My husband and I saw a “speed patrolled by aircraft” sign while driving back to San Diego from Sedona this weekend. We wondered: Does anybody ever really get a ticket because somebody in an aircraft caught them speeding? Or are these signs a cheap attempt to discourage people from speeding out in th…

Bear in the air! I have seen them, I have never gotten a ticket personally, interested in hearing form others.

I’ve never gotten a ticket for speeding because of a plane (I don’t think) but yes, some states use aircraft to check for speeders. I doubt it’ a full time endeavor due to cost effectiveness though. In OK I’ve seen the state trooper planes a few times. Usually they stick to the interstates but I ha…

Speed checking by airplanes costs too much for the amount of revenue it generates these days. “Speed checked by aircraft” signs, however, are pretty cheap.

Never been caught by one, but they use them from time to time here in “saturation patrols”. The plane would radio call the speeding cars out to troopers waiting on the ground out of sight. They would nail dozens of them in an hour or so.

Article in Car and Driver 5 (more?) years ago about the author flying with an Ohio state trooper catching speeders. Wonder if they still do it…the troopers, that is.

An old high school friend told the story once about how he was driving with his dad and they got pulled over. The cop came up to their window with a huge smirk on his face, and with abundant enthusiasm announced “Hey guess what! We got you from the air!”

I did once get written up for exceeding the speed of sound in an area where I shouldn’t have, but it was pretty obvious and there wasn’t another airplane involved.

Seen those signs a lot. Never experienced it first hand though. I think in the planes they use VASCAR…Or some similar device these days.

If the Highway Patrol in your state has enough money in their budget to do this, then they have way to much money in their budget…Today, it just costs too much to operate and maintain the aircraft necessary to do this…Many departments are having trouble keeping their patrol cars up to date…

Have you ever been caught speeding by an airplane?

General Discussion

meaneyedcatz February 9, 2012, 9:42am 7

It’s been done for years but I have not seen them for the past several. A tell tale sign is large white squares painted on the pavement. If you doing the speed limit it will take 8 seconds (for example) to from one square to the next. If a flying cop says it took you only 6 seconds from square to square then your speeding.

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Have you ever been caught speeding by an airplane?

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