Flying at 3,400 feet, the 1961 Aero-Commander 500A twin-engine six-seater plane swooped through the night over Cockeysville, Prettyboy Reservoir, Sparks and out to the Maryland-Pennsylvania line.
Cpl. Wayne B. Stallings of the Maryland Natural Resources Police, the pilot, and Cpl. Harry Yingling, the flight observer, stared into the darkness, looking for "jacklighters," deer hunters whose illegal night hunting techniques could mean fines up to $500 if they are caught.
Jacklighters shine their vehicle high beams or hand-held lamps on deer, "freeze" them in the light, then shoot them for the meat and antlers, to protect farm crops, or to compete with buddies for the biggest rack. When hunters combine jacklighting with drinking, it can be dangerous.
"Each year, we get fewer and fewer," Corporal Stallings said. "They know we're out there doing this -- it's getting tricky."
He suspects jacklighters have cut back and changed their tricks as they have become more aware of the patrols.
For two hours, the corporals, both 10-year veterans of enforcing conservation laws, scanned the dark countryside, ready to coordinate with units on the ground if they saw something worth investigating.
But the conservation officers returned to Martin State Airport empty-handed, an outcome that has been a familiar one this fall.
For the most part, natural resources police have been stymied in attempts to arrest deer poachers across Maryland, especially during the firearm deer hunting season that opened Nov. 26 and ends today.
Not a single jacklighter has been caught since September -- when the season opened for other forms of deer hunting -- despite air patrols in various counties four times a week, said Corporal Stallings, who is in the aviation section of the natural resources police in Easton.
One night this week, his air patrol over northern and central Baltimore County demonstrated how difficult it is to make an arrest, even if a jacklighter is spotted from above.
"I know where all the hot spots are," said Corporal Yingling, who specializes in navigating Baltimore County.
He identified different communities and roads while Corporal Stallings tracked headlights.
With the plane traveling at 110 mph, Corporal Yingling pointed out a shopping mall, a pond illuminated by a fountain, a park-and-ride lot and Interstate 83, all of which looked like plain city lights to the untrained eye.
About 8 p.m., more than an hour after takeoff, they saw something suspicious.
"You see the truck down there?" asked Corporal Stallings, pointing out the plane window just east of the community of Maryland Line. "He's headlighting that field right there . . . more than likely looking for deer."
The truck driver pulled into a cornfield and swept his lights right and left in a wide arc. Within a half-hour, he turned his lights off, back on, then off again.
The officers radioed the location to ground units. Soon they had the area surrounded. Corporal Stallings, who had been flying above the truck, briefly maneuvered the plane away, thinking the truck driver might have seen it. When he flew back, the vehicle's lights still were off.
Moments later, a ground officer radioed in: a large-caliber rifle shot had gone off near the truck.
"We're just waiting for him to put his lights back on," said Corporal Yingling, who had received complaints about a jacklighter in the vicinity. "I'll be happy if we can catch him, very happy."
But it didn't happen -- the truck driver's lights stayed off and the hunter couldn't be found.
"I think that guy went home," Corporal Yingling said, as they prepared to return to the airport for the night. "Just part of the game -- part of the way it works."
And it's not unusual. "For about half the violations we do observe, only half are apprehended," Corporal Stallings said. Some poachers have radios that pick up frequencies the officers use; other poachers spotted from the air stop jacklighting before ground units arrive, he said.
Other poachers hunt without getting caught by driving down dark, meandering roads in the hope that a deer will come into their headlights, or by shooting a deer and racing off, and returning for it a few hours later.
Or they cross state lines into Pennsylvania and Delaware, where poaching is not as heavily regulated.
In fiscal year 1993, the latest complete statistics available, officers arrested 108 jacklighters statewide, said Officer Arthur Jackson, one of three officers who patrol Baltimore County. "That's so-so. It can always be higher, but 108's not bad."
Jacklighting seems to have decreased because of increased enforcement, he said, while legal hunting has grown.
The two-week firearm hunting season was extended from one week a few years ago, because a growing number of deer have moved to more suburban areas such as Baltimore County, where they can't find enough food to survive. In more rural areas, deer grazing can do significant crop damage.
"It's more crop management and deer management than hunting sentiment," Officer Jackson said.
If a person obtains a $24.50 hunting license, it is legal to kill one deer per season, hunting a half-hour before sunrise until a half-hour after sunset Monday through Saturday -- without a light.
But people who hunt out of their car windows, in the middle of the night, or with a light, could have their vehicles and weapons confiscated in addition to being fined and winding up in court.