Born and raised in Southern California, Learned to fly in South Texas, and
living in Georgia the past 34 years, I was thrilled to go to Moriarty this
summer and fly. The "Big Sky" effect, to me, includes not having the view
blocked by 75' tall pine trees everywhere so you can see the horizon from
the ground. Being able to clearly see features a long way away is the other
part. High bases help a lot, too. From the air-distinct cloud shadows in the
distance add to the effect. In Georgia, the haze and irregular patches of
"Piney Woods" make you wonder--"is that a cloud shadow or woods 3 miles
away?"

Here, you can easily see individual water droplets in the clouds
sometimes--you know the bases are low! Otherwise, detail in the clouds is
the clue to height-but it can fool you. Size doesn't help much.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

--
Hartley Falbaum
DG800B "KF" USA


"Herb" wrote in message
ups.com...
Bill,

You are talking about the seemingly vast "amount" of sky visible when
you get that 'big sky' feeling. I believe it's a combination of good
visibility (25 mi), lots of clouds in view and yes, high cloud bases.
There is a correlation between all three, you can only see all these
clouds in a clear sky and with high cloud bases.
Here on the edge of the great midwest in Chicago I have often gotten a
tease of that Montana scene (mostly when driving out to Iowa or through
Minnesota) when I would just have that feeling of wow, that's a big sky
today and I bet the cloud bases are at least 6-7k. Bill is also right
that we do develop a calibrated eye sight that is pretty accurate in
judging heights - from the ground as well as from the air.

Having worked my ways for many hours through the miserable haze of the
North Carolina summer skies I must admit it is easy to prefer the more
western longitudes. On one flight with Rob Ware when he still lived in
Apex NC, (pre GPS) I urged him to look at his compass after leaving a
thermal. We were happily cruising back to where we had come from. The
haze was so thick you could only see a 2-3 mile circle of nondestinct
ground features like looking into an upside down funnel.

Herb Kilian, J7

Maule Driver wrote:
I think it has to do with how many clouds you can see (more clouds,
higher bases), and the detail with which you can see the edges (less and
less as these eyes grow older).

I've found that my eyeballs are pretty darn accurate. Down here in the
southern US flying the vibrator, I was always interested in knowing how
high I had to climb to get above those pesky thermals. I could easily
tell the difference between 2500, 4000, 6000, and 8000. But I think
some of it has to do with just knowing how the sky generally looks with
those bases.

Big Sky musings; When I was driving out west to the Montana contests of
the 90s, I was trying to figure out what "Big Sky Country" meant. Is
the sky bigger there than in New Jersey? Driving the Madison River
valley, you definitely get a 'big sky' feeling, but what causes it?

I concluded it was the fact that you could see the peaks of mountains
where the mountain bases were beyond your horizon. In other words, you
could see objects and the implied space between you and that object,
that was beyond your normal horizon - Big Sky!

Keep on musing Papa3

Bill Watson
Foureyes, aka Mauledriver, '77

Papa3 wrote:
A friend and I were driving back from the airport the other day. He
remarked, "Wow, cloudbase is high today. I bet it's at least 6,000
feet."

He and I began musing - exactly how do we know that cloudbase is high?
What visual cues tell us that the Cu are high (or low). We're not
talking Temperature Dewpoint spread here - strictly visual.

Any ideas?

And yes, flying season is obviously drawing to a close :-)

Erik Mann
LS8-18 P3