Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)

[Mick West]

They just flew back over.
https://www.metabunk.org/sk/20141207-124810-bml03.jpg
Looks like they went down towards the beach and back. Skytyping sounds plausible, but then I saw this guy following them:

 

[WeedWhacker]

They just flew back over.
https://www.metabunk.org/sk/20141207-124810-bml03.jpg
Looks like they went down towards the beach and back. Skytyping sounds plausible, but then I saw this guy following them:

That is a modern airplane.....Starts with a "T"...tip of my tongue, but I CANNOT right now tell what it is.

HOWEVER? It IS part of a team that "Sky-Types"....(similar to the AT-6 team).


Old man shakes fist at clouds:

(Well....just "Google" the term....it is "iconic"...)....

 

[MikeC]

Something like this:

 

[Mackdog]

That is a modern airplane.....Starts with a "T"...tip of my tongue, but I CANNOT right now tell what it is.

HOWEVER? It IS part of a team that "Sky-Types"....(similar to the AT-6 team).


Old man shakes fist at clouds:

(Well....just "Google" the term....it is "iconic"...)....

Is it a T-6 Texan?

 

[WeedWhacker]

Is it a T-6 Texan?

No.

THIS is an image of a T-6: (TWO of them, actually...in formation):



[URL='http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/9d1ad543d2bf21ebcbb6aebe455d8e860b12adf9/c=174-0-2832-1998&r=x513&c=680x510/local/-/media/WIGroup/Oshkosh/2014/07/31/1406841629000-OSH-Geico-Skytypers-07312014-JK001.jpg[/url']

PS....A guy who FIRST introduced me to flying a "Tail-Dragger"...in a Decathlon....(BACK in 1975!!!) OWNS a T-6. I was recently reminded because of a weird "connection" that is part of the 'wonderful world' that we live in.[/url]

 

[Trailblazer]

This morning just as I was leaving for work. The sun had risen behind that house half an hour earlier so you're looking at the shadowed side of the low cloud and it appears dark. The contrails are brightly lit in contrast. There are some very strong winds up there at the moment which you can see already starting to distort the left-hand trail in particular.



An interesting sky from the train. Lots of fragments of old contrails.



Many of them seem to be turning into cirrocumulus rather than plain old cirrus. Presumably something to do with the rather disturbed and stormy atmosphere at the moment?

And here's the morning BA flight from JFK coming into Heathrow under some nice clouds. Again taken from the train, hence the reflection.

 

[Trailblazer]

Just having a play with the new camera. Unfortunately we haven't had good contrail conditions today, really.

A Virgin 747 coming in towards Heathrow:



A Thomas Cook 767 at 32,000ft chasing a Norwegian 737 at 36,000ft:



And on a slightly smaller scale, a Cirrus SR22 coming into Blackbushe:

 

[cloudspotter]

Qatar Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Doha @33000ft

 

[Trailblazer]

Contrails above the clouds catching the last rays of the sun over the Shard.

 

[Trailspotter]

There has been a good contrail day today with a lot of associated stuff: grids, shadows, virga, Crow instability, kinky trails etc.

 

[Trailspotter]

Qatar Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Doha @33000ft

Using Google Earth and FlightAware, I have determined the time of this picture as 8:10 AM UTC. @cloudspotter, is this correct?

 

[cloudspotter]

Using Google Earth and FlightAware, I have determined the time of this picture as 8:10 AM UTC. @cloudspotter, is this correct?

Spot on. I did have some doubts about it though as it looks to be a little too far west on FR24

 

[Efftup]

only 3 Focke Wulfs slipped in amongst the Texans. sneaky Germans!! etc

 

[Trailspotter]

A lot of short contrails this morning along the London - Manchester/Liverpool direction probably made by the planes ascending from or descending to these airports. The picture is taken in SW direction, perpendicular to the above direction:


An afternoon surprise: a circular contrail passed overhead, carried by a strong northerly wind.

