The Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory

Please note - This post is periodically updated with new information.

As an aviation enthusiast and airline pilot, I stumble across the word "chemtrail" quite frequently, and the truth about chemtrails is that they don't exist. A chemtrail is a term coined by conspiracy theorists (or some say The Air Force) who believe a chemical agent is being emitted behind high-flying aircraft that resemble normal contrails at first, but spread out and linger for hours in the sky, causing increased cloud coverage. From what I have read, these chemicals range from some type of nerve agent or biological agent to a climate control agent inhibiting the rapid rate of global warming. (Please keep in mind that OSHA doesn't know about any of this). Apparently the United States military is conducting these "clouding" experiments, considering they would rather burn billions of dollars in jet fuel flying around our nation spraying the population (in broad daylight might I add) while taxing their limits in Iraq. I was first introduced to chemtrails a few years ago while searching on the Internet for aircraft contrails. I think contrails are very interesting in a way, and are simply a normal phenomenon associated with aircraft flying at high altitudes. Apparently there are many who disagree.

Chemtrails are an Internet phenomenon, a term fabricated by users on websites such as YouTube and Blogger who express their opinions and create documentaries that are indeed based on false facts. It is up to you to learn these claims are indeed invalid and the people who have created them are simply trying to pass on falsehoods to the uninformed user. Unfortunately there are naive followers to this theory who are so passionate that chemtrails exist, but know absolutely nothing about contrail formation or aviation in general. Their minds are polluted with false claims regarding normal contrails. Chemtrails do not exist, period.

Photo taken by me as a Virgin Atlantic A340 passed us at 36,000 feet

Wing contrail produced by a Lufthansa Airbus A330. Courtesy of Airliners.net

If you Google "chemtrail" on the Internet you will find hundreds of sites dedicated to this wacky conspiracy theory. Perusing several chemtrail sites, I am simply amazed by the sheer incompetence and misunderstanding of the definition of a contrail. Apparently these chemtrail theorists (who I might add probably don't know the difference between a Boeing 747 and an Airbus A340) collectively try to convince the American public that the United States military is directly involved in some huge operation with the intent of controlling the population. It's actually fascinating to read these theories, and what they claim are "professional" observations based on bogus and misinterpreted information. These writers are obviously not contrail experts, nor are they pilots. They are not navigating the skies everyday producing these trails that they write about. Misinterpretation is commonly due to a lack of education, and since I am up there almost everyday and have achieved the highest certificate in commercial aviation, I consider myself a credible source on the subject.

Alitalia Boeing 767. Courtesy of Jetphotos.net

I have studied contrails for 19 years and have never been so amused in my life. The claims made here are nonsense and I will discredit all of them. I have observed contrails from just about every type of aircraft - from jets to turboprops to pistons. The list includes airliners, B-17 bombers, King Air turboprops, helicopters and the Concorde.

So what exactly is a contrail?

A contrail is short for condensation trail. It is a thin cloud that forms behind aircraft in certain atmospheric conditions conducive to the formation of contrails, either from the engine exhaust or from the wings.

Concorde Contrail. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Virgin Atlantic 747-400 Contrails. Courtesy of Airliners.net

The largest percentage of contrails are produced from jet engines from aircraft above 30,000 feet or so, give or take a few thousand feet. Engines (jet, turboprop, piston; anything that produces heat) emit a measurable amount of water vapor in the exhaust. This emitted exhaust quickly cools to the current surrounding ambient air temperature and if conditions are right (temperature, and dewpoint) it will condense into a cloud and a contrail is born. Now, this can occur in all areas of the world at almost any altitude, including sea level. Normally at temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius with humidity, a contrail will appear. These temperatures are commonly reached near the poles at sea level and aircraft have been observed contrailing on or near the ground in Antarctica or northern Canada. As seen in the picture below, this is a rear-view picture of a helicopter leaving contrails in the Arctic:

Below is a pic of the contrail shadow left by the same helicopter. Note that the helicopter is not that high off the ground. My guess is a few thousand feet.

One aircraft commonly documented for leaving contrails on the ground is the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, commonly used down in Antarctica.



Below is a recent picture of a Boeing 737 departing Norman Wells Airport in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Outside temperature was minus 42 degrees Celcius. The jet engines are leaving contrails! Now that's cold.

