Larry Dighera wrote in
:

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:48:59 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote in :

BTW, the foo fighter name came from Smokey Stover...

Scram Gravy Ain't Wavy:



True, so true

But I forgot to mention one thing in my previous. The aircraft of WW2
were amongst the first to be operating in large numbers at night and in
poor weather, so it's probable that most of the Foo Fighter sightings
were St Elmos fire. It can form on your airplane in many different ways
and probably accounts for a lot of the strange balls of fire seen by
them. Lennies, supercharged exhaust from other aircraft and things like
that would account for the rest.
Like my encounter with the mylar balloon, the mind tends to give a
shape, scale and range that can be waaaaay out when it doesn't have a
lot of info to go on. I thought the balloon was quite large and far away
because I thought it was miles away, so I thought initially it was
another aircraft( I could only see it because the sun was low behind me
and reflecting off it) so I was modeling it's flight path and eventual
appearance as a complete image with that notion in mind. Of course it
was only a relatively short distance in front of me and so as I
approached it at three hundred knots plus, it appeared to turn towards
me and fly underneath. Left my mind with nothing to grasp for a few
seconds before the other foot dropped and I recognised it. I had
reported traffic visually to ATC just before it flew towards me! I
ignored their pleas for a description of the aircraft as the silver disc
flew underneath, though....


Bertie