Weird thing happened to me yesterday

[AngryAmish]

I was 3-4 blocks away from the airport. An airplane (737 I think)went by to land. About 30-45 seconds later I heard a very loud whooshing-type sound. It sounded like a small, invisible whirlwind went by. There was a little gust of wind.

Is this the wing vortices I heard about?

Has this happened to anybody else? If not vortices, what was it?

It was really freaky, hearing something and not seeing anything.

[ewagner]

1. Probably

Air traffic controllers have to create as much as a one minute spearation between planes, and the vortices usually travel downward and outward from the wings.

[Sir_Shrek]

2. Sounds like it...

Wingtip vortices "fall" like leaves to the ground and cause wake turbulence, which can linger for five or ten minutes after the aircraft has left the area. Pilots in smaller planes always have to be careful of "wake turbulence" when taking off behind larger aircraft.

[Aristus]

3. You think that's weird?

The other night, I was sitting at home, watching TV, when the phone rang. So I picked it up and said: "Hello?" There was nobody on the other end. So, I put the phone down and went back to watching TV.

Darndest thing.

:-)

Snatched that from the old "Muppet Show".