Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)

Early morning contrails over Taranaki in New Zealand, from a Jetstar A320 on 02 March 2014:



And not contrails, but still nice to look at, looking down at cumulus over the South Taranaki Bight on the same flight.
 
016.JPG 119.JPG IMG_4363.JPG

The first one was taken January 2014 and shows a contrail shadow. The second one is a sun halo and the third is a contrail that was partially sun lit right before the photo was taken. The sunlight actually reflected off the aircraft but I could not get the photo in time, but I think the contrail at sunset is still pretty nice looking.
 
Last edited:
016.JPG 119.JPG IMG_4363.JPG

The first one was taken January 2014 and shows a contrail shadow. The second one is a sun halo and the third is a contrail that was partially sun lit right before the photo was taken. The sunlight actually reflected off the aircraft but I could not get the photo in time, but I think the contrail at sunset is still pretty nice looking.

Are you sure that was a halo? I'm trying to figure out the position of the sun from the shadows but it doesn't look quite right
 
Not the best photos, but it's a bit unusual to see this (Apache gunship?) fly over my house, just a few minutes ago.

 
i got a twisty contrail. the dark thing going across is actually a cloud (there were no horizontal contrails 5 minutes ago).

DSCF2595.JPG
 
Are you sure that was a halo? I'm trying to figure out the position of the sun from the shadows but it doesn't look quite right
If it helps any, the photo was taken pointing to the southeast and it was around 2:00 in the afternoon in the month of November. It happened where I go to school at the University of South Mississippi. Several other people were outside taking pictures of it. Its the first sun halo I've seen, but I don't know what causes it.
 
If it helps any, the photo was taken pointing to the southeast and it was around 2:00 in the afternoon in the month of November. It happened where I go to school at the University of South Mississippi. Several other people were outside taking pictures of it. Its the first sun halo I've seen, but I don't know what causes it.

It looks more like a Parhelic Circle than a halo:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parcirc.htm

They go through the sun, not around it:
 
Millions of ice crystals with their vertical faces each mirroring the sun around the sky form the circle
Content from External Source
It's wonderful to think that just for that moment in time, just those ice crystals were aligned in just that way, and thereafter millions of others did so. No different from a rainbow, really, or, for that matter, the breaking of waves on the shore, or the pattern of craters frozen into the surface of the moon. Real, random, beautiful.

They can also indicate sound shock waves: start from 01:45



Apologies. Of course I didn't take this myself.
 
Last edited:
Millions of ice crystals with their vertical faces each mirroring the sun around the sky form the circle
Content from External Source
It's wonderful to think that just for that moment in time, just those ice crystals were aligned in just that way, and thereafter millions of others did so. No different from a rainbow, really, or, for that matter, the breaking of waves on the shore, or the pattern of craters frozen into the surface of the moon. Real, random, beautiful.

One of the things that pees me off about the chem/HAARP brigade. The effects are beautiful but so is the science.
 
Hard to tell cause my phone sucks. Had a nice swirly cloud with 'X marks the spot' contrails. Also had at least 3 planes leaving short non persistent trails along with what appears to be cirrus clouds formed from contrails. In Athens, Georgia.
sky.jpg
 
Last edited:
Wow! The pictures in this thread are amazing!!!

I guarantee with 100% certainty and a money-back guarantee :) that this is an Air France 747-400 and nothing else.
Your last still picture makes it very apparent. In the video at 1:18 and 1:29 it is super easy for me to identify this as an Air France 747-400 since I have been obsessed with Boeing airliners for 29 years!

If you have ANY airliners that you would like identified by airline and type send them to me... of course there are some obscure little airlines in China or in countries I'm not even aware of with airlines I'm not even aware of who have 737s.
I work at Boeing field and see all the 737s they make and there are definitely a few airlines I don't know!
Everybody and their brother has a 737!

If you have any questions about the specific names (flap track fairing, wing-to-body fairing etc.) or functions of any parts (like on that shot of the underside of the A319) I can probably answer all those too because I am the biggest airliner nerd on earth (Boeing especially). ;)

I'm so frustrated with these chemtrail people on youtube who don't listen to reason I am about to make my first video. The one about "High bypass turbofan engines don't make contrails" really set me off! :)

I'd like to get some advice on identifying this plane, said to be a KC-135:



some stills captured from the film:

image 1:
winglet1.jpg

Image 2:
winglet-body.jpg

Image 3:
winglet-livery.jpg

Image 4:
more winglet-livery.jpg
 
Did you/have you landed in AK? Ever get any contrails on the ground?

