2001-04-13 - Capitola, CA - Triangle

Small Black Triangle flying over surfers in Capitola, CA midday at about 750 ft. altitude perfectly quiet and flying level

((NUFORC Note: Author of this report later writes that he believes the object was a military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ("UAV").

I was out surfing in the Monterey Bay at a surf spot called "sharks" which is near where 41st avenue run from Hiway 1 to the Monterey Bay. We; myself and 3 or 4 other surfers heard an aircraft overhead and we spotted at about 750 to 1,000 ft. a triangular craft pure black no markings and very thin approximately 3 ft. thick. It was silent. What we heard was above it a twin engine civilian craft that looked as though it was "checking out" the triangle. The triangle was the shape of a hang-glider but rigid wings and had two small approx 2ft. propellers at the trailing edge of the triangle about 2-3 feet from each of the two points at the rear. As the triangle was only going about 40 mph the twin engine overtook it quickly and as the triangle went inland over the land without a change in altitude the twin engine that was about 750 ft. above the triangle banked off. The triangle kept going inland. It went right over our heads and was flying level and was not gliding. It was under power as proven by its level and slow flight for a long time. It was not an equalateral triangle but had a trailing edge that was smaller than the leading edges. It looked unmanned as it was very thin and if a man had been lying down inside of it it would have been very cramped as the total thickness looked to me about 2 feet. I mentioned the sighting to the other surfers out there with me and I said what the heck was that? One replied a "stealth" obviously referring to the stealth bomber or the stealth fighter of which I have seen both in flight doing a couple of fly bys at a Stockton, CA airshow a few years ago. This was way smaller than the stealth bomber and fighter and was very small. I spoke to a family relative who worked at Lockheed Missiles and space in LA at the skunk works for several years and he said that the drones they were working on had wooden propellers 2 ft. long made by a local civilian. The question is why would the military fly a craft over civilians in mid-day at such a low altitude and go over su! rfers a known surfing spot and then go over land? There was no attempt to hide it. I reported it to the FAA at the Monterey airport and the air traffic controller said to me that if I spotted it again to please let him know. Since I am 50 years old and have never seen anything even close to this before I mentioned to him that it was highly unlikely that I would ever see it again.