As you see from the above pictures, it is actually cold enough on the ground for the aircraft to contrail! It is the same as driving your car on a cold day when the exhaust from your muffler condenses into a small, whispy cloud. The lowest I've seen contrails form behind aircraft was at 14,000 feet in a very cold and wet environment. Since temperature plays a huge role, contrail formation altitudes rise and fall with the seasons as well as with longitude. When it is colder in winter, aircraft usually contrail at lower altitudes, so more planes are observed leaving contrails. In summer, the contrail formation altitude is usually higher, so only planes capable of flying at higher cruising altitudes will contrail. As with longitude, the closer to the poles, usually the colder the temperatures. (There are exceptions to this rule however, but for our purposes we will use this general rule). An example is a plane flying from Los Angeles to London at 33,000 feet in July may not contrail over Las Vegas or Salt Lake City but would probably contrail over Greenland and Iceland at the same altitude.

Here are some more pics and videos of contrails:

Let's not forget the B-17's in Europe consistently laid down contrails above Germany during WWII. They were usually flying in the high twenties.

B-17 with contrails over Europe, WWII. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Here's a King Air 300 I used to fly contrailing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1ad1lzkjd8

Here's a King Air 350 contrailing from 28,000 feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvdnKnkPZr0

A British Airways 777 contrailing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jCS8jPVU-o

A Cargolux 747-400 contrailing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC6iopJ4UAE

Contrail video of a couple of Mirage fighters and an Airbus A340 aircraft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdK0bB7S2g

Here's a few that I have personally taken:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUqxjU4qcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSIabcNRri4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq0ZEH5U0j4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq50NBpE54w

Contrails and chemtrails:

As I mentioned earlier, contrails can also be produced by wings, and I think most of the hype regarding "chemtrials" originates around this type of contrail. Wings produce contrails due to pressure differences, and most occur during conditions of high humidity when low pressure above the wing condenses into a cloud. This type of contrail is more common in the summer months and may take the place of engine contrails which may not form due to higher temperatures. I've seen aircraft climb to cruise altitude leave wing contrails at the lower altitudes that disappear and are eventually replaced with engine contrails at higher altitudes. Below are several examples of wing contrails:

All-Nippon Boeing 747. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Korean Air 747-400. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-400. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Air China Airbus A320. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Boeing 767. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Thai Sky Airlines Lockheed L-1011. Courtesy of Airliners.net

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340. Courtesy of Airliners.net

I believe the above pics are examples of contrails that are commonly misinterpreted as chemtrails. These wing contrails indeed last much longer than engine contrails, but in no way are they produced by a chemical agent. It is just the nature of the contrail. Back in the 90's I commonly saw a heavy Eastern Airlines Airbus (flight #85) fly over my house from SFO to ATL. This aircraft, heavily loaded down making a cross country flight could only climb to 29,000 feet for the first hour of the five-hour journey to Atlanta. Then it would step climb up to 33,000 feet, and so on. By the end of its journey, it may have stepped up to 37,000 feet. Aircraft climb when they're light enough to do so in an effort to burn less fuel. For some reason or another, this aircraft would occasionally leave a "wing contrail" as they flew through some common summer cirrus clouds around the 28,000 - 29,000 foot level. This was very common in the summer when the monsoon would blow up very humid air from Mexico. All other airliners were much higher than this heavy Eastern Airbus and would not leave contrails because they were above this cirrus layer. Now engine contrails would eventually start at around 39,000 feet, where it would be small and short-lived. So it wasn't odd to see Eastern Airlines Flight #85 at 29,000 leaving a huge billowy wing contrail while a UPS 757 flying from Ontario to Seattle leaving a very small contrail at 39,000 feet. So how did I know all this? I had an aircraft radio and binoculars. I learned the routes and the flight numbers. That's all you needed.

Now I want to take you on the road during my flights around the country to look at some more contrails: Let's begin.

Here we are cruising from Salt Lake City back to the Bay Area, CA. The above trail is rather long and would be a suspect "chemtrail" to a conspiracy theorist. In fact, this contrail was just left by United flight 172 (UAL172) from SFO-IAD at FL370, or 37,000 feet. Our routes intersected over a specific waypoint (Mustang VOR, or FMG), so if I were leaving a contrail, it would look like an "X" from the ground. Note the amount of cirrus cloud in the area. As these airplanes fly through the cirrus clouds, their contrails can linger for hours. Chemtrail theorists usually misinterpret this part. - They claim that aircraft traffic create cirrus clouds from a once-clear blue sky, when in fact cirrus clouds already exist in the sky and blow into aircraft traffic zones. Once aircraft fly through the cirrus, they tend to create more cirrus clouds, which is true. As the above photo shows, these cirrus clouds moved into the area from the northwest well before the planes came in. These cirrus are a natural phenomenon associated with normal air mass weather.

Another example - We just departed SLC enroute to STS, climbing to the west toward the salt flats. Overhead is the contrail left by Southwest 2364 (SWA2364) from Chicago to Sacramento, level at FL400, or 40,000 feet.

