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Friday, August 19, 2016

Chem...no, vapour trails, over Riverton!



We don't often see jet aircraft in Riverton airspace. This one was flying west to east, quite low in the sky, I thought. I could hear it roar.

7 comments:

Armchair Critic said...

Qantas flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires?

Armchair Critic said...

Yeah that's my pick. Was it late in the morning?

robertguyton said...

It was late in the afternoon, but had a red Quantas tail and was travelling in the direction you describe. I'd guessed Australia to South America and thought it close enough. The plane seemed huge to this puny human.

Armchair Critic said...

The great circle mapper says the shortest path is south of Riverton, but not so far as to justify staying north to avoid bad weather for example. There are plane trackers on the internet that can help identify which one it was. I wondered what the big plane barrelling south way up high at about sunset was; turns out it's the regular flight to Santiago.

robertguyton said...

Curiously, a local woman, looking at the trail, said exactly the same thing as you, so, with that cross-referencing, I'm completely confident you are both correct, without even having to consult the intermanet.

Armchair Critic said...

I meant to say "...justify not staying north..." Curiosity got the better of me, and I found that the flight sometimes goes as far north as Wellington, as well as south of Stewart Island.
There is something intriguing about big planes up high in unexpected places.

Unknown said...

Varies its path depending on the weather. I wonder if we can get an idea on our weather but its probably the weather way to the south that decides the track. Usually see it around 5 pm in both directions