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[Phys-L] Light Spot.



I took the 150 out for a half hour joy ride at 4:45 pm CST today.
. Heading north out of Altus KAXS at 2000ft AGL I noticed a bright spot
at 2 o'clock - it seemed to be about 6000 ft distant on the ground, and
moving with the aircraft.
I recall mentioning this to the list some years ago - tho there was some
doubt about it then.
It was a clear bright late afternoon, and when the spot passed a road,
several road markers glowed brightly from their retro reflectors, as I
supposed. Hence I could see it was directly down Sun and showed no
apparent movement with my head position through the side window.

There seemed to be no obvious surface for it to be reflecting from the
airframe. On turning south back home, at 1000 ft AGL I noticed the
bright spot with ill-defined edges again at 8 o'clock, trailing me
down-Sun. I may have been imagining the effect, but this time, the
spot seemed bigger but less-defined - so I wanted to suppose it might
focus to a smaller spot at some distance greater than 6000 ft distant.

Brian Whatcott
Altus OK

AGL = above ground level.
KAXS -= ICAO designation for Altus Quartz Mountain regional airport.
ICAO = International Civil Aviation Organization