Sorry, this wont be about UFO’s, just about the fun of looking out of a plane and recognizing things on the ground.
I recently flew from San Diego to San Jose, and saw some things that looked like large satelite dishes in a location that I judged to be south of Simi Valley. I want to find out what these are, but I also want to find out if anyone knows of some maps on the web that might answer this question.
A couple times I have remembered, and packed a good map in my carry-on bag. Does anyone else do this? What maps do you use, FAA sectional charts?
This is probably headed towards MPSIMS, but what the heck.
If you ever acquire any interest in geology you will absolutely never tire of looking out of airplane windows. You can see so much!!! I don’t usually bother with reading material unless it’s a night flight.
I will add that since I drove a cab in Austin for several years, when I fly into Austin I’ve got a little game I run through of trying to spot a cab before the plane lands (yes, I realize this is one of the more scandalous TMI revelations we’ve had on this board).
One of the niftier things I’ve noticed from the air was flying to Japan on a Super Connie in 1958. With no land in sight (I have no idea how high we were), we (several of us) spied four guys in a canoe paddling on their merry way through the vast Pacific Ocean.
They may be part of the Very Long Baseline Array, a long chain of linked radio telescopes across the country. Radio telescopes are quite large, this may be what you saw.
My apologies if this falls to far into the “everyone knows that” category.
Mapquest has recently added a new feature that allows you to see aerial color photos of the region covered by at least some of their maps (this is only available in some places - I suspect that coverage may just include the United States, but don’t know for sure.) Just look for the “Aerial Photo” tab above the upper left corner of the map.
If you’re really eager, you can go to your local aircraft supply store and buy some navigation charts. They come in different scales. Get the wide-scale ones that show the jet routes (basically, highways in the sky with intersections marked by navigation aids like VORs), and you’ll be able to pinpoint your position by when the airplane changes course.
L A to Denver—pilot says—off to the right is the Grand Canyon, to the left is Monument Valley. Didn’t know where to look first. Other flights to Denver; we’re over the GC and the pilot never commented.
Also, Bryce Canyon, Mt. McKinley, Mt. Shasta.
Once coming back to L A—Another liner to our right and just below us. Had never seen another plane in the air that was THAT close before. (nor since)
Took a picture of THIS one. L A to Mexico City----The curve of land at the GULF OF CALIFORNIA----Baja, Mexico and USA. Neat!
Ever take the train from L A to Frisco? You go past Vandenberg AFB. 20 years ago, the “launch” gantrys were still up. (or do they STILL launch stuff there?)
We were cruising at 22,000 feet and I looked outside. It was dark and stormy, with lightning going off all over the place. I saw this… creature… tampering with one of the engines!
(Hey, Somebody had to put in the Twilight Zone reference!)
About those dishes south of Simi Valley. They could have been television dishes, but I know there is a rocket lab around there too. Rocketdyne? I usually don’t fly that way, but I’ve flown over the place a couple of times.
Vandenburg Air Force Base is still very much used as a launch facility. From the info I browsed through on their site, http://www.spacecom.af.mil/hqafspc/launches/default.htm , everything from scientific satilites that moniter ocean currents to dummy ICBM’s lift off from it’s launch pads.
I don’t know if this labels me as a really dumb bugger, but when I take off from my home city of Sydney (I think I know every street in the inner areas near the airport), it amazes me how quickly I become disoriented, and stop being able to recognise things. I find the longer, more gentle, and slower landing approach a little easier, but even then I sometimes get lost.
What interests me is how I will see bends and changes in direction in major roads which I don’t seem to notice when I’m using them. Sydneysiders, next time you land from the north, check out the main railway line (Central - Strathfield). It seems like a due west run when you’re on the train, but from the air, it’s all over the place.
A weird thing I saw over outback Queensland was a huge number of bright yellow lights on the ground. They looked like a town would look at about 5000 ft, until I saw a real town which looked much dimmer, finer, and more like the actual 35 000 ft. So the lights I saw were BIG. The lights were there for about an hour, so they were over quite a large area. I’ve got no idea. Mines or something?
My favourite view from the air is on the Sydney-HK run which sometimes goes over Papua New Guinea or West Irian. There are some really freaky deep valleys full of steaming jungle. It’s when I saw those that I understood how
it was possible for them to only recently find “lost” tribes.
I also miss the old Kai Tak approach, howling in low over Kowloon in a tight bank, and landing in the hot misty Hong Kong evening as huge Blade Runner style neon billboards flash by the windows. Actually, I’m a sucker for a good night landing anywhere.
A friend of mine said the Middle East oilfields are a pretty amazing sight at night.
No argument from here, either. The worst part of any airline trip for me is finding that the sky is cloudy the whole way and I won’t get to see anything.