As we climbed up to altitude, we can see the same contrail made by SWA 2364 has started to spread out, becoming part of the surrounding cirrus cloud. This is normal, and in no way a chemtrail. The Southwest 737 simply added more water vapor into the air. Period.

Let's continue:

The above pic was taken while I was flying the E-190 for JetBlue from New York to Austin, Texas. This contrail was just made from an American Airlines Boeing 767 as it passed through some cirrus. Note the shadow on the cloud deck below. I'm sure we are making the same line, as we are on the same airway. However, the wind has already blown this contrail to our right, so our contrail will parallel this one. Lines in the sky? Well, yes. Perfectly normal.

Look below: Some other aircraft passed through this cirrus layer with the wind blowing from left to right.

Now let's talk about some popular misconceptions associated with contrails:

Misconception #1 - There is a plane leaving chemtrails headed straight for the local military base. It must be a spraying aircraft!

Well, no. Actually I was quite surprised to hear my uncle tell me this a few weeks ago while I was visiting him in Montana. He said, "I saw this plane leave a huge chemtrail and head right for Great Falls Air Force Base!" Well, my uncle lives in Missoula, and Missoula sits right underneath a jet airway (J36), that connects Seattle to the East Coast. Part of the airway uses Great Falls VOR, (GTF) a navigation aid right there at the Great Falls airport. GTF is a very common navigational aid used everyday by flights traveling to/from SEA to JFK, ORD, EWR, BOS, etc. It wasn't the same plane, it was several airliners flying their normal route.

Misconception #2 - There are two planes in the sky at the same altitude - one is leaving a normal contrail and one is leaving what appears to be a chemtrail!

Theorists will commonly take pictures of an aircraft leaving an average contrail, right next to an aircraft claiming to be at the same altitude leaving a "chemtrail" (or what I commonly explained above as a wing contrail). Now there are two explanations for this:

The theorists probably don't know that the two aircraft are at very different altitudes, leaving different types of contrails. They forget to inform you that the atmosphere is always a changing constant, with different layers of wind, temperature, humidity, etc. So you have to understand that the plane leaving the smaller contrail is at a different altitude than the plane leaving the longer contrail. This corresponds later with Misconception #4, trying to judge the altitude of aircraft. Simply put, you really can't just by looking at it. Let's look at our first example:

On our TCAS above (that stands for Traffic Collision Advisory System) you'll see another aircraft (pilots call that traffic) 6,000 feet above us traveling west and just off our left wing at FL340 (34,000 feet). We were at FL280, or 28,000 feet. In the opposite direction traveling east is a learjet at FL370 (37,000 feet, or 9,000 feet above us).

Here they are a few seconds later as they crossed paths in the opposite direction. This is what you are looking at - Delta flight #343, a Boeing 767 from SLC to HNL is leaving the smaller contrail at FL340, (bottom) and the learjet (above) is leaving the longer contrail at FL370. From the ground it would appear that these two aircraft were in a near miss, and the one leaving a longer contrail would be the suspect "chemtrail" aircraft. Why? because in the eyes of a conspiracy theorist, the learjet contrail does not fit into a "normal" contrail definition. Delta 343's contrail is "normal" and the learjet contrail would be misinterpreted as a "chemtrail". You will also notice that Delta 343 is below the cirrus layer, which was about 36,000 feet and up. The learjet was flying in the cirrus layer, and the contrail was much longer. So the vapor trail of the Delta 767 is smaller because there is less ice crystals and the temperature is warmer down lower. Delta is at FL340 because it is too heavy to climb to a higher altitude where longer contrail formation would occur. Without the trained eye, it is hard to discern different altitudes of aircraft from the ground. However, here you see (and the TCAS proves) that these two aircraft are separated by 3,000 feet.

Planes fly at all different altitudes based on weight, wind, temperature, length of flight, turbulence, etc. You can count on 1,000 feet of separation between two aircraft above 18,000 feet in the United States, Canada and Mexico. A Boeing 777 can usually climb to 35,000 or 37,000 feet at max takeoff weight. If this plane were flying from LA to NY (well below its maximum range capabilities) it would be able to climb straight to 37,000 feet, well within the contrail zone most of the year. An aircraft that is perhaps heavier (due to fuel or other performance constraints) may only be able to climb to 31,000 feet, and would fly below the contrail zone.

Here's our second explanation:

The planes are flying at the same altitude, but have different engines. The more efficient an engine is, the more likely it is to leave a lasting contrail, as there is more water in the exhaust. The photo below shows an Airbus A340 (maiden flight: 1991) on the left, leaving contrails, and a Boeing 707 (maiden flight: 1957) not leaving contrails. Both are flying at 33,000 feet (part of a German test to study contrail formation), but the newer engines of the A340 produce more water vapor.

