Saturday, August 3, 2024

Some of the reasons why airlines aren't sweating it because of more heat:

 The flying vehicles most affected by heat are helicopters who rescue people. So, when temperatures get over 120 degrees Fahrenheit no one gets rescued in Helicopters unless they want to crash and die. So, helicopters are the biggest problem in the heat.

Planes mostly are a problem during takeoff and landing in the heat. When the air heats up it spreads out the molecules and atoms and makes the air thinner and less supportive of wings whether those wings are planes or glides or birds. However, birds are pretty adaptable to new variables regarding the thickness of air at different altitudes.

However, in 1970 I saw a seagull who had been blown up on top of Mt. Shasta at around 13,000 feet elevation and it couldn't fly and was flapping it's wings on the ground and couldn't take off. So, I chased it off a cliff because I understood the problem was not thick or dense enough air at that altitude. When I chased  the bird off a cliff it could fly because of the speed it was going through the air. Seagulls (and I don't think any birds at all) tend to fly at 13,000 feet unless they are gliding and an updraft hits them they don't expect. So, likely only gliding birds like Turkey Vultures and other birds like this would know how to fly in those conditions and they probably would know not to land anywhere either at altitude because they might not be able to takeoff unless they themselves jumped off a cliff to get enough wind under their wings.

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