Trailspotter
Senior Member.
It's called 'distrail'.
Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)
- Thread starter Mick West
- Start date
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
Not cirrus, but a supercooled water cloud. eg. altostratus.
Lots of contrails over the French Alps on Tuesday, including several loops. I didn't get a good look at what was making them as it was was often hidden behind the mountains. Maybe Airbus test flight again? In the first pic if you zoom in you can see the more distant loops to the left of the mountain.
There were circles and spirals in the sky for much of the middle of the day.
There were circles and spirals in the sky for much of the middle of the day.
Skaredstiff
Member
Nice day at Sierra at Tahoe today. Good day for contrails at various altitudes. Been up the last two days with very few visible contrails. Weather has been crystal clear and warm. Seems like a pressure change and some temp drop on the way. Weather forecasted in the next few days. Hope you aircraft trackers have fun identifying these flights. Mostly just air traffic on a day where conditions make it look sinister?
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Lots of contrails this morning, and some striking shadows where the trails lined up with the rising sun.
Edit to add screenshot showing the high humidity over much of the UK this morning. I'm in the red circle:
Edit to add screenshot showing the high humidity over much of the UK this morning. I'm in the red circle:
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There was an almost identical photo (bottom left) posted on Chemtrails Global Skywatch yesterday from someone living in Bracknell:
Interesting to see the same trails from a slightly different perspective:
Contrail shadow from my back garden a few minutes ago. The clouds are moving quite fast so it was only aligned to make the "beam" for 20-30 seconds.
Aligned perfectly with the sun:
Aligned perfectly with the sun:
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
Some stonking great trails the evening!
Stopped on the way to the station this morning to grab this photo of two long trails and a short one:
I didn't have time to ID the flights there and then but have just checked it out:
The photo was taken from the red dot in Farnborough, looking just south of west (the front of the house faces pretty well due east). The two persistent trails are BY1360 and DY4275, at 35,000ft and 34,000ft respectively, and the non-persistent one is DL411, at 37,000ft.
Not much height difference needed for a big change in the appearance of the contrails.
I didn't have time to ID the flights there and then but have just checked it out:
The photo was taken from the red dot in Farnborough, looking just south of west (the front of the house faces pretty well due east). The two persistent trails are BY1360 and DY4275, at 35,000ft and 34,000ft respectively, and the non-persistent one is DL411, at 37,000ft.
Not much height difference needed for a big change in the appearance of the contrails.
Looks like a distrail, but there's also a contrail there - so it's more like the gap left by a contrail (probably aerodynamic) forming in or above a layer of clouds. It's in a very thin layer round the sides, so it gives the illusions of looking like it forms one edge of the cloud layer.
This contrail last night spread out in quite an unusual way.
Whitebeard
Senior Member
Spent the weekend at a music and astronomy festival in Builth Wells, mid Wales, snapped some nice trails and clouds while I was there.
J
Joe
Guest
One plane with a contrail and one with none at all this evening. (You might need to open the full-size pic to see the other plane: its almost exactly level with the one with the contrail, and one third of the width of the photo to the right.)
On the left, BY1124 at 37,000ft, on the right, FR5209 at 35,000ft.
On the left, BY1124 at 37,000ft, on the right, FR5209 at 35,000ft.
cloudspotter
Senior Member.
Halo plus Lufthansa A340 Chicago - Munich
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
Saudi flight SVA123 to Manchester today was put on a high-altitude hold over England due to thick fog at the destination. It was flying an unusually big racetrack pattern at 37,000 ft for nearly two hours:
The racetrack was to the west of my location with the closest point some 20 miles away. Below are a few frames from the video that I've taken before clouds arrived:
Sadly, the plane (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) was leaving only short contrail at the time
PS The full video can be watched here.
The racetrack was to the west of my location with the closest point some 20 miles away. Below are a few frames from the video that I've taken before clouds arrived:
Sadly, the plane (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) was leaving only short contrail at the time
PS The full video can be watched here.
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Very heavy contrail coverage this morning. A rain-bearing front is due to arrive this afternoon.
As predicted there was heavy rain yesterday afternoon, and 24 hours after that last picture there's not a trail (or cloud) in sight.
Here's a GIF showing how the relative humidity at 250mb changed in that time, at my location (circled):
Here's a GIF showing how the relative humidity at 250mb changed in that time, at my location (circled):
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M Bornong
Senior Member.