When it drifted south so to fit in the frame again, it appeared to be a short racetrack rather than a circle:

There were two more contrail semicircles, flanking this at the north and south, but not connected to it. These are almost certainly left by military aircraft; the FR24 playback has shown no civil planes flying north of our city for at least for two hours before these photos.

 

[Trailspotter]

British Airways Boeing 777 G-YMMG practicing near our local airport (CBG) this morning. Not that it can take planes of this size.

 

[M Bornong]

I've often been told that commercial airlines only fly in straight lines.

Perspective can make it seem a much sharper turn, than it really is.


A little later in the day, I caught this one, sorry it is just a typical flight in a straight line.



I think it was this guy.


This was my witness to the sun dog, he was in my neighbors tree at the time and seemed to be as amazed by the light show as I was.

 

[Trailspotter]

This was my witness to the sun dog, he was in my neighbors tree at the time and seemed to be as amazed by the light show as I was.

Hi! I like your bird!
Are there grey herons (Ardea cinerea) in California, or is this an American (sub)species Ardea herodias?

 

[M Bornong]

Hi! I like your bird!
Are there grey herons (Ardea cinerea) in California, or is this an American (sub)species Ardea herodias?

It's a great blue heron. My wife caught this one a couple of hours before.

 

[WeedWhacker]

It's a great blue heron. My wife caught this one a couple of hours before.

I can't see its contrail (but I "know" it's there**). Nice bird....I like that bird. Oh, and "Hi"! (Waves casually)....

{**} Possibly composed of that invisible gas, methane?

 

[Trailspotter]

It's a great blue heron. My wife caught this one a couple of hours before.

There have been quite a lot of grey herons around this year. I regularly filmed one of them fishing on my way to work:


While checking my iPhoto library for its videos, I found this picture of B737. I have taken it in May this year, but only just noticed faint aerodynamic contrails coming from the wing flaps.

This is a frequent visitor to our airport (CBG). There is a connection between these visits and an apparent shortage of windows in the plane, which interested readers are welcome to figure out themselves.

 

[Whitebeard]

This is a frequent visitor to our airport (CBG). There is a connection between these visits and an apparent shortage of windows in the plane, which interested readers are welcome to figure out themselves.

It's Atlantic Airlines 737-322(sf) G-JMCL, was converted from a passenger plane to a cargo hauler in 2008, and I presume the windows were blocked out then

Full history here... http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/737/23951,G-JMCL-Atlantic-Airlines-(UK).php

If your near Coventry airport, your seeing it a lot cos thats where Atlantic are based, if your near any of these, its cos its on a regular scheduled flight. The company also does one off and ad-hoc contract flights to other places.

edit - I see you mentioned Cambridge, and apparently a lot of airlines use Cambridge for training,

 

[Trailblazer]

It's Atlantic Airlines 737-322(sf) G-JMCL, was converted from a passenger plane to a cargo hauler in 2008, and I presume the windows were blocked out then

Full history here... http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/737/23951,G-JMCL-Atlantic-Airlines-(UK).php

If your near Coventry airport, your seeing it a lot cos thats where Atlantic are based, if your near any of these, its cos its on a regular scheduled flight. The company also does one off and ad-hoc contract flights to other places.

edit - I see you mentioned Cambridge, and apparently a lot of airlines use Cambridge for training,

Looking online I saw some mention of that aircraft being used to carry racehorses. Cambridge airport is close to Newmarket, which is a major racing centre in the UK. I don't know if that is relevant?

 

[Whitebeard]

Looking online I saw some mention of that aircraft being used to carry racehorses. Cambridge airport is close to Newmarket, which is a major racing centre in the UK. I don't know if that is relevant?

Yup that would explain a lot, and the windows at the back then are probably the grooms accommodation.

 

[Trailspotter]

Looking online I saw some mention of that aircraft being used to carry racehorses. Cambridge airport is close to Newmarket, which is a major racing centre in the UK. I don't know if that is relevant?

That's the ticket!

 

[WeedWhacker]

but only just noticed faint aerodynamic contrails coming from the wing flaps.

