Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)
- Thread starter Mick West
- Start date
M Bornong
Senior Member.
That looks like an MD-11
When I saw it in the sky, I expected it to be an MD-11, if it was, it didn't show up on flight radar, the position was correct for the United flight. Possibly an MD-11 without ADSB was in that part of the sky, also.
A second photo taken a as it passed, shows a little more of the tail fin, I can't tell if there is an engine there or not.
Last edited:
M Bornong
Senior Member.
Looks like an engine to me. Possibly a military KC-10
If it's military, that would explain it not having ADSB. The Embraer may not have been making a contrail, so I might not have seen it. Contrails were sporadic at that time.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
I've spotted an interesting contrail during lunch break today. It looked like yarn with a few spaced fluffy bits on a string:
A close up shows the string being hybrid contrail and fluffy bits being remnants of an ordinary exhaust contrail:
The plane appeared to be a military C-17 that did not show on FR24. It was leaving an ordinary exhaust contrail:
At the end, the hybrid contrail string dissipated first leaving a row of small fluffy clouds. These were similar in appearance to cumulus clouds below but moved with less apparent speed:
A close up shows the string being hybrid contrail and fluffy bits being remnants of an ordinary exhaust contrail:
The plane appeared to be a military C-17 that did not show on FR24. It was leaving an ordinary exhaust contrail:
At the end, the hybrid contrail string dissipated first leaving a row of small fluffy clouds. These were similar in appearance to cumulus clouds below but moved with less apparent speed:
An example of being fooled by perspective. This plane appeared to make a 180-degree turn. Unfortunately my phone battery died right after taking this photo but the turn continued as I indicated in red and the plane then appeared to be heading "right" when before it was heading "left".
I wondered if it might be a military flight but when I got home I checked the flight radar and it turned out to be an ordinary charter flight making a 90-degree turn as it descended. (By the time I took this screenshot it was too low to be making a contrail.)
I wondered if it might be a military flight but when I got home I checked the flight radar and it turned out to be an ordinary charter flight making a 90-degree turn as it descended. (By the time I took this screenshot it was too low to be making a contrail.)
Also this evening, some turboprop contrails from a Cessna (on the right).
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
Ohio Air Guard C-130H 'spraying' soot over Thetford Forest in the UK yesterday, February 27, 2016
Balance
Senior Member.
Likely repeat training? "9/17/2014 - RAF MILDENHALL, England. -- Ohio Air National Guard units came together with the active duty Air Force, as they performed annual training during the month of July and into August, 2014, at RAF Mildenhall, England. Members of the 180th Fighter Wing, 179th Airlift Wing and 121st Air Refueling Wing trained with their active duty counterparts from their specific career fields, working with both RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath." http://www.121arw.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123427247
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
This one was out of RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk. I've seen USAF C-17s and C-5 approaching for landing there over the same area, but it was my first sighting of a C-130 in this location.
However, I regularly see the RAF and other European Air Forces Hercs closer to home, as they are serviced nearby. Here is a Swedish one 'spraying soot' over Cambridge:
Gridlock
Senior Member.
Thanks both, interesting to see they're serviced there, would have confused me seeing one take off from that airfield..
I looked for their press office statements but was looking at the 179th - there's a lot of Herky birds out there!
I see Brize Norton traffic occasionally and plenty of UK chinooks, and the odd S-60 or Apache, as well as anything that does a London flypast. 20 years ago the skies here would have been filled with F-111s :/
I looked for their press office statements but was looking at the 179th - there's a lot of Herky birds out there!
I see Brize Norton traffic occasionally and plenty of UK chinooks, and the odd S-60 or Apache, as well as anything that does a London flypast. 20 years ago the skies here would have been filled with F-111s :/
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
A military KC-10 tanker (not on FR24) heading west a few minutes ago. The pictures have been taken from my window through the glass. A contrail from the tail engine "merges" after a gap with the port engine trail.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
I've just seen an A320 in unfamiliar livery landing in our local airport but had no camera to take a picture. So I have checked FR24 instead and found myself in Casablanca:
I just checked Planefinder and it also lists that flight as Bologna to Casablanca. Weird.
According to Flightaware it ran BLQ-CMN weekly until December 2, then did one flight to CBG on Feb 10.
Edit: and now FR24 says "diverted to CBG". Maintenance flight, using a retired flight number?
