High altitude chemical dispersal is an iffy proposition at best - you never know where it will come down. One year there were massive dust clouds over the Gobe desert that ended up dusting the northern Great Basin (Utah & Nevada).

In the 1960's, a modestly low altitude spraying to gage the effectiveness of nerve agents over the US armies Dugway proving grounds, killed a bunch of sheep in the neighboring Skull Valley.

The absense of jet contrails over North America just after 911 produced a noticable bimp in air temperature charts.

Do I have a point? If a population chooses to be paranoid about vapors in the sky, there is enough evidence out there to facilitate grand delusions.

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jwj

It's ok not to know. We should try harder to find out.

Now look at this. This is low!
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1126677/L/

Ten points for each beach ball you can bounce off the underside.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

...ended up dusting the northern Great Basin (Utah & Nevada).
...in the neighboring Skull Valley.

Sheesh, leave us Utahns alone already (cough, cough)!

__________________
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0377321/L/

The registration number fits...

Especially with the partial one on the nosewheel door.

Somehow I'm wondering if that's for real.

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

It would appear so

More SEX

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Looks like F-GSEX does not exist anymore though. After flying proudly for Cosair she was sold to Excel in 2005 and was stripped of her number becoming TF-AMK

And the new paint job

eta: Minor correction here. When it was first bought by Air Atlanta Icelandic they decided to leave it white and it was up until June 2006 when they painted the tail. However since at least March 2007, the tail has been repainted plain white again.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Well Just for completeness... The plane (cn 23028/584) was originally a Singapore Airlines plane back in the 80's, numbered N117KC. It was then transfered to Ansett Austraila as VH-INK where it was used throughout the 90's. In 2000 it was bought and flown as F-GSEX by Cosair, and then in 2005 sold again to Air Atlanta Icelandic where it continues to fly as TF-AMK for their Excel Airlines brand.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Hmmmm...

SUN
SKY
SEA

I guess those registering the planes for Corsair knew exactly what their passangers were wanting on their holidays.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

At Cairns (Queensland, Australia), there used to be an ex-RAAF C-47 registered VH-SPY! I had interest in that one because I flew in it many times as a youngster.

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"For ignorance to reign, all it takes is for knowledgable people to say nothing"

Lonewulf

Call me immature/gullible/whatever, but I actually clicked that caption to see what that was all about. Is that a bad sign?

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Spread the Love!

I don't know, only about as immature as me for using it in the first place. I mean come on, how many times can one use that link legitimately and get away with it here?

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Jay I'd like to thank you for that picture. My wife and I honeymooned on St. Martin (Divi Little Bay) in 1990. What a great place.

Of course now we have 3 kids (2 of whom are sick), 2 dogs (that reminds me, the Cockapoo barfed behind the couch and I have to clean it up), my wife isn't talking to me (I'm not sure why) and it's 11 degrees outside right now.

Yea, thanks a whole freaking lot Jay. (grumble)

Actually I only responded to it. Someone else posted it. But I think it's a great photo too.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

One of the sites where I work is under the SLC approach. I should really take my good camera out there, because the weather here has been really cold and the MD-8xes have been leaving a lot of contrails off the outboard flap corners lately. Quite pretty. And they're gone in seconds.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

That brings up a question I had a while back. I was planning on heading out to Pittsburgh Int. Airport sometime to take some shots of arrivals and departures. I'm wondering what security is like around the large airports nowadays.

Am I going to get tackled and beatup if the local authorities see me with my camera and tripod?

Another question, does anybody have a idea where I could find REAL info on conrails? Another photography project I have in mind involves contrails early in the morning. I've spent the past few months trying to figure out exactly what kind of weather best shows contrails. And I can't find any consistent patterns.

It isn't a big deal, photography (esp landscape photography) is really a matter of being at the right place at the right time. But since my time is greatly limited (ahem...see earlier post), I'd like to up my chances as much as possible.

Thanks in advance.....

Contrails (and other clouds) photograph well after the sun has set or before it rises. With the sun below the horizon the light strikes the cloud from below and will often give you a nice pink or orange cloud against the dark blue of the sky. If you have clouds at different levels in the sky you can get some interesting color variations.

I find that working in the evening usually works a little better because I already know what I have for clouds and can anticipate which ones will make the best images.

As for what conditions make for the best contrails, my very unscientific observations suggest that spring and autumn is more productive. Winter air might be too cold to hold enough moisture for contrails. Or perhaps it's just too cold for me to be outside looking at clouds and contrails.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

I don't know, but I think that it a significant consideration.

I'm a railfan (railroad buff) and a lot of the train magazines have talked about this - there are security concerns around all transportation systems. Various railfans have been stopped and questioned by railroad security and local police. I don't know of any arrests, but you might be in for an hour or more of grief.

One of the things they mention is to make absolutely certain you are on public property. In the old days railroads were tolerant of fans carefully going on rights-of-way to get a photo, but no longer. I've also seen the suggestion of bringing some railroad fan magazines with you, so you can show the cops that people really do this kind of stuff. Maybe there are equivalent aircraft magazines.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009