I think I caught a fuel dump. FedEx #9000 out of Los Angeles. It was on for about 2 minutes, then stopped. The trail was visible for just a couple of minutes.
I thought it was a little strange when it made a few low passes over Sacramento, then finally landed back at LAX, it was shadowed by FedEx9043 the entire Way. They must have been testing something or other.
Were 9000 and 9043 the same plane with a glitch? I could clearly see 1 before the trail started, I never saw 2 planes, and they were always right on top of each other showing pretty much the same altitude and speed..
I thought it was a little strange when it made a few low passes over Sacramento, then finally landed back at LAX, it was shadowed by FedEx9043 the entire Way. They must have been testing something or other.
Were 9000 and 9043 the same plane with a glitch? I could clearly see 1 before the trail started, I never saw 2 planes, and they were always right on top of each other showing pretty much the same altitude and speed..
Attachments
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
They almost certainly were the same plane, DC10 N307FE. I've seen similar FR24 'glitches' before on passenger flights, where two flights were merged (due to cancelation or other reasons). BTW, planefinder.net playback shows only one flight, FDX9000:
There are no reports on any incidents with this plane yesterday (yet), e.g., in http://avherald.com/.
From the recorded track, the plane attempted to land in Sacramento, missed approach and then returned to LAX. Or all this was just a training exercise, including fuel dump.
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M Bornong
Senior Member.
I'd also think that if a plane was in distress they'd put the other planes coming into and out of Sacramento into a hold while it was attempting to land. While it did it's 2 circles several other planes did land.
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
It could be a minor incident thad did not require emergency landing. I gathered that not all minor incidents are reported promptly, if reported at all. The plane in question had a reported incident earlier this year. Keep checking Aviation Herald for the next few days, or report your observation to them, they may check themselves whether it was an incident or training exercise.
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
FlightAware GE track.
Did the trail spread out like a contrail before it disappeared?
M Bornong
Senior Member.
After the initial pluming, seen in the first half of the trail, it pretty much held the same same shape as what you see towards the right hand side of the photos, it did expand to maybe double what is shown. It never developed any little puffs or tendrils. It was just a continuous fade out.
This is the full sequence with the times taken from the exif, we are 7 hours behind UTC, the clock in my camera is 2 minutes ahead of the flight radar clock. It happened quicker than I thought, the only delay from when it started dumping was the reflex time to raise my camera and get a decent lock on it. These are not cropped and no enhancement.
Don Gisselbeck
Member
A pair of contrails this afternoon above Missoula Mt. The planes flew over next.to each other about 5:20 MDT. I think there are 2 sets of shadow pairs, one far lower right.
Don Gisselbeck
Member
Here's a horizon to horizon shot.
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
Quite a high persistent contrail, but some way off the record.
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Is that a GPS altitude? The reported altitude (ie flight level) was 40,000ft according to FR24.
The sea-level pressure is only about 1021mb so I wouldn't have thought that would account for such a difference in pressure altitude, although it is quite a warm airmass which would make the levels higher.
Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
It is the ADSB reported altitude, based on pressure. SHCC was set to an offset of 1847 ft. to track.
Edit: I will check whether I add this offset to the reported altitude to get geometric altitude, or just move the dot.
Yes, it includes the offset. I think I should change that as it depends on fitting as well as the barometric offset.
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Clouds Givemethewillies
Senior Member
A bit higher, subtract 2.300ft
Trailspotter
Senior Member.
TAG Aviation UK Bombardier Global Express G-XXRS flying non-stop a 6,800 NM route from CJC, Calama, Chilie to KBP, Kiev, Ukraine on October 22, 2017 passes over the Strait of Gibraltar at 43,000 ft at 15:40 UTC, leaving a long persistent contrail. A close up of the plane and its contrail and a relevant segment of the route are in the video.
Noticeable colour difference (reddish/blueish) between these two backlit trails. Presumably down to the angle of the sunlight.
Edit to ID the planes. Delta DL84 (37,000ft) is the reddish trail (as seen on the screenshot) and United UA53 (32,000ft) is the other. Both Boeing 767s.
Edit to ID the planes. Delta DL84 (37,000ft) is the reddish trail (as seen on the screenshot) and United UA53 (32,000ft) is the other. Both Boeing 767s.
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