The Quirks of Flying East

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I think I was a bit foggy this morning when I posted the previous bit. It's not so much that there would be a short version and a long version, but rather that there would be some posts that sum up the day(s) and others that would be more reflective on the details. So I say now, but I could still be foggy, and I'm not much for sticking with well-laid plans. Anyhow...



I’d forgotten about this.

When you fly from west to east on a long haul, you whip across time zones in the opposite direction from the sun. The effect is that if you leave in the early part of the day, you rush into night and then rush into day. Put that together with the northern (“polar”) route that is the most direct line from west coast North America to Europe, and you’ll encounter almost no darkness, even though you arrive in Europe in the morning and nine or so hours will have passed.

The navigation screen on the aircraft displays the “night zone” in a kind of bell-curve on the screen, like this:





This is a poor-quality photo I took of the navigation screen, complete with reflection, but you get the idea. It is clear that if you were to fly further south, you would pass through more darkness, and if you travelled just a smidgen further north, the sun would be visible the entire flight.



A moment after the shot of the screen, I turned my camera out the window to capture the sunrise above the clouds from 10,000 meters high.








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