Pilot's Weather by Brtian Cosgrove

Author:Brtian Cosgrove
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781840370270
Publisher: The Crowood Press

A short-lived contrail soon to fade away

A lingering contrail turning into ‘man-made’ cirro-cumulus

These contrails are not depicting separate airways – they are highlighting a strong upper air crosswind

A momentary contrail can sometimes be seen low down coming from the wing-tips of an aircraft at an air display when the air is very damp. Such short trails are caused by a reduction of pressure at those tips, caused by the lift-producing properties of a wing and particularly accentuated in a tight turn. Just as increasing pressure causes heat – recall a bicycle pump after use – so does a decrease in pressure bring about cooling, hence the condensation that takes place during such manoeuvres.

The Distrail

Really the distrail is the reverse of a contrail. A high-flying aircraft may be passing through a thin veil of cirrus when its warmth causes the ice crystals making up the cloud to disappear (or, in chemical terms, sublime into vapour). The result is a clear passage behind the aircraft.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.