Oh heck, I go outside with the hubby to enjoy the fresh air and what do I see? Criss-crossing contrails right over the sky right over my house and area. This is located near Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia. I actually see an airplane (jet) spewing the stuff out. This is happening right now and I ran indoors and closed the windows. So far there are 6 contrails in a diagonal pattern, rather neatly spaced.

I've been reading about this on the net for awhile. There is a lot of speculation and I won't go into that. Not taking any chances so staying indoors. I'm surprised to see it close to my home.

-- Debi (LongTimeLurker@shy.com), November 20, 1999

Answers

DoD is working on a mass anthrax decontaminate using Tide as the main stabler, I wonder if it is in experimental spray stage?

You know that division of DoD where they just let loose with all sorts of wild ideas? If I recall the seed of the internet bounced through it.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 20, 1999.

Contrails are normal water condensation out of the back of a turbine (jet)engine. You are in an area of lots of commercial airline traffic, so unless this stuff looks really low, I don't think you have a thing to worry about. Normally this will happen up in the 20,000' and up range depending on the moisture content in the air.

-- Gene on Cape Cod (carvgene@gis.net), November 20, 1999.

You are a bit silly. A contrail is simply a condensation trail left by a jet engine due to the rapid heating and cooling process in combustion at altitude. It is mostly water vapor.

-- T. Jewel (jetav8rx@theglobe.com), November 20, 1999.

That makes sense that they would be concentrating over in that area of the east coast at this time while the Clintons are over in Europe. I haven't been seeing as many reports from the western part of the country as there were a while ago.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 20, 1999.

Gene, You could be correct although where I live is rural and not near any major airports or bases. To give you a bit of background, I am a private pilot with Instrument and Commercial rating as well as private and instrument flight instructor rating. I've never seen so many contrails and ones that look like these before, especially over THIS area. Either way, I figured I'll stay indoors for a few hours and not take any chances. I do appreciate yours and others replies.

Paula, I've heard your theory before and to me it sounds like the most plausible if any. So do we thank the government for their concern on perhaps innoculating us against Anthrax? I hope that one day we the people find out what these contrails were if anything unusual.

-- Debi (LongTimeLurker@shy.com), November 20, 1999.

Debi--as a commercially rated pilot with CFI and double I you certainly know what a Victor airway is. Whip out your Jeppesen and you will see why you have contrails in your area.

-- T. Jewel (jetav8rx@theglobe.com), November 20, 1999.

Interesting to read this. Lots of military jets flying low today-flying over in groups of about 6....then a pause...then another six. Southcentral PA.

-- Pennsylvaniastudent (KRider@Frnl.Edu), November 20, 1999.

T. Jewel, You might be correct. I did check the vector airways and they are all over, including nearby where I live of course. A few of the contrails were not in the prescribed airways. The problem is that I've never seen more than one jet fly by with contrails here and there every once in a while. Today was at least 6 in the space of a few minutes. Plus these contrails looked different than ones I've seen in the past over here.

-- Debi (LongTimeLurker@shy.com), November 20, 1999.

Debi-How do they look different than what you normally see? Also, recall that air is not static and moves. You might consider checking MTR's as that may be another explanation. If anyone was going to apply any substance on a populace as a means of innoculation or other reasons it would be done at a very low level and in all probability would dissipate quite rapidly and would not be visible for very long.

-- T. Jewel (jetav8rx@theglobe.com), November 20, 1999.

I saw the CHEMTRAILS phenomenon in Central Arizona...they were NOT contrails!!!

It happened when the sky was clear blue, as often happens in the desert. There were two aircraft spraying simultaneously at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. You could see clearly that several commercial jets were traveling ABOVE the spraying, leaving NO contrails.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), November 20, 1999.

Debi, go to the link below, maybe this will answer your questions

Chemtrail Link

-- Fester (unclefester@adams.com), November 20, 1999.

Dear longtimelurker, get a grip on it! Who would pay the taxes if the guvment were to poision the tax payers? Have you concidered new airways have been opened up to bigger airlines? Airways are like freeways to the airlines. When new contracts for area travel open up, you will see more jet activity in our skies. Concentrate on your readyness for Y2K. The Guvment knows how to spray large areas of earth already, Vietnam?

-- life (Grip@life.com), November 21, 1999.

I see criss-crossing contrails out here (Charlottesville, VA) on occasion but am not convinced they mean anything other than aircraft in holding patterns. I am not feeling any sicker after I see them, either.

One reason people might feel sicker after jet contrails is that the clear, dry air that predicates them also tends to mess with your sinuses and/or make you more susceptible to colds and flu. This may represent a classic case of A causing B--and A causing C--but NOT B causing C although C and B are related.

Nevertheless I do put on my tinfoil hat from time to time and wonder about these sorts of things. You could be right but I will for now stick to my simpler explanation.

One question: why hasn't anyone photographed these aircraft caught in the act under high magnification and IDed them?

-- coprolith (coprolith@rocketship.com), November 21, 1999.

Coprolith, as a person whose mother has had 3, repeat 3, upper respiratory illnesses causing her to be hospitalized in the last year, AND the first occurence she was not alone in what she 'caught' as her niece came down with the same exact affliction on the same exact day and was deathly ill for 1.5 weeks with the same *unknown* upper respiratory illness.

The doctors can't give it a name, because they don't know what it is. For her, it is an allergic reaction requiring critical care hospitalization that turns into a non-typical viral malady that peaks out in about 1 week and leaves you totally exhausted and weak for months.

This same exact affliction has been experienced by dozens upon dozens of people in my community, which is an affluent mountain resort, one of which was on talk radio recently discussing chemtrails, and another who is a locally prominent columnist. These are young healthy vital people who have never had recurring illnesses like this.

Yesterday there were chemtrail protests held at various places around the country, one of which was held here where I live. These people are mad and are voicing their ire. They got a grip on it.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), November 21, 1999.