I was outside this evening and looked up to see a bright object directly above.

Well, you know how it is...no camera or nothing close to hand.
Anyway I found my binoculars and found something steady to rest on and focused on the object.
Turned out to be a sizable balloon with a tether hanging down to a canister.

I watched it for a few minutes and then noting it's drift I went to report it.
It was hard to tell how big or how high it was but it was at least 10,000 ft or better and the way the canister was hanging looked reasonably heavy.

With the sun on it it was as bright as the morning star with the naked eye.
With binoculars it was silvery, round, and you could see the tether between the canister and balloon.

If this had been a REAL emergency .......

I finally called the OKC airport police who gave me the FFA number in OKC.
Spoke to John who took my information and said he'd pass it on.

Now all this took 45 minutes !

My shop is under a busy air corridor to OKC....I have cross traffic from the helicopter base in Lexington and north bound heavy traffic to OKC from Dallas as well as local municipal airport traffic and I am located under the final approach and at 20:45 every night, three C130's of the Air Guard fly over ...according to my old ATC friend from Tinker AFB they are mostly just logging flight time.

Thing is, I was worried that it might get in the way of aircraft and consequences of ingestion or strike.

So, any pilots want to chime in. I would like to know if I should have reported it ......and I seem to remember there's limits on these things.

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[http://languageandgrammar.com/2008/01/14/youve-got-problems-not-issues/ ]

"A liberal is someone who feels they owe a great debt to their fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."

Weather balloon.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Swamp Gas.

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

Possibly ..but I think they have altitude release valves to bring them down after readings are taken.

__________________
[http://languageandgrammar.com/2008/01/14/youve-got-problems-not-issues/ ]

"A liberal is someone who feels they owe a great debt to their fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."