa about the kinds of jets he flew, and had many a subscription to Aviation magazines as a teenager. I was VERY interested in Aviation and wanted to be a pilot.

Because of this, I've tried my best to be as specific in this reporting as possible.

With most aircraft, there are aircraft navigation, or position lights. As well as anti-collision strobe lights. The closest thing I could say to how the lights alternated would be the rotating beacon, located on the fuselage and the tail of a regular aircraft. However, the positions of the lights were not like a planes, and while most conventional aircraft have several different colored lights; including red, green, and white, this had similar to a rainbow pattern.. Up to 8 or 9 different colors. As low as it was, with a regular aircraft, it'd make sense for the landing light to be on, or the taxi light.. But I live many miles from any strips or landing zones. Because of the shape, how low it was flying, the alternation of the lights and the displacement of the colors in relation to regular craft, the complete lack of noise, the deviation of regular flight paths and unique movements... I'm reasonably inclined to believe that this in fact was a UFO.

It shape was not that of a banner tow or glider tow aircraft.. Or F-15, F-22, F-35 class, or A-10 class.. Or any reasonably shaped aircraft..

Edit: I've tried to convince myself that it was a plane, but roughly an hour after it passed, at about 6:36 AM, a plane passed by, with NOISE, at a higher altitude. I have no sense of doubt in my mind that what I saw was not a conventional aircraft. I stood still for about five minutes, wide eyed in response to what I saw. I was too in shock, it was too surreal.

Edit: EXACT time spotted: January 29th, 2015 / between 5:28 - 5:29 AM

Edited January 29, 2015 by Drayno

[MissJatti]

Is there a radar station nearby??.... to confirm if it was a UFO

[Astra.]

Cool...are you able to add some pics or film here of what you saw and recorded?

Edited January 29, 2015 by Astra00

[Drayno]

Is there a radar station nearby??.... to confirm if it was a UFO

Not to my knowledge.

Cool...are you able to add some pics or film here of what you saw?

Unfortunately, no.

There was honestly no time for me to even think about that. I realized my phone was on the desk, afterwards, but in the window of time saw it, I barely managed to get the details I did.

[Drayno]

I can, however, reveal a photograph of the area surrounding where I live, without giving any key details of my location.

If that helps give a sense of where I'm located; in rural central Virginia.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Drayno

[Astra.]

Unfortunately, no.

There was honestly no time for me to even think about that. I realized my phone was on the desk, afterwards, but in the window of time saw it, I barely managed to get the details I did.

That's a shame.....hopefully other people saw the same thing and were able to film it and or report it.

There is a thread going back a while.... where posters shared their stories of witnessing UFO's....without having to prove it lol...

It was just to tell of their experience.

These occurrences often happen when we least expect it or aren't properly prepared

Edit to say....I have my story as well in the thread.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Astra00

[Drayno]

That's a shame.....hopefully other people saw the same thing and were able to film it and or report it.

There is a thread going back a while.... where posters shared their stories of witnessing UFO's....without having to prove it lol...

It was just to tell of their experience.

These occurrences often happen when we least expect it or aren't properly prepared

Edit to say....I have my story as well in the thread.

I recall seeing that thread long ago!

I'm still entirely in a state of shock. I very rarely post on this subject, so this is very strange to me.

[spartan max2]

This is interesting. I'm always not sure what to think when I see a story from a member who has been here for a while.

You know it's not a hit and run poster ttht way and that they are atleast not lieing

Edited January 29, 2015 by spartan max2

[Podo]

It is an intriguing story, and unfortunate that you couldn't get anything recorded. UFO sightings tend to cluster in areas, though. Why not try to stay up tomorrow and see if it reappears?

[Oxo1]

Judging by your description of the object, it seems fairly unlikely it was a conventional civil or military aircraft. I think you were very lucky there as you may have witnessed a genuine UFO, and a rather strange one at that. Don't forget to report it to MUFON.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Oxo1

[godnodog]

I can, however, reveal a photograph of the area surrounding where I live, without giving any key details of my location.

If that helps give a sense of where I'm located; in rural central Virginia.

Nice place

[Drayno]

This is interesting. I'm always not sure what to think when I see a story from a member who has been here for a while.

You know it's not a hit and run poster ttht way and that they are atleast not lieing

Well, we've interacted on here for a little while now, Max.

I appreciate you giving me benefit of the doubt.

It is an intriguing story, and unfortunate that you couldn't get anything recorded. UFO sightings tend to cluster in areas, though. Why not try to stay up tomorrow and see if it reappears?

It's about 3:30 AM: I'm currently doing so. I'm just sitting up here, camera pulled up at the ready.

Judging by your description of the object, it seems fairly unlikely it was a conventional civil or military aircraft. I think you were very lucky there as you may have witnessed a genuine UFO, and a rather strange one at that. Don't forget to report it to MUFON.

I discussed this in person with a close friend from high school, and he, as skeptical as he is, agreed with my assertion that it could be a UFO.

I'll see what I can do to report it!

Nice place

Thanks! That's the entrance to my neighborhood; my street is a little more residential. It's a mix of rural and conventional.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Drayno

[Drayno]

UPDATE:

I reported this sighting to MUFON.

