CTSW FLIR

[FlyingMonkey]

For laughs I took my thermal rifle scope up in the CT and shot some "FLIR" footage.  At 25 seconds from the right side you can start seeing runway 21 at Monroe Airport (D73):
 

And here's my CT after landing.  Apparently engine heat is not a myth (white hot mode obviously):
 

 

 

And here's my dogs in the back yard, just because dogs are awesome and if you don't like them you're a bad person. 
 

 

[sandpiper]

While in the Army in 1970 I was involved in testing early helicopter mounted FLIR. At that time the electronics, cooling, etc were much too large to be mounted on a Cobra. So, a UH-1M Huey gunship was used. The equipment occupied a fair amount of the cargo area behind the pilots which included a large screen and an "operator/observer". Each pilot had a smaller screen mounted in front of them. 

Many of the test scenarios involved finding troops and equipment both hidden and in the open. I was surprised at the heat signature of even small equipment hidden under a tree. Even though you could not see the equipment you knew it was there because of the white "light" heat signature that spilled out from under the tree.

The fun part of the testing was on the range. Our helicopters were equipped with a 7.62 mini-gun on each side, and 2.75" rocket pods on each side. The mini-guns fired a combined 4000 rounds/minute. Fortunately the trigger had a 3 second interrupter. If memory serves I think we carried around around 7500 rounds. Without the interrupter we would have gone through all of ammo quickly and probably ruined the barrels. What a blast. Especially since nobody was shooting back!

Good memories.