A Girl , A Dragon , and A Spacesuit

POSTED BY: out2theblack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2009 14:26
VIEWED: 4095
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE LAST PAGE

OUT2THEBLACK

Saturday, August 22, 2009 7:13 PM

One of my recent posts about activities of the Independent Spaceborne Forces , and our out-of-atmo forays , reminded me to look for an article by a favorite aviation journalist...

The relevant stories are available online , and are highly-recommended reading :

'...It's one of the things that never ceases to amaze me about flying. In the most unexpected moments and corners of the world, you land your airplane, thinking you're very far from home. And then you talk to a fellow pilot there, get a welcome note, or recognize a kindred spirit in the face of a stranger, and you realize that you're not so far from home, after all.'

http://www.flyingmag.com/flyinglessons/1376/from-dream-to-reality-a-gi
rl-a-plane-and-a-space-suit.html

http://www.flyingmag.com/turbine/1379/dragon-hearts.html

'...There is frost accumulating inside the windows of my cockpit. I reach a gloved hand up and scrape a clear opening in the ice. The long, graceful lines of the left wing extend almost 50 feet into the impossibly thin air surrounding us. Normally when I fly, I'm off the surface of the planet, but still deep within the ocean of air that cushions and protects us from the vast and icy universe beyond. But today, even the majority of that atmospheric ocean lies beneath me. I'm not so much flying in it as I am surfing just beneath its surface.'

'...I look left, then right, and finally just sit quietly, in awe of the planet I call home. It's such a complex place -- at once a vast and powerful rock, spinning slowly through the cosmos, and a unique and delicate ecosystem sustained by an impossibly fragile cushion of air. An ecosystem, I remind myself, that I have left in order to purchase this view and out-of-planet experience.'

'...But somewhere in the mix is also something else: a shared love of flying for the pure joy of flying, and a shared love for the same remarkable but challenging lady. I don't pretend to truly understand. I haven't wrestled the Dragon to the ground, or spent long, solitary nights on patrol high above the Earth, over hostile territory, with only the mission and the stars to keep me company.'

'...We may dream about many new and shiny things, but we love best those things we know intimately well -- unvarnished, unfiltered, and through touch, sense and memorable shared experience.'

FLORALBUNNY

Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:24 PM

ah, sweet writing...

bun

MEATPUPPET42

Saturday, August 22, 2009 10:40 PM

Night flying is when you see the best stuff.

FLORALBUNNY

Sunday, August 23, 2009 5:43 PM

I remember quite vividly a night flight through a thunderstorm. I was too young to be afraid. We were in a great big airliner, after all. What could happen?

bun
Frisky Browncoat

TDBROWN

Monday, August 24, 2009 12:49 AM

My first flight on a jetliner was a night flight from Chicago to Seattle. I was 15. It was a moonlit night, and I can still remember how beautiful the mountains looked by moonlight. Our Pilot had a flair for the dramatic. He came in low over the mountains, and as they fell away, he said "Ladies and Gentlemen, the city of Seattle!" and the lights of Puget Sound lay spread out below us. Amazing... and I was hooked on flying.

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

SPACEANJL

Monday, August 24, 2009 1:20 PM

Flying over a huge thunderstorm in the Middle East. Lightning going across the sky beneath the plane, and clear stars above us.

TDBROWN

Monday, August 24, 2009 10:11 PM

One of the strangest things I've seen on a commercial flight (Besides what goes on inside the plane lol) happened in the daytime over Arizona. There was a layer of icy cold but clear air just below the aircraft, and just above some wispy cirrus c;ouds. A series of 7(!) "circular rainbows" appeared simultaneously beyond the left wing of the craft. They were literally circles of color, all the bands of the rainbow in perfect circles, very clear and not at all hard to see. Most had clear centers, like rainbow donuts, but a couple were violet in the center.

-So guess who didn't have his camera where he could get at it?

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

OUT2THEBLACK

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TDBrown:
One of the strangest things I've seen on a commercial flight (Besides what goes on inside the plane lol) happened in the daytime over Arizona. There was a layer of icy cold but clear air just below the aircraft, and just above some wispy cirrus c;ouds. A series of 7(!) "circular rainbows" appeared simultaneously beyond the left wing of the craft. They were literally circles of color, all the bands of the rainbow in perfect circles, very clear and not at all hard to see. Most had clear centers, like rainbow donuts, but a couple were violet in the center.

-So guess who didn't have his camera where he could get at it?

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

What you're describing is called a 'glory'.

It's also known as a " Flyer's Cross ", because of the way that the aircraft silhoulette ( wings & fuselage ) appear inside the circular bows , with the shaded aircraft parts appearing at roughly right angles to one another inside the arcs .

You're right , it is quite the privilege to see such a thing , and very inspiring , when you are in your own aircraft .

Ideally , there is a bright white cloud deck , or the top of a big fluffy cumulus , on which it is all projected , which makes it even more vivid...

You shouldn't feel too bad about not grabbing the camera , because it's usually a pretty transitory experience , and the time taken getting the camera may cause one to miss it...

They're difficult to photograph well , anyway...

A GLORY is a delightful phenomenon formed when light is scattered backwards by individual water droplets. The light source usually is the sun. Glories are visible directly opposite the sun, centered at the antisolar point below the horizon except at sunrise and sunset. While an observer’s shadow plays no role in the phenomenon, it provides an easy way to find the antisolar point. This is because shadows converge on the antisolar point, therefore, glories typically accompanied by your shadow or that of the aircraft you are in.

Mountain climbers and folks in aircraft see glories.

When the shadow itself is oddly distorted by perspective it is called a "Brocken spectre".

http://www.ovs.com/weather_cafe.htm

TDBROWN

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:31 PM

Thanks! I knew they had to have a name. Glory.... very appropriate!

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

OUT2THEBLACK

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10:46 PM

You're welcome ! Wishing smoothh air , happy flying , and many future glories...

Here's a picture , though it's not a great one , it may give folk a rough idea about these things...

http://www.ovs.com/wxcafe/glory_vincent_lowe.htm

The image here is that of a brocken spectre taken in NE England by photographer Vincent Lowe (shown w/permission) in February 2006. Wiki Hopegill Head for a look at this beautiful ‘fell’.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Glory_(optical_phenomenon)

1 2 NEXT PAGE LAST PAGE