According to Flightaware it ran BLQ-CMN weekly until December 2, then did one flight to CBG on Feb 10.
Edit: and now FR24 says "diverted to CBG". Maintenance flight, using a retired flight number?
Last edited:
But this site shows the flight running on Wednesdays this month. Odd. https://aviability.com/flight-number/flight-3o468-air-arabia-maroc
Not the only FR24 weirdness this week, u less somebody forgot to unhitch the tow tractor before takeoff 
Spectrar Ghost
Senior Member.
Not the only FR24 weirdness this week, u less somebody forgot to unhitch the tow tractor before takeoff
View attachment 17966
Actually a Dassault Falcon 8X:
I think they're trying to tell me something in Chinese.
Plane in shot is easyJet flight 6837 from Glasgow to Geneva at 37,000ft.
Plane in shot is easyJet flight 6837 from Glasgow to Geneva at 37,000ft.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
I think they're trying to tell me something in Chinese.
It looks like cuneiform script to me
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
A very dull morning today. The sky was completely overcast, apart of a small window that opened briefly in the South:
When I spotted it, the window was fully criss-crossed by three young contrails, but the pattern did not last long enough to capture it on camera.
When I spotted it, the window was fully criss-crossed by three young contrails, but the pattern did not last long enough to capture it on camera.
An interesting pattern just now. This was from an Air France A330 at FL360. The trail formed a sine wave shape and mostly dissipated. On closer inspection the waves coincided with a faint banding of cloud perpendicular to the flight direction, presumably some kind of wind rippling effect.
Second pic with enhanced contrast
Second pic with enhanced contrast
Just seeing if this works: a quick timelapse of the above trail, showing how it formed waves along with the cloud ripples.
Edit: no way to embed MP4 files directly?
Edit: no way to embed MP4 files directly?
Last edited by a moderator:
Not currently no.
tinkertailor
Senior Member.
Took a picture of some straight contrails while looking due east in Roseville, CA today around 3:30. The mountains shown at the bottom are near the edge of Desolation Wilderness, southwest of Lake Tahoe. For some reason I completely missed the big curvy contrail to the right of the photo and by the time I saw it while looking at the shot, I couldn't find it again. 
Tried to track it but FlightRadar's playback is temporarily disabled, so I'm dropping it here until they get it back up. There were a LOT of cool trails out there today, I was a bit stunned.
Tried to track it but FlightRadar's playback is temporarily disabled, so I'm dropping it here until they get it back up. There were a LOT of cool trails out there today, I was a bit stunned.
derwoodii
Senior Member.
yes same issue here i got this nice race track trail seen about my time 545 pm over French island or Lang lang Victoria but cannot id its origin. i suspect its VA101 on holding pattern before Melbourne but can not confirm and need to show the drift was to the SW https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VOZ101
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
Good Friday morning. Clear blue sky without a single cloud or contrail. I had to resort to FR24 to spot high-altitude planes passing by, like this Eurowings Canadair CRJ-900LR EW1331 at about 28000 ft at the time of photo:
The earth.nullschool.net forecast shows a quite dry air at 250 hPa at the moment, but a wet patch comes our way from the west and will arrive here in the afternoon:
The earth.nullschool.net forecast shows a quite dry air at 250 hPa at the moment, but a wet patch comes our way from the west and will arrive here in the afternoon:
There was heavy rain last night (as I know because I was cycling home in it!) Often the clearest skies come in the wake of an active rain-bearing front, because there is a band of dry air behind the cold front that marks the back of the system.
This is the weather chart for 6am today. The front with triangles is the cold front, just clearing the southeast. We're now in the ridge of high pressure (but not for long - it is a holiday weekend after all
)
If that was today, the winds appear to have been from the south.
Could it have been JQ710?
5.45pm = 6.45 UTC.
Last edited:
derwoodii
Senior Member.
wonderful work there trailblazer muchy thanks thats much more the likely source from my observed position and days winds. A few hold pattern today from Melbourne AP guess a busy Easter scheduled under pressure
Marin B
Active Member
Took these pictures yesterday at about 6:40 pm just east of San Francisco - a pair of wavy trails with what I think is a sundog. Knowing that I shouldn't be taking pictures while driving, I got off the highway to take a better shot. The direction of the trails is typical of Asia to LAX flights. Wondering if winds can shape the trails like that or if it was the flight path?
Similar threads
