Light Show

The other night, while waiting for transportation back to my home base, some flights that were scheduled to depart prior to mine were landing, disembarking / embarking passengers, and then leaving. These rotary wing aircraft are the medium and heavy lift workhorses of the Marine Corps, and are doing a GREAT job out here (I’m sure that doesn’t just happen, the crews and pilots must all be top notch). It was really quite the attraction watching them land and take off, not only due to the efficiency with which all was accomplished, but because of the ‘light show.’ During the ‘touchdown’ phase of the landing, and during the ‘lift-off’ phase of take off, a sort of static-electricity (I’m guessing, here, have no clue what it was) charge appeared to envelop each blade. Of course, since the blades are spinning at a fairly substantial speed (a little understatement, here), this created the appearance of a glimmering, shimmering, flickering disk. This phenomenon is probably not observable during the day, this was a moonless night. Individually incidental enough in nature to leave one in doubt as to the certainty of it having happened, the repetition of the occurrence (I watched several choppers through this evolution) confirmed it. Anyway, I wonder if anyone reading this blog can explain what it is that I was seeing, as it is something totally new to my experience.

I’ve got a visitor coming to see me at my base this week, much in the same way I visited some folks last week at their base. Switching roles. As for me, I’d rather be the scrutinizer than the scrutinized.

Semper Fi, Jon G.