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Angels on the wing?

By General Aviation News Staff · October 3, 2017 ·

Phil Bethell sent in these photos of an “orb” that followed him on a December flight for about 20 minutes.

“We were at 17,500 feet eastbound over the Uinta Mountain Range near Salt Lake City,” he reports. “We felt it was angelic as high winds had given us a share of turbulence prior to seeing this.”

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Comments

  1. Art says

    October 4, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    It exists because God thinks pilots are special.

  2. Pat McClure says

    October 4, 2017 at 8:12 am

    Scientists don’t understand the mechanics of the glory but it surrounds the shadow of your aircraft when you are near the cloud tops.

  3. tom says

    October 4, 2017 at 7:39 am

    It’s called a “glory.” Very common when flying above cloud decks with the sun above.

    • Ken Thompson says

      October 4, 2017 at 8:17 am

      It’s common because, as everyone knows, that’s where the angels hang out.

      Pretty cool experience!

    • Phil says

      October 4, 2017 at 10:36 am

      Amazingly enough, physicists don’t really know exactly what causes them.

  4. Matthew says

    October 4, 2017 at 7:17 am

    It is a “ sun dog”, sometimes known as the pilot’s halo. It is merely a full circle rainbow. I and my flying associates have seen it on countless occasions when flying over clouds, with the sun on our opposite side.

  5. Ken Thompson says

    October 4, 2017 at 6:45 am

    Reflection of the sun off your windshield?

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