1999-01-08 - Madera, CA - Unknown

Extreemly loud, like a ram-jet, very large moving slowly from NW to SE. Could not see shape because of high fog. Live in canyon and have observed every typ of craft from ultra lights to KC-130s and to compare, this was much larger. There seemed to be lights above the fog but I can't be sure.

At approximately 20:30 hours I heard a very loud noise ( actually felt the vibration before I heard it) I went out on our elevated deck that runs around the 2nd story of our house. I could not actually see the object but could tell it was very large and moving slow for an aircraft. Our house is at about 850' elevation in the low foothills of the Sierra Navada mountains and the high fog was at about 1000' feet. The object was above or in the fog layer. What is strange was the sound of the (enginges?) It was more like a vibrating pulse that vibrated everything in the house. I have observed numerous aircraft over the house, some quite close fighting fires where they were dumping water on the house and diving on fires near my fense line. Every type of craft from ultra lights to H204s and H206s, Hiller/soloys, Bell 1Bs, high flying passenger jet and low flying tankers and I have never heard anything like this. My exact position is: 37deg. 04.670min N. and 119deg. 50.241min. W. I am an amateur radio operator and did not observe any abnormal radio emmissions befor ar after the event and I also had a scanner on listening to Fresno/Yosemite international airport tower and heard no unusual traffic from the controllers. At my point of observation I was faceing SW and the object passed about 1/2 to 3/4 mile in front of me (SW) traveling from NW to SE. As I said I could not actually see it but only scence lights and tell the sound was moving and the area seemed to equal about 8-10 full moon diameters long and maybe 3 full moon diameters wide at the center. It took 2-3 min. to move through the area. I take off my watch at the end of the work day Fridays and don't put it on till Monday morning so the time I gave is only approx. After the event I stayed outside for a while walking around the hills trying to figure out what it was because, unlike low flying aircraft this thing set off every coyote for 5 miles around and they would not shut up for about 20 min. after it was gone. After i came back into the house I messed around on 2 meters for a while to see if any body else in the area heard or saw anything unusual but nobody had but then all caontacts were over 20 miles away. About 22:00 I remembered there was a web site to report UFOs so I hunted up the site and here I am. I don't know that this qualifies as a UFO but I am hoping maybe someone else saw or heard this also and can give a hint at what is was. I am also an amateur astronomer and cannot believe how disorganized I was on this observation, if you can call it that. That is about all I can say, except it shook me up quite a bit. Thanks, ((name deleted))