Facinating Moments You'll Always Remember

[Seth]

Okay - this topic is not meant as a flight you'll always remember, or a feeling of taking off for that first time, lining up for the perfect landing, unless something like that does stick out, but what moments in flying did you not expect that really got you thinking?  One just happened to me this past weekend, and it was not something I would expect, so it is just fascinating.  Please share your fascinating moments.

-July 2010 above Michigan flying back to Maryland from Minnesota.  the sun was behind me and I was in and out of rainclouds.  Then a rainbow appeared in front of me to the left (as the sun was behind me to the right) and I noticed that the rainbow is only a rainbow because we're on the ground.  In the air, depending on your height and the ground, it was a giant full rainbow ring, across the whole sky and then under the aircraft - I took many pictures, I'll have to dig them up.

-July 17, 2011 - similar flight, returning to Maryland from Minnesota with the sun setting behind me (this time it was to MN for a test flight and prebuy inspection - I'll be posting some good news soon) as I approached a cloud I saw a speck and the speck got bigger very quickly as I neared the face of the cloud, I had a moment of fear of a midair and then realized it was the shadow of my Mooney directly ahead of me against the cloud (very close to sunset).  I was in the cloud in a matter of seconds converging through my mooney shadow.  We move fast, and when we approach clouds, we realize the speed.  You realize it even more as you close in on a growing dark shadow coming right at you the shape of your Mooney.

Looking forward to hearing other moments.

-Seth

 

[Jeff_S]

On my recent flight out to Denver from Atlanta, the first leg took me through some weather in the northern Arkansas southern Missouri area. Aside from one strong cell that I deviated around, mostly it was just leftover clouds with no turbulence or anything in them so I just plowed through.

Since I fly at normally aspirated levels (I was at 8,000' at that point) I was going in and out of the these big tall cumulus clouds, and at one point I was overcome with the cool feeling that I was navigating through a big puffy canyon. I was in the clear, but white towers and cliffs rose up on either side of me, and I banked around some of them for fun and to get a minor sense of what a fighter pilot must enjoy. It reminded me of some great wall and canyon scuba dives I've had around the world, and reinforced the sense of three dimensions we enjoy in our Mooneys.

[fantom]

OK...the first time you're flying above a cloud deck, at just the right altitude and humidity, and look out the side opposite the sun to see GLORY. It looks just like this, and I've seen it only four times.

How about flying on the northern tier of the US at night to have your breath sucked out by the Northern Lights, known as the aurora borealis. Never fails to amaze me.

 

[John Pleisse]

Not weather or atmospheric related. NYC to DC around York PA 8,000 msl above cloud, I had Airforce One on a maintanence flight pass 750 feet above my windscreen. ATC kept calling our positions as I watched the jet approach. They kept calling it "Boeing One Heavy"....that was it. "Boeing One Heavy...you have the Mooney right"? "Negative, TCAS INOP".......Mooney 4352H, you have the 747 at your three o'clock, right? Yes I do....

Knowing the area very well and nearly every arrival into Potomac Approach, I had never seen a 747 over York, PA.... ever...especially at 8,000 msl. It looked like a Korean Air paint scheme as it approached, so I didn't give it much thought until it was right up on me. My mouth was hung wide open a solid minute. I said to Baltimore Approach (at the time), was that what I thought it was? The answer..."affirmative, Mooney 4352H caution wake turbulence". 750 feet, dead above my windscreen.

[Seth]

Gary-

That picture of the shadow in the rainbow circle is very similar to my mooney shadow collision entering the cloud on Saturday - the ring with a growing shadow.  Very cool.

-Seth

[Hank]

I see the ringed shadow often making Sunday morning breakfast runs at 3000 msl. The shadow is somewhat blurry over fields, and can't be seen on trees, but the ring is there. Pretty cool, and never as clear as Gary's airliner--but still definitely an airplane. Really gives a good impression of speed, especially when it starts to grow during descent. Oh, yeah, breakfast is served to the northwest, so it's visible on my side, and the circle seems sharper when the sun is lower in the sky. It's always cool to see! Isn't this a great country?

[jlunseth]

On a recent flight at FL190 from Denver to Minneapolis, we had a large supercell to our west, running from Yankton to north of KFCM, where we were landing.  Over SD somewhere, there was a large independent cell probably forty miles in front of the supercell, and our route was between the two.  The supercell was overtaking the independent cell, and was starting to swallow it whole across our route of flight.  Big long S stream of cloud material from the smaller cell to the supercell.  No turbulence or anything, just the movement of material from one cell to the other.  Way too big to catch a pic though.

[M20F]

Departing 27 at OSH, turning south and racing the Concorde departing on 18.  It won about midfield, lept into the air, and cut south to west right across our path of flight after burners blazing.  Words cannot describe but those 90 seconds or so are so clearly burned into my mind I can remember it with full and total detail.