Hmm…there’s the glaciers breaking loose in the Davis Strait in the spring, leaving little white commas in the waves below. The Grand Canyon with the sun at just the right angle. Mount Fuji emerging through the mist, among the valleys. Picking a path to climb between majestic cumulus formations 1000 meters high. Tower Bridge emerging through a break in the clouds turning final for Heathrow. Rows of “crop circles” from center-pivot irrigation in the Plains, stretching to the horizon. The glaciers in College Fjord on a long final into Anchorage. Barely clearing the buildings in San Diego on a long final over ground whose slope matches the flight path. Spotting my house when I’m coming back to Boston Logan after a long trip. Passing right over Darlington Raceway with a race going on - the heat burned a hole in the clouds.
I really do not understand people who’d rather watch a bad movie on a small screen with a cheap headset, and even ask me to close the shade.
I always take a road atlas with me to keep track of where I am on flights. You find that you can tell a lot about where you are by keeping track of the freeways/highways you can see.
Some of the hardest areas to tell keep track of are Central Nevada and Western Nebraska, neither of which has a lot of roads through it and relatively few towns with amazingly homogenous geological features (north-south mountain ridges in Nevada, lots of grass-covered hills in Nebraska). My ability to keep track in Nevada improved considerably after several trips through it on U.S. 50, rightly called the “Lonliest Highway”.
But I always have the most fun when the plane is over the Sierra Nevada, where I have spent oodles of trips hiking, fishing, etc. There, I get all misty-eyed and have fun identifying individual peaks from the air, as well as finding the various deeper valleys. I have to agree with ElvisL1ves: I HATE clouds.
One thing to do when you are without a map on a flight and want to find out later what you saw is to either sketch it or write down details as you fly over it. It’s amazing what you forget when you are trying to look at a map and remember.
If djbdjb saw a bunch of dishes in a Y-configuration it was probably the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Augustin, in New Mexico–can you see that on a flight from two points in California?. The VLBA includes the VLA, and ten other antennas , each identical to a VLA antenna, scattered across the US.
I’m similar to you guys, except I haven’t flown over that many unique geolocical features. The vast majority of my flights have been out of, or into Chicago and there isn’t much remarkable once you get out of the city in any direction for quite some time.
One of my little things to do is to locate my parents house in the massive urban sprawl that is the Chicago suburbs, complete with cookie cutter subdivisions left and right. Typically I won’t bother trying to figure out what flight path the approach or take off is beforehand and I just try and figure out landmarks to narrow down the location. Its alot like playing a Wheres Waldo game with a time limit that tests you knowledge of the local streets and geography. I suppose I’m a geek.
I always find the circles in the Great Plains from the center-pivot irrigation that Elvis mentioned intriguing, and they always seem to spark conversation onboard.
I did like seeing the cliffs and grassy hills as I came in over Ireland from the Atlantic, apparently passengers almost never get to see this because of the nearly permanent clouds and haze. I guess I got lucky.
Having some background in flying and Aero Eng. I get especially curious and interested watching the actions of the aircrafts engine and control surfaces when I happen to be over the wing. I also love tracking other aircraft in the airspace around the airport during approach, especially when there is a back up and several planes are circling in holding patterns. The coordination is a bit of an art.
Now I could really enjoy this type of stuff if I could ever get into orbit.
Ah, but if it is cloudy, you fly above the clouds, and you are on the shadow side of the plane, you might see a glory. It’s a peculiar optical effect, and looks like a full-circle rainbow around the shadow of the plane on the clouds. It’s easier to spot when you are relatively low above the clouds. Check out a page on my site for more info: http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/news/marilyn3.html.
Clouds aren’t so bad, especially when they’re cumulous or towering cumulous. Not many things more incredible than flying in between two huge columns of cloud, or flying next (well, not right next) to a thunderhead and seeing the lightning inside.
Some of the best things I’ve seen: Mt Rainier flying out of and into SeaTac, and my favorite… flying into D.C. over the Potomac River in the fall, seeing my hometown while the trees are changing and the sun setting, and the mall, with the all the monuments and white house… It doesn’t get any better than that.
This is the perfect place for me to ask a GQ that has been mildly bothering me for oh, 25 years now. I was going to start a thread about it sometime, but may as well ask it here, since it fits so well.
In 1974 or '75 when I was about six, I flew with my mother from Dallas to Raleigh. I swear I can recall looking out the window at some point and seeing a huge map of the US covering a large field. Could that really have existed, or is my admittedly crap memory playing tricks on me? Mom doesn’t seem to recall the sight. What say you?
Some of the cool sights I’ve seen:
The approach to Dublin from the southeast curving round to land from the north.
Newark at night, approaching the airport right alongside Manhattan
The mouth of the St. Lawrence drenched in golden sunshine from the flight deck of a 777
Stockholm in the daytime - I have dreams at night about that sight sometimes.
St. Louis in the daytime
San Francisco at night