posted 03-21-2001 04:31 AM            

I flew twice today, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Both times, we flew northeast to two MOAs (Military Operations Areas) that cover the entire northeast corner of Washington state. We flew out there at 26,000 feet, and worked in the MOA between 24,000 and 30,000 feet and did not create contrails. However, there were several civilian passenger flights vectored overhead on a southeasterly heading as we were in the MOA that were "conning" quite heavily. From my radar, I'd guess that they were at around 31-33,000 feet. The cons on a 747 lasted almost an hour after it passed directly overhead of me.

I hope this helps in your efforts. I'm flying almost every day this week up here in Washington, so I'd be happy to give you a "pirep" on the con levels or anything strange that may come up as I fly just north of Spokane. I've heard that the weather up here is supposed to be decent up until Friday. Since I'm not flying into or out of Spokane, I don't know what it is exactly that you're seeing. But, I saw a lot of the planes today that were making their way your direction that were conning pretty heavily. I'll throw out the statement that I saw nothing out of THESE planes that made me wonder what they were up to.

I understand that from Thermit's research that the apparent culprit doesn't show up on Flight Explorer. Are you using it to figure out who is (or isn't) responsible? This may help you a lot.

Maverick