Misconception #3 - The chemtrail aircraft are unmarked and white, most likely a military aircraft.

These are actual photos taken by chemtrail conspiracy theorists. Nice and clear, right? Planes are usually painted white, with the exception of Southwest Airlines and United (with a blue bottom). Keep in mind that the photos submitted by chemtrail activists are always blurry and hard to recognize. Get the binoculars out and look carefully. They are arliners.

They never show you this photo because it is easily rocognized as a Southwest 737.

Misconception # 4 - The chemtrail is being emitted between 8,000 and 20,000 feet - a lot lower than typical aircraft contrails.

These experts claim to know exactly what altitude aircraft are flying at with no instrumentation. How can they tell what altitude a plane is flying at with no aid? It's almost impossible, yet they know straight to the foot or meter! Now I can get to within 2,000 feet most of the time, but that is because I have a trained eye that is also backed up by over 15 years of flying experience. I know the airways and routes as well as the airliners that fly them. In order to accurately determine the altitude of an aircraft, one must have an aircraft radio (to listen on frequency, or simply ask the pilot their cruising altitude) or monitor FlightAware.com. Even FlightAware.com is innacurate by up to 6 minutes. In 6 minutes, a plane at cruising altitude may have traveled up to 50 miles away!

Take a look below at a chemtrail theorist's explanation on how to determine the altitude of jets by measuring pixels on a digital camera. His theory is all in BOLD:


"ALTITUDE CALCULATOR"The calculator below gives the actual altitude of the above observations - it is 19,660 ft - which seems like a logical value as it is the 20,000 ft height that is often reported or guessed in these discussions. Just click on the Calculate button to see this result displayed!

Please note that the form you see below initially displays the actual figures from this current example so just click on calculate! Then, if you wish, edit the values and enter your own Camera and Aircraft figures if you have taken such photographs and your answer will be automatically generated for you. You must have javascript enabled on your browser.

The calculation below calls for the angle of view in degrees of the lens of the camera. If these values are not directly listed in the camera instruction manual this supplementary Angle of View Calculator is available:

ALTITUDE CALCULATOR
ABOUT THE CAMERA:
Total pixel width of full image:
Angle of view (degrees):
ABOUT THE AIRCRAFT:
Pixel span of aircraft:
Actual span (feet or meters):
RESULTS:
Ratio of image to span:
Field of view (feet or meters):
Tangent:
Altitude (feet or meters):

Of course, we must allow for some margin for error in this final figure as the original pixel count from the greatly enlarged images might be slightly inaccurate.

The figures here are in feet as that seems to be traditional for North American aviation but our friends in Europe may be thinking in terms of meters. All they would have to do is enter their values in metric and the final result would be in meters.

For example, the wingspan of 131 feet equals 39.93 meters and the final result of 19,660 feet equals 5,992.37 meters. It has been stated many times before - this modest altitude of some 20,000 feet on a relatively warm day is not cold enough to create traditional engine exhaust moisture condensation trails. Commercial jetliners fly much higher than 20,000 feet on long inter or trans continental flights.

Here this fuzzy aircraft image is checked against a standard KC-135R outline and it is a match:

This conspiracy theorists really thinks this "chemtrail" aircraft is a KC-135! In actuality, here is a clear picture of the real aircraft, shown below:

This is just your ordinary ANA 747-400. No KC-135 chemtrail aircraft here. Besides, I don't know any US military aircraft that have the Japanese red dot underneath the wing. More of what he wrote below in BOLD:

Before continuing it might be noted that the above identification is as certain as it is because although Boeing based the KC-135 upon the same design as the 707 family of early jetliners that first flew some fifty years ago, today there are no airlines using the 707 in passenger service - certainly not in North America. Therefore it is highly unlikely that this particular aircraft could be of civilian or commercial origin. It is reported that there are a few of the later series of 707 aircraft still in service with pure cargo airlines but with noise reduction restrictions in place at all major airports their use is extremely limited - perhaps only to use within third world countries.

For further related information visit the Boeing web site: KC-135 and 707

The aircraft specifications are readily available online and the wingspan is 130ft 10in - so let us say 131 feet for these purposes.

The width of the image in pixels and the aircraft wingspan in pixels can be used to provide a ratio. This ratio, when multiplied by the actual aircraft wingspan in feet or meters, will provide an estimation of the real-world field-of-view of the photograph.

Did you get that?

