The wave

Cap'n Jack

Cap'n Jack

Final Approach
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Messages
9,507
Location
Nebraska
Display Name
Cap'n Jack
Home Airfield
Lincoln
I saw an interesting cloud formation today as the thunderstorms were leaving. It blew towards me and was angling upwards- puffy in the front and stratiform on the lower, trailing end.As it got closer, the cloud bent over so the middle was higher than the ends. As it came closer still, the leading part, now passing me, was lower than the trailing portion. The puffy part started to flatten out.

Watching this cloud was like watching an enormous whitecap breaking in slow motion, but from underneath. The cloud was the froth on the whitecap.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I saw an interesting cloud formation today as the thunderstorms were leaving. It blew towards me and was angling upwards- puffy in the front and stratiform on the lower, trailing end.As it got closer, the cloud bent over so the middle was higher than the ends. As it came closer still, the leading part, now passing me, was lower than the trailing portion. The puffy part started to flatten out.

Watching this cloud was like watching an enormous whitecap breaking in slow motion, but from underneath. The cloud was the froth on the whitecap.
Click to expand...


Cool, I love watching clouds, I do it for hours on end.
 
Oddest thing I ever saw was about a decade ago. We were flying from FAR to ORD in a CRJ. The skies were clear and we would have been at about 350 or so.

We were flying along in clear skies and came upon what could only be described as looking like a contrail...only MASSIVE. It ran from North to South and was around 2 to 3 thousand feet thick. It was right at our altitude. As we approached it we just kept watching it in wonder. How did it form? Who's ever heard of a 'tube cloud' going from horizon to horizon? It wasnt scary looking. Just a puffy long cloud that really resembled a contrail from the biggest plane ever conceived.

Well, all was fine until we hit it. As soon as we penatrated this thing there was a big 'bump' and the plane lost about 2 or 3 hundred feet. The plane didn't actually go up or down, I'm thinking, it was just a massive pressure difference that our altimeter showed as an alt loss. It was so severe it knocked the autopilot off. This was pre RVSM btw.

Well, as fast as it hit it left. After just a second or two we were through it and back to clear sailing. We reported it to ATC and they didn't seem to care. Like I said...weird.
 
Another really cool thing I saw wasn't clouds though. There was a hole in the reef at Eastern Sambos off Key West you had to cross to the middle of the coral in about 2' of water and then there was this 15' diameter vertical opening to the sand. You can lay down in there floating just off the bottom watching the waves break (really cool light quality in the foam 'shadow') while you gently surge back and forth a few feet. It was so pretty with the quality of light, and you could feel and hear all that power just a few feet away while just at the edge of its influence.
 
Captain said:
Oddest thing I ever saw was about a decade ago. We were flying from FAR to ORD in a CRJ. The skies were clear and we would have been at about 350 or so.

We were flying along in clear skies and came upon what could only be described as looking like a contrail...only MASSIVE. It ran from North to South and was around 2 to 3 thousand feet thick. It was right at our altitude. As we approached it we just kept watching it in wonder. How did it form? Who's ever heard of a 'tube cloud' going from horizon to horizon? It wasnt scary looking. Just a puffy long cloud that really resembled a contrail from the biggest plane ever conceived.

Well, all was fine until we hit it. As soon as we penatrated this thing there was a big 'bump' and the plane lost about 2 or 3 hundred feet. The plane didn't actually go up or down, I'm thinking, it was just a massive pressure difference that our altimeter showed as an alt loss. It was so severe it knocked the autopilot off. This was pre RVSM btw.

Well, as fast as it hit it left. After just a second or two we were through it and back to clear sailing. We reported it to ATC and they didn't seem to care. Like I said...weird.
Click to expand...

There are some interesting and un-explored wave phenomenons out there. Check out the Morning Glory cloud in Australia. Sets of wave clouds with great lift up to 1000km long. There have been motorglider flights up to 100km out to sea using this lift.
 
I saw an inverted tornado once, and I have a picture to prove it. They are rare, and even more rare to have photo graphed it, but i can't find it. :rofl:

I had it confirmed by a meteorologist and it was posted on the news. Took it on vacation headed towards CO. I was drivng. :redface:
 
I've seen some interesting and unusual clouds around here, but the coolest view of a cloud I ever got was courtesy of some airline captain. We were on our way from EWR to OMA -- or possibly the other direction, I flew that trip about once a month on Continental. As we started down, we were skimming just over the top of a very smooth cloud layer. We banked and dipped one wing and one side of the fuselage into the cloud layer, and the other side (my side) was still in the sunlight for about half a minute before we dipped the rest of the way in. Absolutely awesome to be carving through just perfectly dipping one side into the cloud like that. The crew were long gone by the time I made my way up from steerage, but there's no way it wasn't the captain doing that on purpose. An autopilot can fly the airplane, but not with soul.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top