Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)

Spectrar Ghost said:

I think these are three crossing distrails. There were other, smaller distrails in the same cloud layer. Interested to know if I'm right.

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They do not look like distrails to me. More like ordinary gaps in breaking clouds. When and where was this photo taken?

Downers Grove, IL at 7:36 am CDT.

The features actually filled in within a few minutes. There have been a number of other linear features this morning that seemed discontinuous with the surrounding clouds, though none I could photograph (not from the truck anyway).

Spectrar Ghost said:

Downers Grove, IL at 7:36 am CDT.

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Just after sunrise, apparently facing West. I've played back FR24, there are no suitable candidate flight for your location. All planes coming to ORD passed above it at 10,000 ft or less, which seems to be too low for distrails.

Seems to be good conditions for the Crow instability to be visible today.



Downers Grove, IL; 3:07; looking SW.



4:06, looking S.

Are there particular conditions or aircraft that are more likely to produce hybrid contrails?

Spectrar Ghost said:

Are there particular conditions or aircraft that are more likely to produce hybrid contrails?

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The hybrid contrails are more likely to form behind large aircraft, particularly four engine ones, but, occasionally, they can be seen behind medium size planes, like B737. Also, there is a rather narrow range of relative humidity conditions for the observation of hybrid contrails - it should be high enough to facilitate the formation of sufficiently long exhaust contrails to be entrained into the wake vortices, but not too high for the exhaust contrails spreading out fast and enveloping these vortices inside.

PS Both planes in your photos probably were B747. The first one was a Dreamlifter modification (there is my photo of this posted here, #250):

the second was BA243:

Thanks!

I'd never heard of the Dreamlifter before; that's a few minutes of wiki-joyment to start the day.

Spectrar Ghost said:

Thanks!

I'd never heard of the Dreamlifter before; that's a few minutes of wiki-joyment to start the day.

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By coincidence I first encountered this plane just the other day. I was on the train and saw a big contrail heading off into the sunset. Checked FR24 and it turned out to be the Dreamlifter on its way across the Atlantic from the Boeing factory in Italy. No photo of the plane/contrail as it was too far away to bother with a phone picture, but this was the FR24 screenshot.



The destination was not available at the time, but it was Charleston (and flying from Taranto)

As I was just getting into my car @ 20:20GMT+1 I captured Smartphone video of McDonnell Douglas MD-11F @FL350 creating a lovely sunlit contrail across a deep blue evening sky.





Minutes later, as I drove away, the contrail was already beginning to waft into nothingness and a quick glimpse back in the direction of the aircraft told me it was no longer contrailing.

What is this type of cloud called?

Cirrus. Could be cirrus vertebratus, or a row of cirrus uncinus from a contrail

https://www.google.com/search?q=cirrus+vertebratus&es_sm=119&source=lnms&tbm=isch

Thanks for the info. It is right along where contrails regularly form. In the afternoons, I regularly see flights going along that path (left to right in the photo) and see contrails forming there regularly. Transatlantic flights from what I can gather from Flightradar24.

Yesterday (May 3) the most of the day was overcast and rain, but in the afternoon there was a brief spell of a clear sky above. I checked FR24 and noted a Turkish Airlines B737 TK1995 heading right in my direction:

I went outside and took a few pictures (the second one is cropped):


The plane was at about 35,000 ft (just started its descent from 38,000 ft) and made no contrail. I spotted it only because I knew there to look - straight up!
The Earth forecast at 15:00 UTC showed very low humidity at 250 hPa over almost all of the UK:

I wonder, if anybody in England managed to take a picture of a contrail yesterday afternoon.

This morning is another matter:

This military aircraft (C-17?) passed some 20 miles to the north (forecasted RH is ~70%) and did not show up on FR24.

Yeah, it's a C-17. The winglets are a dead giveaway.

My first sinusoidal thin trail (sort of). Didn't see it as such until I downloaded photos on my computer. The first thing I noticed was a wavy trail:

that broke off from a longer trail that displayed more wavy features:

Zooming into them showed a thin squiggly trail at the edge of a dispersed fluffy one:


In 25 seconds from photo #2, the amplitude of sinusoidal trail notably increased, but in less than two minutes the thin trail dispersed and merged into the fluffy one.

