Message posted by Dave Bethke on August 03, 2005 at 18:58:46 PST:
Thanks. That gave me a better idea of where you were. First, my thoughts on what you saw, and then why I think that. You saw a military aircraft, probably in the fighter category, on a training mission and traveling sub-sonic. The light was it's landing light or something similar. It may not have had position (NAV) lights. The craft was traveling in a straight line all the time you saw it. It was at least 1500 feet AGL and at it’s closed point about 2 to 3 miles away. Why a military aircraft and why there? There’s a military training route (IR264) with a heading of about 110 degrees that crosses Highway 95 about 4 miles south of Mina. It’s flown above 1500 feet. Unusual to see training on the weekend but it’s possible. And it’s not necessarily Air Force. Fallon NAS is just north of there and IR264 makes a sharp left turn just north of Tonopah and heads up a valley to the north. Why did the light remain a steady intensity? When you first saw it you were traveling almost directly at it. The angle between your line of sight and the planes course was small. As it got closer the angle increased; you were more to the side, which would cause the light, aimed straight ahead of the plane, to get dimmer. But at the same time it was getting closer, which would cause the light to get brighter. The two effects balanced each other, more or less, and the brightness seemed steady. Finally when it got abeam of you to your right the light intensity dropped rapidly and may have been blocked by the wing or body of the craft. Why didn’t you see the body of the plane.? It was actually 2 to 3 miles away at it’s closest point. Your headlights, aimed down toward the road, wouldn’t help, and there were no other lights. The moon, less than one quarter, had not yet risen. Although it doesn’t factor in to this, the weather at Tonopah was reported as 12,000 feet scattered at 10:00 PM and clear by 11:00 PM. Reno reported scattered at 10,000 feet at 10:00 PM and a few at 10,000 feet at 11:00 PM. I know, I wasn’t there and didn’t see it, so this is only speculation. But to me it seems like the most plausible answer. I’ve seen similar effects with commercial planes approaching Houston many times.
In Reply to: Re: Weird sighting on 7-30-05 on 95 posted by Scott on August 01, 2005 at 19:57:57 PST:
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