What are Contrail Shadows?
Contrail shadows form when the long thin artificial clouds formed behind aircraft cast a shadow on a lower, or occasionally higher, layer of cloud. Contrails,…
Tag: aviation
What are Fallstreak Holes in Clouds?
Fallstreak holes form when a part of a cloud falls out, leaving a hole. This happens when part of a cloud made of very cold…
Constant Bearing, Constant Danger
What does “constant bearing, constant danger” mean? And why does it sometimes lead to a very dangerous problem? This expression is a neat abbreviation of…
Dauntless Air – Aerial Firefighters
It has been a fascinating few days working in Mineral Wells, Texas, with the incredible team at Dauntless Air, an aerial firefighting company. I was…
Some Observations from Search and Rescue
My thanks to a helicopter pilot for this fascinating email and for permission to share it. And for adding the ‘ptarmigan altimeter’ to my collection!…
The Secret World of Weather
How to Read Signs in Every Cloud, Breeze, Hill, Street, Plant, Animal, and Dewdrop The weather changes as we walk around a tree or turn…
Rip Current Recollections
My thanks to John Luke for this email and this fantastic photo of the Saltstraumen maelstrom. ——– Your rip current story brought memories flooding back…
Over and Out
The expression, ‘Over and Out’, brings a smile to anyone with experience using radios. This expression is never used these days by those with any…
Tin Bird Trails
We may never know the exact method that the earliest explorers used to find their way, but there is a friendly finger of suspicion that…
Astronavigation and Devastation
My thanks to William Goble for bringing my attention to a extraordinary piece of navigation history. Although standard practice in aerial navigation at the time,…
The Big Thaw
The snow is melting away, but not at the same speed everywhere. The warmer wind which is blowing from the southeast today is leaving green…