Socked in at Ardmore

[Dave Homewood]

I went out to ardmore this morning with RyanD to spend the day catching up with the Avspecs and Pioneer guys.

When I arrived there was a thick fog over the airfield (and all of Auckland!). I have never seen Ardmore like this before, it was wonderful, magical and quite eerie. As i wandered along in the fog I thought about the ghosts of past airmen that must haunt the old station.

[starr]

Seen Ardmore like that many a time.
Interesting today. Left Kawakawa this morning about 09:00 and never saw any fog until I came through the dome valley between Wellsford and Warkworth.

[Dave Homewood]

For me 08.00hrs is usually about the time we leave home for Ardmore so any fog will be gone two hours later.

[haughtney1]

Lovely Pics...but

Fog? bahhh..its a lightish mist :-) If you want to see fog, come to Dubai in March or September...33C outside but proper peasoup..

[slackie]

I'm not sure that the many thousands of travellers that had their plans dashed or at least severely dented would share your wistful view of the fog that day :-) I thought it looked quite pretty at Auckland as well... jets appearing/disappearing into/out of the fog, with the odd one or two not even making it!!

[FlyingKiwi]

It certainly made for a quiet morning at the aero club, as you can see in those photos. We finally were able to get out in the vague direction of Mercer by about 1:30PM, but even then there was fog enveloping most of the Hunua Valley and the entire Mercer flats area.

[Dave Homewood]

I don't know why Auckland Airport doesn't install FIDO. They could run a pipe up from Glenbrook and use all the heat coming off that place to clear the fog, with the turn of a tap.

[haughtney1]

Dave, assuming the airports CAT 3B ILS is operational, then all that is needed is 75m of runway visual range...so the real limitation at the airport is either the aircraft operating in (Dash 8's and 1900's aren't CAT3 capable, and I think most 737's and A320's are only CAT 3A)
The biggest problem usually isn't the approach for either the aircraft or ATC..the biggest hassle is when you are on the ground and trying to bloody well find your way around!

[slackie]

Too true, haughtney, "GND" is the busiest position in the tower during fog, giving all those progressive taxi instructions... wish we had what they've got in Heathrow... "follow the greens", rather than "taxi to hold at H4 via K and TXY A", turn off the H4 hold bar then "taxi to hold at H3", turn off the H3 hold bar then "taxi to hold at H2", turn off the H2 hold bar then "taxi to hold at H1", "contact the Tower on 118.7", just to get an aircraft from the intl apron to the tower controller.

[Dave Homewood]

I went to Ardmore again this morning. It was clear as till Ryan and i came over the hill down into the valley on the Ardmore side and it was socked in again. Here's a shot through the windscreen on Mill Road. it was also quite frosty today!



And the airfield was very picturesque:














Spot the chopper

[Dave Homewood]

Nw this is something really puzzling and really cool. I walked round to the other side of the airfield. when i was on the southern end of Corsair Lane I noticed this odd phenomena. It was an arch of fog, sitting to the west of the runway. I looked at it for a while, it wasn't moving so was not kicked up vortices from the aircraft taking off there.

I took a couple of shots... and pretty much as the photos show it is how my eyes saw it, there is no camera trickery here, it is a natural thing.






Now here is one of the same photos as above but after I hit Auto Levels in Photoshop. This is not how it naturally appeared, but it shows the arch more clearly.


It was big so switched the camera to panorama to fit it in.




As you'll note, I have changed positon several times in this sequence, the last photo taken from beside the Corsair Lane hangars.

I showed these shots to a few people and no-one had seen this before. We've concluded that as the sun was low, and the arch affect moved as I moved it had to be a trick of the light just like a rainbow. As Warren Denholm suggested, it seems to be a fogbow!

Any explanations would be welcome. has anyone else seen this before?

[Bruce]

Yep, its a fog bow...

www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/fogbow.htm

looks cool!

[Dave Homewood]

Ah, thanks Bruce. I should have seen if there was a pot at the end of it.

[lumpy]

Saw one for the first time just last Sunday at our RC airfield . As you say ( and your pictures show ) , just like a rainbow , but with no colours , just white ( and perhaps a little smaller than an average rainbow - although that could have just been the one I saw ) . Looked pretty neat though .

[Dave Homewood]

Cool, today was the first I'd ever heard of them.

[haughtney1]

More lovely pics Dave, I've spent many hours on that part of Corsair Lane watching the comings and goings, you are right too, Ardmore does have a certain "feel" about it..you can as you say almost feel the presence of the airmen and women..and maybe even hear a Corsair or two firing up :-)

[rbwannabe]

I was also out there yesterday morning, I had to take the Pitts Special (ZK-MPM) up to 10,000' as part of the test flying schedule.
Temp on the ground was +6C, QNH 1032, nil wind.
I was downwind at 5000' and at 10,000' in 7 minutes 23 seconds at 90 knots (faster than best rate), it was running a bit out of puff towards the end but still climbing quite well.
The view was great (no photo) I only stayed long enough fro the T's & P's to settle, as it is not that warm up there in an open cockpit bi-plane!

[Dave Homewood]

I spotted you across the way just about to leave in the Pitts, Richard. I was hoping to say hi when you got back, but I busy and missed you.

[flyjoe180]

The helicopter was at the bottom left of the photo Dave. You picked your morning Richard, it's certainly been a bit chilly lately. Nice high pressure and low temperature, good for the performance but unfortunate for you in that open cockpit!

[rbwannabe]

Sure was a bit cool! If my maths are about right it was -24c oat @ 10,000'.
I know it took about an hour to get the feeling back in the extremities!