From the camera specification - or more than likely, the actual image pixel size as seen with the graphic software that you are using - we know that the camera has 2560 pixels horizontally - so (in this case) divide that by 95 (the pixel wingspan) and we come up with 26.947

Here you may not be using a pixel scale as seen above but simply crop closely and that image will display your aircraft pixel count.

Multiply the actual wingspan of 131 ft by 26.947 and that is the Horizontal Field Of View (HFOV) in feet of this camera (with these lens settings and at the altitude of the aircraft). The figure is 3,530 feet HFOV.

Again, from the camera specifications, we know the horizontal angle of view at the particular settings used - it is 10.26 degrees. Therefore, in the diagram below and in this particular example: 2b=3530 and 2x=10.26

Misconception #5 - The agent is emitted from the tails of chemtrail aircraft.

Wrong. There is nothing emitted from the tail of any aircraft, unless it is from the boom of a refueling tanker. Contrails usually form several feet behind the engines. Since engine exhaust is very hot, it takes a second to condense and freeze in the surrounding air temperature (which is at least minus 40 degrees Celsius). Most wing mounted engines have the exhaust streaming right below the horizontal stabilizer. From the ground, it appears that the plane is emitting this substance from the tail when in reality it is just condensed jet exhaust. An example is watching a 747 leave contrails where the exhaust actually condenses before the tail section of the airplane. However on a shorter plane the contrails form about at the tips of the tail section when viewed from below. It is just an optical illusion when observed from the ground. Chemtrail theorists see what they think they see. As they say, "you only know what you don't know." Look again at the videos I posted above.

Misconception #6 - People are getting sick! There's brown/yellowish residue all over the place! We're inhaling this stuff and it is causing a myriad of illnesses.

Well if I looked like half of the people who claim they are getting sick from these aircraft, I would be sick too. It's all psycological. We get sick from viruses and germs. These are things you cannot see. Just because you catch a cold and see contrails doesn't mean they are making you sick.

There was a YouTube video that was recently removed and was filmed in the mountains east of Los Angeles. Have you ever seen the air quality in eastern Los Angeles? Where do you think all the smog goes? It accumulates right where these people live. This area has the most toxic air in the country! I worked for the largest transporter of hazardous waste in the western United States and you wouldn't believe what is currenty in our soil - especially in California! DDT, Lead, Chromium 6, arsenic, it's all still there left over when cars used to run on leaded gasoline, when the Navy cleaned ships, when oil and fuel was dumped from locomotives and when steel mills ran for years in eastern LA. I could go on and on. Take Owens (dry) Lake near the area where this documentary was filmed. The biggest polluter in California was the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water Company who completely drained the lake years ago to supply the city of Los Angeles. When the lake was completly dry, there were large quantities of naturally occurring arsenic found in the soil. Now there is a problem with arsenic-laced dust clouds blowing into neighboring communities when the wind blows. I could go on and on. It's not airplanes, it's the city, or cars, or dry lakebeds.

Misconception # 7 - "I live in the Bay Area (or any area for that matter) near several large airports and chemtrails are everywhere above us!"

Who doesn't live by an airport nowadays! Drop me anywhere in the lower 48 and I'm probably 30 miles from the nearest airport whether it's civil, military, dirt, paved, grass, whatever. Chemtrails/contrails have absolutely NOTHING to do with local airport traffic. Period. When planes leave the airport, they don't circle up over the airport until cruise altitude, they start heading toward their destination. By the time they get to cruising altitude where contrails form, they may be over 100 miles away!

The only place I can see this occurring is Edwards/Mojave Airport where test aircraft are either dropped from high altitude aircraft right over the airport, or they fly virtually straight up into the test area. Besides, where these test planes are flying, it's restricted to civilian aircraft. But come on here - witnesses see contrails/chemtrails above airports all the time. That is because major routes fly right over these airports. Most major airports in the United States use some type of navigational aid to assist aircraft in getting to, well, the airport. Take Las Vegas, or Denver for example that have navigational aids used for high altitude navigation.

Here are some flight plans from LAX to JFK that use a navigational aid right at the Las Vegas airport:

LOOP4 DAG J100 EKR CYS J148 ONL J94 PMM J70 LVZ LENDY5

LOOP4 DAG J100 LAS BCE J60 DBL SNY ONL J94 PMM J70 LVZ LENDY5

LOOP4 DAG J100 EKR MBW RAP J158 ABR CESNA JUVAG JAKEY VIXIS YYZ GOPEV TULEG IGN IGN7

On any given day there are over 20 scheduled flights that fly from LAX to JFK. Most of them use one of the above routes. You'll notice that each route uses J100 (Jet route 100). Guess what major city navigational aid make up this airway? Las Vegas. Google "chemtrails and "Las Vegas". Get the picture?

