April solar eclipse

Silvaire said:
It makes you wonder what people, a few thousand years ago, thought when this unexpectedly happened and they had no idea why.
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Or some of the morons floating around today who have no idea why. One of The View ladies attributed it to global warming.
 
Lindberg said:
One of The View ladies attributed it to global warming.
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Silvaire said:
It makes you wonder what people, a few thousand years ago, thought when this unexpectedly happened and they had no idea why.
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Had the same thought.

Iflydogs said:
...The coolest thing was a prominence we watched at about the 7 o’clock position; it was bright red and I estimate it to be 1/50th of the sun’s diameter or 16,000 miles tall—the height of two earths stacked on top of each other....
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We saw that! (Edit: Looks like @RyanShort1 got a pic of it!)
 
Everyone who saw a total eclipse watched a partial eclipse for over an hour before and an hour after the full eclipse. The transition from 99.x% to 100% was dramatic and I suspect worth the trip for those traveling to the zone. This was a light show created by the absence of normal light.

My former secretary took this picture along Champlain during totality. That's not a sunset because it's 3:30 in the afternoon on a sunny day, and the weird lighting was like this for 360 degrees on the horizon around you. Truly spectacular event.

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Apparently the path of totality was the go to destination for a lot of pilots yesterday.

www.facebook.com

General aviation flights follow the 2024 Eclipse! | More than double the number of regular general aviation flights took to the skies to fly to a better viewing area or watch the total eclipse from the sky. | By Flightradar24.comFacebook

More than double the number of regular general aviation flights took to the skies to fly to a better viewing area or watch the total eclipse from the sky.
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Was SCT012 BKN024 OVC030 here (15 N of San Antonio), but got pitch black, which was cool.

bbchien said:
I hope you didn't get hit in the "presidential TFR". I called off the run to Eagle Creek.
Here at 2:15 PM the birds got very quiet (94%) and the light was truly wierd. And it got 5 degrees cooler and then rewarmed all in about 10 minutes.
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Nope, left in the afternoon. Needed IFR for S Texas whilst outrunning storms. By the time I was topped off outside Dallas, my ETA back in was after the TFR expired. Flew XBP to PWK non-stop, which is now my longest single flight by distance (723nm). Had a nice tailwind too which pushed me above 190kts for the last half of my flight.
 
Lindberg said:
Definitely not around here. And it seems like none of the nearby airports in the path of totality got much more traffic than a normal day. Road traffic here was much less than a normal day.

I live under a cutout for the DFW Class B, and under flight path for DAL and ADS. There were zero aircraft visible during and for a few minutes before and after totality. I didn't know if that was planned.
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Memphis wasn't accepting any (@ least in AR ) requests for flight following. Almost thought I needed to land and wait, but forged ahead. :rolleyes1: :rofl::rofl:
 
What I found interesting was that the forecast at Garland, TX was for 30-60% cloud coverage all day. Leading up to the totality, that’s what we were seeing. But as soon as we got to the total eclipse, the cloud cover decreased. By the time the eclipse was over, there wasn’t a cloud anywhere to be seen.
 
donjohnston said:
What I found interesting was that the forecast at Garland, TX was for 30-60% cloud coverage all day. Leading up to the totality, that’s what we were seeing. But as soon as we got to the total eclipse, the cloud cover decreased. By the time the eclipse was over, there wasn’t a cloud anywhere to be seen.
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I was down near Lampasas, TX and it was forecast to be cloudy all day. It was cloudy in the morning, then they got thinner and you could see the sun through them, it cleared out for the eclipse, then went solid afterword. Couldn't ask for better!
 
They were calling this guy nonstop on guard yesterday afternoon. He flew the Chicago lakefront back to WI, well inside the VIP TFR.


A subscription to G.P. or Foreflight would of been well worth it, or check Notams.
 

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I did the eclipse from the air, after filling up with $4.95 fuel. There were a few planes flying the area, not to crazy.
 

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We went to KMVN and the people there did a great job. Plenty of marshalers. Mostly well behaved pilots (there was a 5-10 minute stretch where there were several in the pattern and not everyone seemed to have good SA). BIG restaurant with a buffet lunch (though I made vietnamese/american pasta on the ramp). Fuel trucks with plenty of fuel. First engine start-up was 2.5 minutes after totality. Guess they had somewhere to go.

