On Dec 21, 2008, at 11:41 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: > And, as long as I'm rambling on about fog... One of the more startling > experiences one can have when landing an airplane is caused by a > thin layer > of ground fog. On approach, you can hardly even see that the fog is > there, > since you are looking down through its thinnest dimension. But just > before > touchdown, you're looking the long way through it and suddenly, really > suddenly, you can't see a lot of the runway. Disconcerting, to say > the > least, because when landing you look way down the runway in order to > judge > how far off the ground you are. It suddenly becomes much more like > a night > landing than a daytime one. (When landing at night, you can't > really judge > your height accurately, so you basically fly the airplane all the > way to the > ground instead of gently settling it in as you do during the day. > Ideally.) > > Nick
I've know pilots who've encountered this themselves. I have it on reliable authority that it's extremely disorienting if you're not prepared for it. I also know someone who got fooled by an optical illusion one day when a runway was covered by blowing dust, and lined up his landing approach where he thought the runway was, then dropped about 20 feet into the dust and bounced right off the runway. In a B-24J Liberator. :) (I'm pretty sure he *didn't* crack the main gear trunnions or blow the tires, but it was a rather, um, *firm* contact with the runway even so.) The thin fog layers can be interesting even driving, though. Sometimes they do strikingly beautiful things like mask the road and the horizon, but show hints of clear sky above. I've seen it thin enough that the top of the car is actually above the fog bank, or fill up a small valley in between the hill I'm topping and the next one. My favorite, though, is the suspended fog layer a couple of feet or so off the ground and only a few inches thick. Those only form when there is *no* wind, at all, and usually aren't visible unless you see them almost edge-on. They don't ever form on highways because the air movement from a passing car will stir them up too much, but they form in the fields beside the road here and there. It's just a rather visually striking phenomenon, for me at least .. :) "You wanna tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" -- Toby Ziegler _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