IF I get an e-mail back, I will let UM know.

[+Hammerclaw]

[Drayno]

Followed up that UFO sighting by reporting it to MUFON. Last night I had an hour long interview over the phone with a field investigator in VA, to get my case in the system. The man who interviewed me was a retired Colonel in the USAF, who graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering.. And told me that my report was extremely thorough. And one of the most unique he's encountered in his long career .. And told me what I witnessed was more than likely the real deal. I do not feel as crazy. And I did in fact research this man's credentials, and they are in fact legitimate. He told me he is going to investigate the Whale-like sound that I heard. I'll keep this post updated with the new bits of information I receive.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Drayno

[Podo]

That is excellent to hear. Thanks for keeping us updated.

[Hawken]

Interesting encounter you had, especially the whale sound. Did you talk to anyone in your area

if they saw or heard the unusual phenomena?

[Merc14]

Sounds like you were watching a drone.

[Drayno]

Sounds like you were watching a drone.

Way too big to be a drone.

From my description, the retired Colonel agreed with me.

And the noise was too other-wordly to have been produced by something as small as a drone.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Drayno

[ChrLzs]

Way too big to be a drone.

Woah. This is, if I'm not mistaken, the first reference to any alleged 'bigness'.

Tell us how you determined a size, please.

From my description, the retired Colonel agreed with me.

From what I have seen come out of MUFON, I would even doubt he was a retired colonel, let alone has any experience in interviewing and the sort of questions that need to be asked if a size is being nominated, let alone has the ability to 'do the math'..

Is your MUFON report/interview documented somewhere, or can you remember the questions the RetCol asked? I'm very interested, and no, I'm not going to give any hints about what *should* have been asked, for what should be rather obvious reasons...

And the noise was too other-wordly to have been produced by something as small as a drone.

How did you manage to associate the noise and object? Surely unless it was very close, the sound would simply have had to come from roughly the same direction. And if someone was using a drone for shi...zzle and giggles, can you think of any way they could produce some eerie sounds? I can, but then I'm one of those old farts that remembers (and still has) big speakers and powerful hifi systems. Richard Wakeman, Alan Parsons, where are you..?

[quillius]

Way too big to be a drone.

From my description, the retired Colonel agreed with me.

And the noise was too other-wordly to have been produced by something as small as a drone.

any chance of you disclosing the Colonels name?

[Galahad]

I'm glad you had the courage to talk about it at all..things I've seen I keep to myself!

[PersonFromPorlock]

I once had a somewhat similar experience. I was living in a small house in the country and heard what I at first took to be an airplane. But the sound went on and on and, wondering who'd be circling my place at night, I went outside to look. When I opened the door, there was a disorganized cluster of different colored lights hanging in midair three feet in front of my face!

Then a tree got between me and the object, giving me some distance information, and it snapped back to its real distance - and I could see it was the Goodyear blimp (the only blimp there was, circa 1970) bumbling along at low speed and low altitude. I think that might be what you saw, too.

[ChrLzs]

I once had a somewhat similar experience. I was living in a small house in the country and heard what I at first took to be an airplane. But the sound went on and on and, wondering who'd be circling my place at night, I went outside to look. When I opened the door, there was a disorganized cluster of different colored lights hanging in midair three feet in front of my face!

Then a tree got between me and the object, giving me some distance information, and it snapped back to its real distance - and I could see it was the Goodyear blimp (the only blimp there was, circa 1970) bumbling along at low speed and low altitude. I think that might be what you saw, too.

My bolding.. That was a great example - the brain is incredibly BAD at guesstimating distances and sizes, especially for something that does not have a recognisable profile. I was recently similarly fooled, even though I'm an avid sky-watcher and aircraft identifier, when I briefly caught sight of what I thought was an airliner (767 probably) as it appeared through the foliage of trees. When my view cleared and I looked again, no airliner. I was quite surprised and eventually realised I had simply caught sight of a nearby white/grey bird - a crane of some kind - as i now watched it flying away... It had obviously matched my mental profiles for that aircraft closely enough, so my brain happily told me that it was ~50 metres long and about 9 kilometres away, when it was in fact less than 0.5 metres long and at most a hundred or so metres away.

Thing is, once something is more than about 50 metres away, you lose parallax as a way for your brain to determine distance, and about the only other clues are from recognising the shape/size/speed of the object (which doesn't really apply here), and also from things like distance haze effects (and at night, you mostly lose that one too)... There may be clues in some circumstances, and that's why I'm interested to hear what our Ret Col asked, and what Drayno answered..

[Merc14]

I once had a somewhat similar experience. I was living in a small house in the country and heard what I at first took to be an airplane. But the sound went on and on and, wondering who'd be circling my place at night, I went outside to look. When I opened the door, there was a disorganized cluster of different colored lights hanging in midair three feet in front of my face!

Then a tree got between me and the object, giving me some distance information, and it snapped back to its real distance - and I could see it was the Goodyear blimp (the only blimp there was, circa 1970) bumbling along at low speed and low altitude. I think that might be what you saw, too.

I was going to suggest blimps as the military has been playing with them in thsi area off and on, just not sure what part of VA the OP hales from