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sourdough44 said:
They were calling this guy nonstop on guard yesterday afternoon. He flew the Chicago lakefront back to WI, well inside the VIP TFR.


A subscription to G.P. or Foreflight would of been well worth it, or check Notams.
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Was is a jet, or a skycatcher? Seems to show both...
 
Brad Z said:
I kinda feel bad for the folks posting the “who cares” memes as it tells me they’ve never seen a total eclipse in person. This was my first and it was as promised. The most stressful part of the who thing was figuring out where to go from VA…looking at everything from OH to Vermont. Pretty much everything in VT was pre-filled by the time I called this morning at 5:30am. Ended up going to Bucyrus OH (shout out to airport manager Kevin Detray, his crew was awesome!) and had just some high thin scattered cirrus not was a non-issue.my son just turned 9 and this was the best son-dad day trip.

The air traffic was amazing, particularly immediately after. The ATC pros were top notch working immense volumes of spam cans returning home after the big show. The ads-b traffic looked like OSH times 10.
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I'm feeling a touch Humbled. I was in the I don't care crowd until I saw it. Now we're discussing a trip to Iceland in 2026 to see that one.

I just kind of figured the moon was going to get in the way and it was going to get dark like most solar eclipses. I was not expecting that moment where everyone takes the glasses off and that ring is just hanging in the sky. that was just something else.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm feeling a touch Humbled. I was in the I don't care crowd until I saw it. Now we're discussing a trip to Iceland in 2026 to see that one.

I just kind of figured the moon was going to get in the way and it was going to get dark like most solar eclipses. I was not expecting that moment where everyone takes the glasses off and that ring is just hanging in the sky. that was just something else.
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Agree. I feel the same way. Was not what I expected. Way better!
 
kaiser said:
Was SCT012 BKN024 OVC030 here (15 N of San Antonio), but got pitch black, which was cool.
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Yep. Watched it from my backyard with a few glimpses of part of the ring. Were you at 5C1, Kestrel, or Bulverde?
 
rwellner98 said:
We went to KMVN and the people there did a great job. Plenty of marshalers. Mostly well behaved pilots (there was a 5-10 minute stretch where there were several in the pattern and not everyone seemed to have good SA). BIG restaurant with a buffet lunch (though I made vietnamese/american pasta on the ramp). Fuel trucks with plenty of fuel. First engine start-up was 2.5 minutes after totality. Guess they had somewhere to go.

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glad you were there. it was a fun day. the guys at mvn usually do a really good job.
 
Eagle Creek was a cake walk. I flew the 170+ mile final for 21. No traffic in the pattern at all - but we arrived a little after noon. Departure I had to wait for about 30 seconds after I finished my run up and that's only because it was a Cherokee 140 departing in front of me, and I didn't want to run him over.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
that moment where everyone takes the glasses off and that ring is just hanging in the sky. that was just something else
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Yep. Everyone who says "it's no big deal", or "I've got 99% at home, why would I travel?"..... they just don't know what they're missing. The percentage of sun coverage doesn't express it well. 99% totality is like 5% of the experience.

donjohnston said:
What I found interesting was that the forecast at Garland, TX was for 30-60% cloud coverage all day. Leading up to the totality, that’s what we were seeing. But as soon as we got to the total eclipse, the cloud cover decreased. By the time the eclipse was over, there wasn’t a cloud anywhere to be seen.
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That happened at Carbondale in 2017. It doesn't make sense to me that a temperature drop would clear clouds, but it does. Sudden loss of lifting action maybe?
 
The air was so clear yesterday we could see Mt Washington easily from the Keene, NH area as we headed north.
 
TCABM said:
Yep. Watched it from my backyard with a few glimpses of part of the ring. Were you at 5C1, Kestrel, or Bulverde?
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Bulverde. I have family a mile from the field. It's a fun little strip, and very exciting to get into it in a PA32.
 
We watched it from Kestrel. Got a couple of glimpses of it through the clouds. It got really dark during totality, the runway lights came on.
 
