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These are portions of two flights by a Cessna T206H on separate days:

N915WC flight track N915WC flight track

The cloverleaf portion of the track was flown at around 8200 feet altitude. This plane is typically seen over the Los Angeles basin flying "lawnmower" patterns similar to those that might be used for sterile insect technique flights or aerial imagery collection flights.

What is the significance of this pattern? Could it be for radio direction finding?

Edit: The aircraft is N915WC, which is registered to a company that specializes in supporting the intelligence community and law enforcement. I didn't mention that initially because I didn't want to bias people's answers, and I was curious if the pattern was distinctive enough to identify without that information.

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    $\begingroup$ Take a look at flightradar24.com/blog/interesting-patterns-on-flightradar24 and flightradar24.com/blog/how-to-draw-a-plane-with-a-plane too $\endgroup$
    – SMS von der Tann
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 23:48
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    $\begingroup$ @SMSvonderTann Whoever did that drawing of the airplane has some mad skills! $\endgroup$
    – TomMcW
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 2:40
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    $\begingroup$ Looks like flight training to me. $\endgroup$
    – OSUZorba
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 3:48
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    $\begingroup$ Someone taking a friend to look at their house, then their neighbour hearing about it and asking if they can have a go, too? :p $\endgroup$
    – Jon Story
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 10:55
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    $\begingroup$ A 206 isn't a typical civilian training aircraft but one possibility is the Civil Air Patrol. They have some 206s and the track looks a little like a sector search pattern so it could be a training exercise. But that's a complete guess, it could also be the FBI or another organization. If you have the N number then you could research that (how do you know it's a 206?). $\endgroup$
    – Pondlife
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 15:15

2 Answers 2

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The flying looks too sloppy for a ground reference maneuver, a performance maneuver, or other required academic flying. Given the concentration of the same flying in that same area and a review of the VFR sectional for the same area:

enter image description here

This is probably some kind of training flight. If it is for law enforcement, I'm not sure what is going on here. One possibility is that it is a student practicing attitude instrument flying doing 'A' and 'B' patterns under the hood with an instructor - or at least trying to.

enter image description here

Another possibility is just standard flight training activities, periodically turning to avoid terrain or congested airspace in order to operate within these confines.

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That just looks to me like someone was practicing holding patterns, and the second pic seems to also show turns around a point. Could be flight training, a BFR, whatever.

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  • $\begingroup$ This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review $\endgroup$
    – 60levelchange
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:13
  • $\begingroup$ Neither is that an informed review. If you are not a pilot, please refrain from commenting on this. That is an appropriate answer given the very limited information provided. $\endgroup$
    – Juan Jimenez
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 6:39

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