So 20 or more of these aircraft (if they stay on their assigned route) will fly right over the LAS (Las Vegas) VOR. If all of them are contrailing, people will think this is a huge chemtrail spraying operation. Don't forget we're just talking about LAX to JFK. There's also the satellite and nearby airports such as LGB, BUR, SNA, ONT, SAN as well as VNY and SMO for the bizjets. Now connect them to the northeast coast cities of BOS, EWR, JFK, PHL, IAH, etc, and now you may have hundreds of point-to-point possibilities. And each one of these flight may actually use the same VOR navigational aid to get to these points. So if you were in let's say Chicago you might see 400 contrails flying overhead thinking you're being sprayed on! Nope, just normal jet traffic following a normal route.

I found out that Santa Cruz (in northern California just south of San Francisco) is termed a "chemtrail hot zone". Since Santa Cruz is fairly liberal politically, it is easy to understand why the inhabitants there feel our government would target this area with their chemtrails. Take Monterey and Carmel CA, just south of Santa Cruz for example. This wealthy area of California has very little mention of contrails, even though there are actually so many that overfly the Monterey Peninsula. Why is this? Monterey is right on the great circle route between Los Angeles and Asia. Aircraft heading to China, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore from LAX don’t fly west, the way you might expect from looking at a standard map of the world. The shortest route takes them to the northwest, over Monterey or San Francisco.

There are more than 400 nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Asia a week. Most of the flights use the Boeing 747, Airbus A340 and Boeing 777 which eliminate the need to stop in Alaska or Hawaii. Since I live in the north Bay Area, I see contrails from these widebody aircraft coming to/from LAX from East Asia, as well as the occasional ORD, DEN, SLC, EWR, or MSP to Honolulu flights going westbound around noon or so. Like clockwork, the Asia flights come in over Santa Cruz/Monterey or Mendocino and head south down central California to Avenal VOR (AVE) and fly the Sadde6 Arrival into LAX. I know this because I monitor FlightAware and know the high-altitude ATC frequencies.

Here are typical flight plan waypoints from Asia to LAX showing the last 3 hours or so from Tokyo, Narita Airport (RJAA), Hong Kong (VHHH) and Seoul, Korea (RKSI):

DACEM PAINT PIRAT AVE SADDE6

So DACEM, PAINT and PIRAT waypoints are up off of northern California. From PIRAT waypoint to AVE takes you near the Santa Cruz/Monterey area. Aircraft on the last hour of their journey are usually around 37,000 feet and up, most likely leaving contrails as they come onshore.

and below is a description of the Sadde6 Arrival to LAX from the north:

Here's the great circle mapper showing those three flights using the most direct route from Asia to LAX. You'll notice the route comes in just south of the San Francisco Bay area right by Monterey and Santa Cruz!

So big four-engine aircraft such as the 747-400 and Airbus A340 used on the route will fly right over the Bay Area usually at 37,000 feet or 39,000 feet right down to LAX.

There are also westbound Honolulu flights that usually fly over the Bay Area at Point Reyes VOR (PYE) and connect to BEBOP waypoint to join the airway across the Pacific that joins up with the Maggie3 arrival into Honolulu. If they're up at 34,000 or so, they're most likely contrailing (in the winter for sure).

Here's the typical routing for a Honolulu-bound flight once the plane is over California:

SAC PYE BEBOP R464 BEATS R464 BITTA MAGGI3

Here's the map of Northwest flight #809 from MSP to HNL:

You will notice this flight flies right by (and commonly over) the Bay Area. So once again, you can have Asia inbound traffic flying south over San Francisco and Honolulu flights heading west over San Francisco. If they are all contrailing, you may see an "X" in the sky where they cross. Very common.

Here's Continental #15 from EWR to HNL:

and United #1 from ORD to HNL:

All these flights fly right over the Bay Area. This is not a chemtrail conspiracy. These are normal planes taking passengers to the sun and beach in Hawaii.

Here's a great example! On December 31, 2007, I noticed a large twin-engine airplane flying from south to north leaving a fairly long contrail. As it flew over me, I quickly identified it as an Eva Air 777-300 (the belly was all green). As it passed, I saw another plane from east to west leaving the same type of contrail make an "X" right through the Eva Air contrail. I pulled the car over and took this pic (bottom) on my iPhone. I then pulled up FlightAware on my iPhone and knew that it was definitely the new Eva Air 777-300ER from LAX flying somewhere in Asia, and the other aircraft passing behind it was a Honolulu-bound flight. Sure enough, it was in fact Eva Air, flight 11, from LAX to Chiang Kai Shek Int'l (RCTP), and Continental Airlines flight 15, a Boeing 767-400 from Newark (KEWR) to Honolulu, (PHNL). Both aircraft were flying at 32,000 feet, or FL320. On FlightAware, (second pic) you will notice the Eva Air at the top left, and the Continental at the right, travelling west.



