My wife and I were in DC last weekend walking around the Jefferson Monument (we were on the other side of the water about 200 yards from the monument) when I heard that beautiful, deep thumping sound of a near by helicopter. I started looking around the sky and watched it swoop around the Monument and head straight towards us! I grabbed my camera and caught the shot posted below. This was without a zoom lens (to get an idea of how close it was). Very cool! It flew the same flight pattern about every hour while we were there.
That is, in fact, a Bell 212 used by the DOD for VIP transport among other things. Probably carrying some of the 75 people the gov't is keeping in 'a secure location' now that missing Russian nukes are confirmed. Bring marshmallows just in case next time you visit DC!
I looked at this one hard as it was a likely candidate for my Vario Bell 212 project. Go here for details...
