Saturday 5 January 2008

Five Departures from Warsaw Okęcie

With the wind in the south-east, planes taking off from Okęcie fly over our house. Although they're much higher than when landing over Jeziorki, they are noisier, since their engines are on full power (rather than the 10% thrust used on approach). The photo above is a multiple exposure of five consecutive departures from Runway 19. 

The traces left by the airliners' lights look like contrails from USAAF daylight bombing raids over the Third Reich. Note the green and red dots on either side of the unbroken line of white light - these are the strobing navigation lights. These follow the convention of marine vessels, with a red navigation light located on the left wingtip leading edge and a green light on the right wingtip leading edge.

With prevailing winds blowing from the north-west, it's more usual for planes to be landing over Jeziorki, so it's generally quieter in respect of engine noise. Having said that, with double- and triple glazing, one tends not to notice after a while. 

 Technical note: Each exposure was between 40-60 seconds, aperture f6.3, ISO 100, focal length 40mm (around 60mm for 35mm film equivalent).

1 comment:

Aphelion said...

A very interesting picture, Michal! Thank you for posting it!