We have landed in Alaska a lot, I have not noticed our contrails on the ground, our wings are very far back on the fuselage, and I guess I have not bothered to look out of the window back there
 
Couple of photos I took this week. The 2nd one may be a smoking gun to prove chemtrails - the pipes below contain fine metal particles, which are then funneled into the stack above, emitting a nasty chem trail :)

apr 12 1 a.jpg

 
Last edited:
Here's a appearing and disappearing and reappearing contrail taken today 5:35PM, San Diego, CA looking West. You can see the trail reappearing in the lower right below the roof line.IMG_20140421_172526.jpg
 
Nice.

Now, if you could use a site like http://flightaware.com/ at the same time, it would then be dead simple to identify the airplane.

I live quite close to San Diego International, and that plane was not taking off or landing there. If it wasn't military, then perhaps from Tijuana International? It definitely looked like a flyover from somewhere else. I tried looking at Flightradar24, but couldn't figure out how to look back in time.
 
I live quite close to San Diego International, and that plane was not taking off or landing there. If it wasn't military, then perhaps from Tijuana International? It definitely looked like a flyover from somewhere else. I tried looking at Flightradar24, but couldn't figure out how to look back in time.

OK....good to know. Of course, any airplanes that are 'local' to an airport, for departures or arrivals, will not be making contrails

(Keep in mind that when arriving to an airport, from cruise altitude, we begin the descent at about 100 miles out. It is an approximately 3:1 ratio in a descent, for a commercial airliner...adding....about 3 MILES per 1,000 feet, is the "gouge" I mentioned. Again, a guide, not exact). Also, know that some ATC procedures vary, and require a descent WELL before that rule of thumb....Newark, and many airports in the NorthEast, for example.

Climbing after departure, well again....know that at 400 knots or so, and 1,500 to 2,500 feet per minute in ascent, you cover a lot of ground before reaching cruise altitude....and, again, ATC can have you level off....and cover even more ground, due to traffic conflicts, etc.

NOW.....SkyVector, again, centered on KSAN:
http://skyvector.com/?ll=32.73373090377916,-117.18984588462544&chart=444&zoom=3

Being on the West Coast means that you (in San Diego) can be over-flown by many flights out to the Pacific.

Use the link above, and scroll around. You will see the various Oceanic Routes in the Pacific...but, as I said, if you can use FlightAware to identify a particular airplane making a contrail, then we can find out a lot...its flight plan info, etc.
 
TJ is probably still too close, maybe SJD:
Thanks, guys. Yeah, Mick, the trajectory looks about right for what I saw. I hope they had fun in Cabo. I need to play around with flightradar24 a bit to get the hang of it, and the SkyVector map that WeedWhacker linked was a bit overwhelming. Give me a regular topo and a compass and I'm golden:D.
 
A slightly damp autumn morning at Wanaka last weekend produced some nice vapour effects I wasn't really expecting. I've seen the effects from the C-130 props before, and knew the warbirds could do it as well, but the overwing vapour on the C-130 during a high-speed pass I'd never seen anywhere previously:













 
FIFI & Yellow Rose

Wow...looking at the cockpit of the B-29, it's a jarring juxtaposition to see the modern Attitude Indicators and RMIs there!

Also, when seeing the name "FiFi" I immediately flashed on one of my very favorite Gary Larson cartoons, from way-back:

 
Never tried photographing high flying aircraft before so here's a couple of attempts of what was going overhead today. I don't have anything beyond a cheapo slow 55-200m lens and it was hazy today, so the pics are kinda rubbish, but here's a couple of pics cropped from pics I took of planes flying overhead near where I was today. The details are according to what the Flightradar.com website said was in that position at that time and flying in that direction.


Flight UN8762 Transaero Boeing 767 @ 37,000ft (no source or destination given)


Flight LS382 Jet2Holidays Boeing 737 @ 31,000ft Tenerife - Belfast
 
Last edited:
Never tried photographing high flying aircraft before so here's a couple of attempts of what was going overhead today. I don't have anything beyond a cheapo slow 55-200m lens and it was hazy today, so the pics are kinda rubbish, but here's a couple of pics cropped from pics I took of planes flying overhead near where I was today. The details are according to what the Flightradar.com website said was in that position at that time and flying in that direction.


Flight UN8762 Transaero Boeing 767 @ 37,000ft (no source or destination given)


Flight LS382 Jet2Holidays Boeing 737 @ 31,000ft Tenerife - Belfast

THOSE are both excellent shots!! And seem to be exactly what this thread needs!

Brilliant, all the way! Kudos!
 
Back
Top