Misconception # 8 - There are circles in the sky deliberately put there by chemtrail aircraft. What are they doing?

Sometimes airplanes have to hold, as this particular flight did (below) from Denver to LAX. This is commonly due to weather, traffic or other factors. This plane was cruising at 38,000 feet and was most likely contrailing at the time. When it made this 360-degree turn, it would have left a circle contrail (above). How many military planes fly from Denver to LAX?


Misconception #9 - Aircraft are leaving grid patterns and flying in formation to increase chemtrail exposure.

I forgot to mention that airplanes only travel from west to east, or east to west. Come on, use some common sense here - Planes travel from the north to the south and vice-versa just as often as east to west. Planes fly over jetways which will track over the same geographical point on earth. However, the atmosphere is constantly moving, and most likely the wind up at altitude is going to move that contrail downwind several miles until the next plane flies over the same airway. Look at the example below: How many airplanes crossed here lately?

If you counted 6, you're right. If you guess one plane, then maybe you need to become a chemtrail conspiracy theorist. The contrails above were left by several different airplanes on the same airway but with a wind blowing each one further away downwind until the next plane passed by.

Misconception #10 - It is reported that shortly after a large chemtrail spraying operation, heavy rains likely induced by the trails will form. But these rains, often, will rain down strange materials, evidently from the tracks in the sky.

Contrails linger more often during the beginning of a cold front that precludes with moist, cold air and cirrus clouds. In the northern hemisphere, low pressure fronts (rain /snow fronts) travel from west to east and cross the paths of thousands of flight routes everyday. The same flights, day after day fly the same route, and as a weather front approaches their routes, their contrails may linger around the cirrus and look more pronounced, stirring up more attention from the ground. The flight frequency stays the same, but the air is more saturated, thus making the contrails stand out more to the general public. The precipitation usually follows the next day, regardless of air traffic frequency. Just watch the weather Channel as a winter cold front progresses across the country over a period of usually four to five days. Do you think jet traffic manipulate the cold front? No.

Misconception #11 - Contrails only form a wingspan-length behind the aircraft, so anything closer to the wing or engines is a chemtrail!

Well, no. If it's cold enough, contrails can form right behind the engines. I've seen it with my own eyes and have made videos of them. Here are plenty of videos filmed right outside the windows from passengers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIfCqMEXGNE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tIKDUnUTdZg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IUc1Z_vXkPw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vpWTknmMTAk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OvdnKnkPZr0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J7lqUY-dS94
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pibwalvaVY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZeNcYAwVq-o

Misconception # 12 - Chemtrail aircraft turn their spray on and off!

Take a look at the below pic. As you can see, the aircraft is observed what appears to be the "turning on and off their contrail". Actually the aircraft is travelling through a layer of air that is currently conducive to contrail formation. We've learned that contrails form with the right temperature and humidity, so a layer of low humidity can be sandwiched between two layers of high humidity. As a plane climbs or descends through this layer, then the trail will only form in the areas of high humidity, and so look like it was “switched off” in the area of low humidity. It's hard to tell if it is climbing or descending from the ground, so this type of contrail is widely misinterpreted as proof that chemtrails are in fact manipulated by the pilots on the plane.

Is this spraying? No. It is a government aircraft? No. It's just a Boeing 747 traveling through some humid air.

Misconception #13 - Airline pilots are oblivious to chemtrail aircraft flying nearby.

This is the most far-fetched reaching argument made yet. I am very surprised that this conspiracy theorist (below) actually made these claims. He apparently knows exactly what we as a pilot group are thinking, knowing very well that he never actually went in the cockpit to ask what these pilots thought. Look at some pictures he submitted below:

He writes: "During the first week of this February, I was passenger on a Virgin America Airbus flight, heading East out of San Francisco International Airport.

Once we were cruising at altitude ( 30,000 feet) I could not ignore the "Chemspew" (a term coined for the electro-chemical smog that results from massive Chemtrail spraying & attendant accumulation) being generated in front of me and anyone who cared to look out of any window/portal our airplane.

He continues:

"Most of the "chemplanes" had the appearance of Boeing commercial jetliners; with the exception of a conspicuous minority, which looked like various types of much smaller, faster & more maneuverable private jet aircraft.

