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Modern Contrail Confusion

This photo is from January 29th 2009, at approximately 3-4PM over Corvallis, Oregon.

corvallis_contrail2

It shows a contrail from a plane that has made a 540 degree turn (one and half full turns) to fly back the way it came.  This photo was probably taken an hour after the plane made the turn, judging by the amount of spread.

This provoked some interest in the local press:

What’s that up in the sky?

Jet trail has mid-valley looking up, imaginations soaring
A misguided passenger airliner?
A military jet on maneuvers?
A visitor from another planet who decided not to stick around?

They even got a quote from a local authority:

But another viewer noted, “I got a shot of this unusual trail also. I’m an aircraft mechanic and that does not seem like a condensation trail to me.”

(Not sure why an aircraft mechanic would be an expert on contrails, but there you go).

The next day, things were resolved:

Contrail could be from Boeing jet
By Steve Lathrop
For the gazette-Times
Test flight tracked as far south as mid-valley

FlightAware.com shows the meandering path of a flight [BOE504 – a Boeing 737-800 test aircraft] from Boeing Field in Seattle that apparently came as far south as the mid-valley Thursday and then returned. The site says the plane departed at 11:40 a.m. and landed at 2:59 p.m. The loop-the-loop contrail was photographed over Albany around 2:30. At its southern tip over the mid-valley, the flight path shown on the site appears to circle in just the shape the contrails were seen.

Several readers sent in photos.

This contrail is very similar to the one I described (and tracked with FlightAware) in Voodoo Contrails, but what’s interesting here is the similarity of the story to stories in “contrail confusion is nothing new“, where, back in the 1950s, people were having the exact same reactions to contrails, and newspapers were writing the same stories:

Back in the 1950s, of course, contrails were less common.  Now it takes a rather unusual contrail to spark the public’s imagination.     However, in some places, contrails are still relativly uncommon, so still get mistaken for UFOs, such as these in Hawaii, 2007:

21 thoughts on “Modern Contrail Confusion

  1. Suntour says:

    That video is almost scary.

    “the origin of the lights remain a mystery”
    “two little fireballs with a stream behind them, like a shooting star”
    “come over and sit with me, this may be the last surf session we have together”
    “this is not the first time a UFO has drawn the attention of Hawaii residents. In December of ’04 an unexplained streak of light was captured by a camera…moving Southwest to Northeast. No offical explaination has been given for that light either.”

    It’s a good thing they didn’t shoot it out of the sky eh? lol

  2. JazzRoc says:

    Lucid1,

    it IS an interesting photograph.

    It would NOT be possible to make that trail using an aircraft for a couple of reasons.

    The first is that there is no entry or exit line for the circular trail. If it were a genuine contrail there would HAVE to be some evidence of entry and exit of the airplane into the stratospheric layer which would enable the trail. The circular trail is definitely composed of ice crystals, because it is only an ice crystal trail which can cause visible “pendules” which may be seen in the process of forming.

    The “eyes” and “mouth” are without “pendules”, so are NOT connected with the circular formation. Yet they are perfectly in line (technically without parallax from the camera viewpoint) with the circle, which would seem to me to be an extraordinary coincidence.

    A simpler explanation by far is that the image was “photoshopped”. That’s easy to do. There are many previous fraudulent examples of photoshopping known to have been created by “chemtrail”-promoting interests.

    I suggest you look at the six o’clock (maybe six-thirty) point of the circle. Just there I can see a “kink” which would be outside the maneuvering capability of anything except a missile.

    It’s a con.

  3. Lucid1 says:

    Yes, it was MOST LIKELY photoshopped.

    Johnny what has he won?

    You figured that one out.

  4. Lucid1 says:

    Here is another one, isn’t this fun?

    http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:5EYQ5x9uc1QJ:www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread355050/pg1+chemtrail+smiley+face&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

    You mayhave to scroll down the page to see this one.
    And yes, this is a rather silly site it’s posted on.