Meanwhile, the initial bit evolved into this (one minute after photo #1):


The plane that left the original trail was A340 flying in NE direction at 34,000 ft:

An unusual contrail formation near my house. It looked better 5 minutes earlier but I was putting the kids to bed.

Last night in Hampshire. A hint of a halo above the sun in the first one, and a nice shadow and an interesting S-bend on the distant end of the trail heading straight towards me in the second shot.

Sun Dog formed on one side only.
Today, Ladera Heights, CA

Unfortunately, my composition with trails, and usage of props.....could easily lead to "interpretation", unintended by me.

An almost perfect 90-degree grid this morning, thanks to a quite strong upper-level wind from the southwest.

Some late evening contrails with shadows west of Missoula, Mt.

Caught a few old contrails north to northeast of Tampere, Finland this morning.


EDIT:
I almost caught a lone FiAF Hornet I only heard passing overhead, which soon made a nice on-off trail before turning East possibly over Halli AFB. Judging by the roar and the speed of the short trail it left, it was in a big hurry. Maybe our eastern neighbors forgot to turn their transmitters on again

Nice pics, all.... I think I got some too!

Looks like the air force had a field trip this morning. Squiggly contrails ahoy

About as spectacular as displays of trails get where I live - I once sat and watched a FR24 replay from 0800-1800 and counted the number of flights I thought I might reasonably have expected to notice in my area (SE Northumberland) if they were leaving trails. It came to about 70.



I noticed the trails were moving pretty quickly

These two were taken 90 seconds apart





There was a narrow band of high speed winds over northern England at the time



Carrying a stream of humid air

The new trail with the turn appears to be this flight heading for Edinburgh

cloudspotter said:

About as spectacular as displays of trails get where I live - I once sat and watched a FR24 replay from 0800-1800 and counted the number of flights I thought I might reasonably have expected to notice in my area (SE Northumberland) if they were leaving trails. It came to about 70.

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It would be interesting to do the same thing here. I think it would be closer to 700 than 70!

This was Saturday morning, facing roughly northwest (first pic) and east.



And a hazy Saturday afternoon. (Spot the interested spectator at a friend's barbecue...)

nice broken trail with shadow cast caught over Frankston Melbourne, i heard of this phenomenon but not ever seen--noticed myself

plane going south to Tasmania Hobart or other city while another come back over top



zoomed in for close up


sun just right position to cast trail shadow


my cameras out by 1 hr as still on summer time but aircraft i suspect was,,Jq705 but gee i struggle with FR24 backtracking a day events a chore working out UT time gits me all dizzy

derwoodii said:

my cameras out by 1 hr as still on summer time but aircraft i suspect was,,Jq705 but gee i struggle with FR24 backtracking a day events a chore working out UT time gits me all dizzy

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If the real time was 11:13am (UTC+10) then that is 1:13am. There were three planes at cruising height to the south of Melbourne at that time. (Images from FR24 merged to show all three flight numbers)



JST739 to Launceston, VOZ1320 to Hobart and VOZ1321 from Hobart back to Melbourne.


It looks like the flights out of Melbourne to the south reached 28-29,000ft just about directly over Frankston.

I noticed this interesting contrail forming in the evening sun a few nights back. I tried to get a couple of shots of it with a pocket camera. Taken from Bald Hills, Queensland, Australia facing almost directly west at 5:26PM, May 28, 2015. I'm new to flight tracking and haven't managed to figure out how to find it. I'm curious as to where it landed. Anybody care to ID it?

386 said:

I noticed this interesting contrail forming in the evening sun a few nights back. I tried to get a couple of shots of it with a pocket camera. Taken from Bald Hills, Queensland, Australia facing almost directly east at 5:26PM, May 28, 2015. I'm new to flight tracking and haven't managed to figure out how to find it. I'm curious as to where it landed. Anybody care to ID it?

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You probably meant looking WEST, toward sunset. The free Flightradar24 playback is expired for the date, so I looked it at planefinder.net; the only candidate flying in westerly direction at the time (5:26 PM AET is 7:26 AM UTC) was A39-005 Royal Australian Air Force Airbus KC-30A (A330-203MRTT):

It disappeared from the tracker screen at 07:15 UTC as it flew further inland, so it was not possible to follow it to the destination or even to see whether or not it turned north. Photos from planespotters.net suggest this airbus is converted into air-to-air refuelling tanker:


PS The flight probably was a round trip that ended at its origin, an airbase near Brisbane, as the aircraft flew again from there in less than 18 hours.

