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You’re obviously a lot more savvy about this than I. I just try to use common sense.

That is all I am doing. When I saw the video I knew it was a missile immediately. Since then everything I have picked up has been from hours of reading threads and linked source material. Separate the wheat from the chaff.

If the photographer was looking south/southwest towards Catalina and the object flew almost vertical and then veered to the right as in the film, then that confirms the photographers account that the object flew to the northwest.

That is one aspect of the video that was clear to me from the first viewing. It's headed away. Some don't think it's possible to have an accurate idea how fast it was traveling either from the small snippets of video and with the changing zoom levels. I do.

Some don't think it's possible to have an accurate idea how fast it was traveling either from the small snippets of video and with the changing zoom levels. I do.

The video was actually very good. That the object was travelling about 15 degrees to the right helped with perspective, knowing where the launch point was (ballpark) allows us to estimate altitude by triangulation. It was heading downstream through the stratosphere in seconds. Anything accelerating that fast toward Phoenix would have arrived there by the end of the video, but that would be behind the cameraman, not receding into space in front of him, apparently firing a second stage. It aint rocket science. (wait a minute) Can't prove much in the way of specific, definite physical data from the video, but it is a very good bullshit antidote when panning for facts.

I was playing with that Bob Hope Airport monitor. That's a pretty fun toy. At any rate, I found it interesting that right about 5:00 pm on the 8th, all the air traffic cleared between Catalina and the Channel Islands. Could just be a coincedence, but still interesting. That area stayed clear for almost 15 minutes except for one flight, American Airline 161, which cut right across that area heading southwest at approx 5:05 pm.

Then I watched the video again from this source:
http://www.ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1353284

Look what appears on the right side of the screen at the 1:35 mark. Flt 161? Who knows. It's hard to make any educated guesses without knowing the exact time the missile was launched. I've read anywhere between 4:45 and 5:15.

I still don't see how anyone can believe it was a plane if the reported position of the photographer is correct. If the helicopter was flying around the Santa Monica/Palisades area, Flt 808 may have been heading straight towards them prior to 5:00 pm, but once it reached Catalina, it turned and headed straight east. At that point, the helicopter would have been almost due north of the plane and the film should have shown the plane's contrail(s) moving in a horizontal line from right to left. That did not happen. Instead the contrail curved right and went out to sea to the northwest just as the photographer reported. I know, I'm preaching to the choir.