London Heathrow and Aircraft Trails

  • Final thread of the day - I promise :D

    At London Heathrow, the Approach guides do not seem to turn off even when I turn them off, it’s annoying and strange.

    I also have a question about the aircraft trails

    Are these trails supposed to act as Contrails?

    If so, they should only work on Jet aircraft above 24,000 feet (approximately) but in the game, these trails work on props and at any altitude, are they supposed to be a trail or a contrail?

  • The trails are just that, a path marker that the airplane took. They are not necessarily contrails as such and we may add actual contrails (which you cannot turn off without changing the weather) which may intensify at greater altitudes.

    The trails serve to help identify aircraft in the air and can be turned off during the flight with the multi-function button menu in the top right corner.

  • The trails are just that, a path marker that the airplane took. They are not necessarily contrails as such and we may add actual contrails (which you cannot turn off without changing the weather) which may intensify at greater altitudes.

    The trails serve to help identify aircraft in the air and can be turned off during the flight with the multi-function button menu in the top right corner.

    Thanks for letting me know this, I thought so.

    I have it turned on at higher altitudes since it looks nicer, but at lower altitudes I still keep it on just to see any paths, since the huge text is quite annoying

    Also what do you mean “without changing the weather”

  • Contrails in the real world don't always show up and we may end up simulating that accurately. So to get rid of them you'd have to change the simulated weather :D But that's something for another day.

    I’ve never seen contrails that don’t show up from weather. Contrails usually show up only if your throttle is around 60 percent or above (I think).

    This is why you may see aircraft that don’t have contrails in the sky - they’re not at a high enough throttle usually

  • Trust me there are physical reasons behind why contrails don't always show up. Sometimes there are just clear blue skies and sometimes the sky is full with them. Depends on all kinds of factors and not just how much throttle the plane uses. They also form at idle thrust but the engines emit much less exhaust gases so it get's much thinner.

  • Contrails are formed because of the high condensation of water vapor at altitudes caused by the escape of hot gases from the engines. When these gases cool in contact with extremely cold air from high altitudes, microscopic water droplets in the atmosphere condense and form clouds. These clouds generally appear above 26 thousand feet and only if the outside temperature is below −40 ° C otherwise the trails will not be formed.

    Regards,

    Lucas

    Regards,

    Lucas

    A320 Test Pilot at Aerofly FS2!

    I7 8GB RAM GeForce NVIDIA 1660TI 6GB VRAM Graphics 4K .

  • But it's not as simple as if altitude greater fl260 and temperature below -26C. Nature doesn't work in binary like that... :)

    We got two doctors of physics and a masters of aerospace engineering in our team, we'll figure something out :D

    Wow so tell us in the future that we want to learn, it's really very complex ... :D

    Regards,

    Lucas

    A320 Test Pilot at Aerofly FS2!

    I7 8GB RAM GeForce NVIDIA 1660TI 6GB VRAM Graphics 4K .

  • Yes, I live in a hot dry climate, outback Australia, and can confirm that contrails at altitude are only about 50% of the time or even less of the time. It as to do with humidity and dew point not just temperature. Hot dry air (even though it is much colder at altitude) prevents contrails forming. I like contrails as it easier to see aircraft passing overhead, but a lot of the time there are none and they are hard to spot. I once lived near Heathrow UK and was familiar with daily heavy contrails as many passing aircraft used the airport as a navigation point. UK weather is not at all like Australia.

    Favourite album: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

    My ride: MB339, B744, Aerofly FS Global, Ipad Pro 2022/11 1TB ipadOS17

    XBox Series X/S wireless controller (model 1914)

  • A side point about contrails and Oz, coming from someone who has been watching contrails for 20+ years as a plane enthusiast is that most people in Oz live on the coast, fewer live inland. Another reason that we tend to see very few contrails is because most aircraft in our airspace if you live on the coast, are at low altitude, either climbing or descending from altitude. Australian cities like Sydney and Brisbane are so far from anywhere else in the world that few aircraft pass over. Until about 10 years ago I almost never saw a contrail living in Sydney. Recently more overflights from Asia to NZ for instance, passing over Sydney have begun to happen and Oz is beginning to look more like other places in the aviation world. The tyranny of distance has shaped us a long time. I once saw possibly a contrail from a low flying jet but was not sure as at the time I thought it was an emergency fuel dump as the plane seemed to be on approach to land at Sydney.

    Favourite album: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

    My ride: MB339, B744, Aerofly FS Global, Ipad Pro 2022/11 1TB ipadOS17

    XBox Series X/S wireless controller (model 1914)