Trailspotter said:

You probably meant looking WEST

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Oh wow, sorry, yes that is exactly what I meant. Not sure how I managed to fumble that so badly, we'll put it down to lack of caffeine, haha. I've corrected my previous post.

Thanks for your detective work. Looks like you've nailed it.

386 said:

I noticed this interesting contrail forming in the evening sun a few nights back. I tried to get a couple of shots of it with a pocket camera. Taken from Bald Hills, Queensland, Australia facing almost directly west at 5:26PM, May 28, 2015. I'm new to flight tracking and haven't managed to figure out how to find it. I'm curious as to where it landed. Anybody care to ID it?

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Welcome 386, I am from the Sunny Coast and have been enjoying checking flightradar to see which planes are leaving contrails. Long persistent spreading contrails are not seen regularly in our area so the last few weeks have been great for observing. A couple of weeks ago I witnessed my first contrail from a plane in a holding pattern waiting to get into Brisbane Airport, alas no photo. The plane behind had the same holding pattern, different altitude, no contrail.
You may have seen the big contrail to the east today (8th June around midday it lasted for hours). I thouht it may have been Brisbane to L.A. but now I have checked the archive seems more likely Bris to Port Vila as it had a kink in the trail.



When my grandchildren see a contrail they get the flightradar app up and we check which plane it is. 34000 ft is a bit difficult for a 3, 5 & 6yrs old to comprehend but the youngest is the biggest fan and loves looking at the livery. I have them on a search for a New Caledonian plane as it is my favourite with the hibiscus flower on the tail fin. I think there is a thread on here somewhere about it, re: Albury Wodonga.

Can admin help? don't know why I can't post the image.

While having breakfast in the garden this morning I spotted a plane leaving a very clear distrail. This was a Boeing 747, BA208 from Miami on approach to Heathrow.



Watching over the next few minutes there was a succession of planes cutting through the thin layer of clouds. From the altitude reading on FR24 as the planes cut through the cloud, the cloud level was about 5,000ft. Quite deceptive as I would have guessed much higher.



This sequence shows another BA 747, flight 202 from Boston to LHR:

Animated GIF of the above:




And a more distant cloud being split by a plane:

Plenty of contrails just before sunrise this morning.

Lisa P said:

When my grandchildren see a contrail they get the flightradar app up and we check which plane it is. 34000 ft is a bit difficult for a 3, 5 & 6yrs old to comprehend but the youngest is the biggest fan and loves looking at the livery. I have them on a search for a New Caledonian plane as it is my favourite with the hibiscus flower on the tail fin. I think there is a thread on here somewhere about it, re: Albury Wodonga.

Can admin help? don't know why I can't post the image.

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Hi Lisa,

Some images of the A320 and A330 in the livery at following links

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=F-OZNC&distinct_entry=true

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=F-OJSE&distinct_entry=true

I thought it was boring taking photos of just contrails so I decided I would take some with Raglan Castle (near Abergavenny in Wales) in the background. These were taken on 11th June 2015 between about 12: 30 and 2:30pm.

Efftup said:

I thought it was boring taking photos of just contrails so I decided I would take some with Raglan Castle (near Abergavenny in Wales) in the background. These were taken on 11th June 2015 between about 12: 30 and 2:30pm.

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Can you give the exact times of each of these photos? I am particularly interested in those closest to 12:23 and 14:09 BST.

Sadly no, I was spending some top quality time with my girlfriend and the contrails were definitely an aside. I didn't have the date/time thing turned on on my camera. Nor could I even tell you on most of them which way I was facing, except for the one that was directly overhead.

The FIRST shot was pretty much my first shot of the visit, closest to 12: 30. and looking in the direction directly at the front of the Castle.

Do I need to post the pics on the net somewhere in order to post them here?

Hama Neggs said:

Do I need to post the pics on the net somewhere in order to post them here?

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No, just click on "Upload a file", and then insert the image after uploading.