I think it has to do with how many clouds you can see (more clouds,
higher bases), and the detail with which you can see the edges (less and
less as these eyes grow older).

I've found that my eyeballs are pretty darn accurate. Down here in the
southern US flying the vibrator, I was always interested in knowing how
high I had to climb to get above those pesky thermals. I could easily
tell the difference between 2500, 4000, 6000, and 8000. But I think
some of it has to do with just knowing how the sky generally looks with
those bases.

Big Sky musings; When I was driving out west to the Montana contests of
the 90s, I was trying to figure out what "Big Sky Country" meant. Is
the sky bigger there than in New Jersey? Driving the Madison River
valley, you definitely get a 'big sky' feeling, but what causes it?

I concluded it was the fact that you could see the peaks of mountains
where the mountain bases were beyond your horizon. In other words, you
could see objects and the implied space between you and that object,
that was beyond your normal horizon - Big Sky!

Keep on musing Papa3

Bill Watson
Foureyes, aka Mauledriver, '77

Papa3 wrote:
A friend and I were driving back from the airport the other day. He
remarked, "Wow, cloudbase is high today. I bet it's at least 6,000
feet."

He and I began musing - exactly how do we know that cloudbase is high?
What visual cues tell us that the Cu are high (or low). We're not
talking Temperature Dewpoint spread here - strictly visual.

Any ideas?

And yes, flying season is obviously drawing to a close :-)

Erik Mann
LS8-18 P3