  5. JazzRoc says:

    Lucid2,

    yes, real fun. I figured them both out.

    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m18/JazzRoc/WORDPRESS/smileys.jpg

    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Well done with the spelling of “it’s”.

    In the second image it’s surprising that no trail shadows fall on other trails, isn’t it?

    It’s also surprising that these additional trails have been laid (and have spread), while in the meantime the smiley hasn’t. No?

    🙂

  6. Don’t be too hasty to dismiss skywriting photos as fake. Remember these are not contrails. They are smoke trails, made by injecting oil into the engine exhaust. So can easily be toggled on and off.

    They are also done at a low altitude, in warm air, using small manouverable planes. They are quite capable of making smiley faces. I’ve seen some impessive skywriting myself here in LA. In 2000 there were a lot of “2000”‘s being skywrtten, with some pretty good circles.

  7. Suntour says:

    The faces look like skywriting to me – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AANgc-a46YA

  8. JazzRoc says:

    Maybe.

    There’s some similarity to the circles. But not the eyes and mouth.

    I suppose a fast-moving stratosphere might just change the background that much, but normally some shadowing also takes place and there’s no evidence of that.

    The skywriting video looks more wobbly to me. I think it’s more difficult to do well than it appears, and wind variations would soon distort the writing.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Fascinating about “It’s”.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITS

    North Jersey slang perhaps?

    Glad you had fun. These places are fer, I mean for…..ahem….fun!

  10. Now I’ve had a closer look at them, those smiley face photos are clearly just skywriting. There’s nothing at all to indicate they are fake. There are many similar photos on the internet, with different faces of varying quality.

    http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/skywriting

    What’s more interesting is that California Skywatch is somehow suggesting that skywriting is a somehow evidence of the “chemtrail” theory, and that the “stop and go” of chemtails/contrails is, for some unexplained reason, necessarily the same as the stop and go of the smoke trails.

  11. Gus says:

    Skywriting smoke looks remarkably like vapor contrails.
    Hard to tell the difference for an amateur.
    Neat writing though.

  12. JazzRoc says:

    Uncinus:

    What’s more interesting is that California Skywatch is somehow suggesting that skywriting is a somehow evidence of the “chemtrail” theory, and that the “stop and go” of chemtails/contrails is, for some unexplained reason, necessarily the same as the stop and go of the smoke trails.

    The “Ickean” reason they all understand: the PTB are “rubbing their noses” in it, like “pre-erected” monuments ahead of an assassination. “They” are out to get you…

    Great pictures!

  13. Anonymous says:

    kkkk

  14. don says:

    i saw the chemtrail circle in the first pic over corvallis, the explanation doesnt make sense. why did the chentrail stop after it made the circle ? the plane was spraying something !! the circlle lasted 4 hours

  15. shilltastic says:

    Don, there is no way that the plane changed altitude by 1000 feet before it started the circle and then as it finished it,. it descended a 1000 feet?!OK…I get it. It’s all about how you know it’s true because you know it. 1000 feet (or even MUCH less) could mean the difference of a saturated layer/area and an unsaturated one.

    Whatever…

  16. CTYForganization says:

    The circular trail is definitely composed of ice crystals, because it is only an ice crystal trail which can cause visible “pendules” which may be seen in the process of forming.

    So whats the story morons?
    Which is it? If low altitude “oil” induced “sky writing” looks just like “pendule dripping ice crystals” I’d
    say your credibility is ZERO.
    Really…

  17. It’s skywriting. Jazzroc was wrong in saying that only ice crystal trails can create pendules. I’ve seen skywriting myself with identical pendules.

  18. JazzRoc says:

    Hey, missed this. Heck, yes, conceded. I haven’t seen any sky-writing over here. They just fly long banners. 🙂

  19. PVB says:

    That is definitely sky-writing. There used to be a yellow biplane that was regularly sky writing over the Boca Raton, Florida area for years. I’ve watched him make smiley faces just like above many times.

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