Remarkably, the Virgin America Airbus I was a passenger on did not appear to be venting anything at all - no contrails nor chemtrails - even though at the same altitude as most of the planes in the photos I present here. I made certain to get a good look for this. That said, it was instinctively clear to me that any attempt to get some shots to confirm and document this observation would create suspicion/ discomfort among my fellow travelers -- with me asking them to come out from their comfortable seats so a stranger could crawl in past them to better take pictures of the engine nacelle exhaust that just happened to be well behind his assigned seat.

He continues:

"There is no WAY the pilots of our flight were unaware of the foregoing activity..."

He continues:

"Question is: what are commercial pilots told about the chemplanes?
How much do they actually know about such Operations?
What do they tell them-SELVES ... ?"

Wow! There you have it. As a professional, I see these aircraft pass us everyday leaving contrails. To us, it's normal airline traffic. To this conspiracy theorist spreading false claims, these are all chemtrail-producing planes. He obviously knows these are normal contrails from airliners, but is trying to sell false information to unsuspecting believers who may not know anything about this environment at 36,000 feet. He goes on by making the claim that we (pilots) are apparently oblivious to chemtrail operations going on right around us. Unbelieveable! You see, it's people like this who are spreading such disinformation on the Internet. The sad part is there are people jumping on the chemtrail bandwagon and believing in something they know nothing about. These are the same people who will believe anything on the Internet, forwarding false emails, chain letters and doctored photos of anything preaching others to believe.

Do your own research. There is so much false information out there on the World Wide Web that it is easy to believe in just about anything. Anyone can make practically any claim by creating misinformation websites. I could start a Unicorn spotting website tomorrow and have believers.

I have a great idea - Why don't we all go out and take some pictures of contrails. Let's prove that these chemtrail aircraft are actually real airliners! There are several photographers out there who take great photos of contrailing aircraft from the ground. A Flickr.com member named JPro did it and posts his pics on the Flickr website. Take a look:

Nice and clear Cargolux 747

UPS MD-11. There go your packages! No chemtrails here.

Atlas Air 747F

Can you guess the airline flying this 777?

Martinair 767-300. Note where the contrails start. Pretty cold up there

US Airways 767-200. Obviously in warmer air, due to the contrails starting further back. However it is a shorter model of the 767, so you have to put that into consideration also.

You can see more of JPro's photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/jpro747/

Now let's compare with a conspiracy theorist photo below:

Here is another picture of a suspected KC-10 leaving a chemtrail (below) submitted by Lou Aubuchont of Parsonsfield, Maine. Lou is a frequent writer on the website Chemtrail Central. First and foremost, the photo he has submitted is just fuzzy enough to give viewers with an untrained eye an aircraft that is quite comparable to the KC-10 pic to the right.

However, after reviewing this photo and comparing it to the picture of the KC-10 airframe, you can quickly realize that it is definitely not a KC-10! There is no evidence of a third engine on the tail because there is no third engine. It is a Boeing 737 (which isn't even a widebody!) So why, if it is indeed a KC-10 would two streams come coincidentally right behind the engines? Is it to disguize...so as to deceive those with a trained eye into thinking that this is only a twin-engined plane leaving normal contrails? Why not one stream from the tail? Why not from the wings? Let's be honest, if you really wanted to maximize penetration, that would seem the most logical sense. Look at crop dusters, for example. The chemical is sprayed from the wings. Or why not just have three streams to make it appear as a contrailing KC or DC-10? That would make even more sense. But it is not a KC-10. It is a twin. But what do I know?

Why can’t I get a DC-10 aircraft contrail picture like this:

Now that's a nice clear DC-10 leaving normal contrails. Once again, conspiracy theorists won't submit photos like this because:

1. Chemtrails don't exist
2. They can't show you any evidence of an aircraft leaving a chemtrail
3. They don't have any photos this clear. If they did, you would know it's a normal contrail!

Here's another photo taken from a chemtrail site:

This one is on the Worldgathering.net home page:

Wow! This is actually a United Airlines 757! It surprises me that the webmaster would put this photo up. Below is a much clearer pic of a United 757. See the two dark-painted engines and the unpainted strips on the belly? Look familiar? Not painting there saves weight because who sees the underside anyway? Last time I checked, United Airlines was not involved in a barium aluminium spraying experiment.

So go ahead, take pictures. Photo away and post them in your comments to this blog. Now I'm not talking a white dot with a trail, I want a full-on closeup. Get a radio scanner, learn the airways, the frequencies, the airlines. Go to FlightAware.com. Get informed. You'll learn the more informed you are, the less chemtrails make sense.

UPDATE (12/20/07): 5 months later and I'm still waiting. No chemtrail photos yet.

6/20/08 - No chemtrail photos yet.

4/8/09 - No chemtrails photos yet.