Hey, Ape, I’ve got a question, pretty much what I just asked Niteflyr. Wouldn’t the plane have had to drop altitude and speed pretty significantly before getting here at a distance of 125 miles? Or are you saying that because it’s a cargo plane, it takes huge, fast drops in altitude on approach?
That is what I would have thought, but no. Not at all. On November 8th that UPS902 came in at 29-30 k feet all the way from due south of Malibu to due south of Costa Mesa. By the time it crossed land 14 miles SW of Fallbrook it was at 25,500 feet. So they come in high and fast until they are just about over land and then start a steep descent and turn. Must have something to do with flight restrictions. Saw a few planes at lower altitudes below them near the coast (AirportMonitor for Bob Hope). So that is quite the ride. Now I thought maybe they saw the missile and got spooked on November 8th and climbed, so I checked the same flight on November 9th and it was at 31,000 feet over Catalina. So that appears to be normal.
Really would like to know what kind of Camera they used for that ContrailScience GIF Animation. That seems to be some kind of magic camera. Showed a plane 35 miles away at 30,000 feet as it was focused about 40 degrees to the right on the objects contrail at horizon. Wow. What kinda of optics can do that ? /s