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Old 10-20-2007, 08:15 PM
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vagabond
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Joined APC: May 2006
Position: C-172
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Default Contrail Formation

I know there's been many threads about contrails. Heck, even I posted a circle contrail picture back in the dark ages.

This question came to me when I was on the bus on I-5 this afternoon. Flights were landing to the south and they fly sort of parallel to I-5 for a while before turning west a little bit towards SEA. By the time the bus was on the north end of BFI, I happen to look up and saw a NWA plane coming in. I couldn't tell the kind of aircraft, but know for sure it was NW. Well, the thing had two contrails from the wings, but the contrails did not form at the tips of the wings.

In every picture I've seen of contrails, they were coming out of the tips of wings, not further in the wings. Is this normal? Does it happen on certain kinds of aircraft, but not others? What causes it? I suppose it is not illogical for contrails to come out of everywhere. I know I was not seeing things, although having just concluded an hours long meeting with 10 other lawyers can play tricks on the eyes and mind.
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