They are taking a natural gas pipeline down for maintenance or replacement. Once the pressure is below a certain level they vent the remaining NG. They don't want you to set off that plume by flying into it.
At first glance, that sounds like a good idea. But you will have a richer mixture if you fly through a natural gas plume. Natural gas is mostly methane, a hydrocarbon similar to gasoline, and it will use some of the oxygen when it burns, along with the gasoline which should be vaporized in your cylinders, too. This means you can lean you mixture, and use less gasolineWonder what increase in power ya get when instead of air fuel mix into the jugs the carb sends fuel mixed with natural gas fumes into em! Puts nitrous to shame I be!
For repair, as mentioned above? Just curious.See these quite often in Kansas. Natural gas release just like it says in the text of the NOTAM
I wouldn't say aerodynamics changes. Natural gas is less dense than air, so it plane would act like it was flying at a higher altitude.Yeah, but all the aerodynamics change when flying through methane molecules vs nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor, no?