Yes, in high humidity conditions this is quite common. Strictly speaking, in terms of the definition of 'contrail', though...these are more a type of compression vortices (if I can "make up" a term). Airflow dynamics that compress the air, and the moisture in that air then condenses "out" of the vapor state, and becomes visible.

The airflow dynamics flowing off of the trailing-edge flaps (proper terminology) account for some interesting visual effects, in certain atmospheric conditions.

EDIT: I won't post images that I personally did not take, since against the "spirit" of this thread topic...but a perusal of YT (and elsewhere) will find countless stunning video and still pics of amazing "compression vortices" (tm pending! ).

Look for some of the high-bypass engine fan blades (the big ones that are most visible, what we call the "N1" fan), in large jet engines, inside the cowling...phenomenal.

 

[Trailblazer]

An overcast sky has just cleared to reveal a pretty impressive array of contrails of varying ages above.

In shot here (in the distance) we have Ryanair FR23 at 38,000 feet leaving a very long trail from the top left, and Ryanair FR9445 at 40,000 feet leaving a much shorter trail just above and to the right of it.




And a little while later here is a British Airways 747 at about 13,000 feet (on approach from Houston to Heathrow). Limitations of the 250mm zoom lens showing up a bit.

 

[Ninja R]

Hi folks. I figured for my first post here, I'd upload a picture I took December 16 at around 7:40 a.m. CST from north Dallas. Facing south.



Here's another from the same day taken about 20 minutes later. I took them to joke around with fellow skeptics. Facing east.



Coincidentally, a guy I know who believes the chemtrail stuff messaged me saying a friend of his had already told him They were spraying heavily that day. As well, the Dallas FOX affiliate aired some of the nonsense the station received earlier in the week (start at 3:10).

 

[Trailblazer]

People talk about contrails being visual pollution but I think sometimes they definitely enhance the sunset. This was last night. (Well, I say night, sunset was at 3.56pm!)

 

[Trailblazer]

I've identified the prominent curving contrail in the top picture above: Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Dublin. The photo was taken in Sandhurst, Berkshire, circled below:




The camera direction was more or less due west, but the trails were drifting quite rapidly southwards so this was already some way to the south of the flight path.

 

[cloudspotter]

Spot the KLM ERJ-190

 

[Trailblazer]

Spot the KLM ERJ-190

I see it! And I see why it wasn't leaving a trail...

 

[Trailspotter]

Spot the KLM ERJ-190

Over the North Sea, approaching Sunderland:

 

[cloudspotter]

I see it! And I see why it wasn't leaving a trail...

Yeah beautiful blue skies today

 

[ĕrēmīta]

My friend took this over Hornsea this morning she wondered if the pilots were drunk?

 

[Trailspotter]

My friend took this over Hornsea this morning she wondered if the pilots were drunk?

Welcome back, @ĕrēmīta! It looks like yet another RAF training exercise. There have been no civil flights in that area this morning. Also, these look more like smoke trails, used to visualise the fighters' tracks, rather than contrails.

 

[ĕrēmīta]

Thank you I thought it might be my old friends the RAF but had not heard them this morning. There has been increased activity again over Hornsea (although the RAF insisted last time that they hadn't) my boys spotted two fighter Jets last week much to their excitement. I personally have only actually seen one once as they usually only fly with cloud cover. As long as it's in work hours I don't mind . P.s I regularly pop in for a read just don't log in or comment.

 

[Trailspotter]

I thought it might be my old friends the RAF but had not heard them this morning. There has been increased activity again over Hornsea (although the RAF insisted last time that they hadn't) my boys spotted two fighter Jets last week much to their excitement.

Well, it looks like the trails were actually not over the village, but a few miles away over the sea, therefore it is not surprising that you had not heard them.

 

[ĕrēmīta]

I would have to go technical and work out which way the wind was blowing. The photo was taken with the coast behind looking inland about a mile from the beach. Very noisy things!

 

[cloudspotter]

I spotted a flight that was going to pass directly overhead so I took the opportunity to whip out my large one (not that big in reality)





Which left

 

[cloudspotter]

A mystery KLM flight...