I had a friend of mine who refused to look at it. Nope, not gonna do it. It doesnt do anything for me he said.
OK but you are here and it happens rarely. I have glasses for you. Why dont you want to see it? He wont say why. I forced him to look at it with the glasses for 2 secs during totality. :p
 
ahmad said:
I had a friend of mine who refused to look at it. Nope, not gonna do it. It doesnt do anything for me he said.
OK but you are here and it happens rarely. I have glasses for you. Why dont you want to see it? He wont say why. I forced him to look at it with the glasses for 2 secs during totality. :p
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Since you're from the area, I have a question. Why did a town in the middle of the flatest part of the country decide to name itself Mount Vernon. Seems hopelessly optimistic...
 
rwellner98 said:
Since you're from the area, I have a question. Why did a town in the middle of the flatest part of the country decide to name itself Mount Vernon. Seems hopelessly optimistic...
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There was an anthill there once.
 
kaiser said:
Bulverde. I have family a mile from the field. It's a fun little strip, and very exciting to get into it in a PA32.
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I bet. Kestrel’s probably a little more so with the 50ft ‘obstacle’ that is the numbers on 12.
 
TCABM said:
I bet. Kestrel’s probably a little more so with the 50ft ‘obstacle’ that is the numbers on 12.
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Kestrel scares me haha. It's that nutty slope!
 
Lindberg said:
Or some of the morons floating around today who have no idea why. One of The View ladies attributed it to global warming.
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The director at our local science museum, on the local TV news broadcast, stated that we were seeing "the moon's shadow on the sun". Really??? The director of the science museum? Unbelievable.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm feeling a touch Humbled. I was in the I don't care crowd until I saw it. Now we're discussing a trip to Iceland in 2026 to see that one.

I just kind of figured the moon was going to get in the way and it was going to get dark like most solar eclipses. I was not expecting that moment where everyone takes the glasses off and that ring is just hanging in the sky. that was just something else.
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I was kind of in that camp at first. Now I see the difference between "partial" and "total" and realize why that's so special. As I understand it, in order to have a total eclipse the moon has to be far enough from earth to block 100% of the sun, so that only the corona appears, and that trajectory doesn't coincide that often with the moon's simple position directly between the earth and the sun. That last little percentage of visible sun edge still produces a LOT of light compared to the corona only.

I'm thinking about Iceland as well . . .
 
I was down at Carbondale's MDH and the controllers did an awesome job routing all of their VFR and IFR traffic. I couldn't pick up my clearance in the air (as predicted). There were probably 70ish airplanes parked on 24. It was well worth the trip, and burning 0.5 hobbs on the taxi out.
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We drove 2.5 hours one way to get to open skies even though our house was in the path of totality.

Totality was amazing and humbling. God's creation is awesome. I could clearly see the small red coronal ejection shown in the photo above (except it was on the left with the unaided eye not right). I would love to see it again not sure I will in my life time.

There were several dozen turkey vultures riding thermals nearby and once the eclipse hit the temp dropped enough and they all came flying over.
 
it was a mess for me trying to fly in the morning, had cloud cover and some storms, but Memphis Center was on a “Ground Stop” they would not issue IFR clearances. A few other planes also were stuck on the ground, even though storms had passed, but then the cloud cover prevented us from going directly there VFR. Eventually, I was running out of time and I asked to do a VFR takeoff , canceling my IFR flight plan they said no flight following or Services would be available.
I had to climb up to 10,500 feet to pick my way through /above the clouds to make it northwest towards Cape Girardeau (CGI).

Knowing where the clouds were and how much trouble I had picking my way through/ above them, I’m kinda curious if some of those planes I saw on ADS-b tracks were people saying “just send it” for a few seconds through the thin layer, we will never know. It was all-clear once I got north of TN/KY.

The Cape Girardeau FBO did a really good job organizing things. I got there pretty late because of lack of IFR services, but landed just a few minutes before totality. was able to see it with clear skies, was amazing experience.

Cannot capture how you have a black spot covering up the sun and then the white tendrils coming out from the sides. In person It looks totally different than anything you can get from a picture.

There’s a really good barbecue restaurant on the field at CGI had a good brisket sandwich while they refueled the plane then took off VFR. It was really busy a little bit like Oshkosh but everything was well organized. We got out of there OK and later in the flight was able to pickup IFR to cross the clouds coming back.

Im glad I was able to fly, I heard the traffic situation on highways was jammed.
 
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