Friday, November 30, 2007, it was raining pretty heavily here in Phoenix AZ. My wife and I had just gotten home from a trip to the grocery store.
As I mentioned in a previous question when the landing pattern is from the west to the east at the airport planes FROM the east fly over my house. That’s not a problem…I like it. We’re some eight miles north of the airport and seven miles west.
While putting the groceries away we became aware of one airplane that was getting pretty loud. I decided to go outside and take a look, but it took me an extra few seconds to unlock our back door.
(I know this is sounding mysterious, but just bear with me.)
I got outside in time to see the wingtip lights of a jet. It looked as if the wingtips were as wide as my meager little yard is wide (about 60 feet).
The clouds were pretty low, so I was unable to see what kind of plane it was.
In an earlier bout of inclement weather I saw something similar. The planes were taking off to the west.
Usually, the planes heading north and east make a turn about two more miles west of me. The one I saw looked low (again) and made a 180 degree turn south and east of my location and headed east.
Both of these incidents occured at night, the landing in heavy rain and the takeoff I described on a stormy night ut no rain at that time.
I can’t imagine either one of these incidents as being normal, so I wonder if there are any reports of these events available to the public.
While I am sure the plane in the landing pattern over my house was singular, not plural, I didn’t get to notice the color of the lights on the wing tips.
And the plane taking off to the south and east of me was definitely bigger than a light plane or small jet, and was not a helicopter of any sort.
I like to watch planes a lot and since they fly so often around my house I don’t have to go to the airport to get my fill of planes. I’m pretty sure I saw what I thought I saw, is there any chance of me proving it?
Thanks.
Mike