Question to pilots actually flying "jets": by day time, do one see the contrails of planes that are at the same level (so they would be seen "in the thickness direction")? If so, do it happens to fly "inside" them? If so, do it follow a particular smell of the air?
Questions to the "physicists"
- What can be the sectional area of contrails (I mean "primary" ones, not when they develop gradually when the conditions are right)?
- If the conditions are "favorable", could the flue gas of a plane which was "recently" in the same place (in the air mass, for failing to consider the wind) cause ice crystals (or conditions which could generate them) which may "ice" Pitots?
Well, questions may be stupid and irrelevant, but I was wondering if the increase in the occurrence of "Pitot events" could not be due to increased navigation accuracy, so that the planes on defined routes are all flying so exactly in the same place, that they may fly through the contrails of others if the wind is near front or back?