ACTOS action as seen from the ground crew

The airport on Graciosa is very close to the sea. This allows us to fly with the Helicopter over water while still being in close distance to the ENA site and also close to our camp. During the flight, we can hear the helicopter most of the time and with good eyes also see it. When close, we can also spot ACTOS and in some lucky moments even SMART-HELIOS.
During yesterdays flight, ACTOS and HELIOS were sampling a very thin stratiform cloud just above the airport. This was a nice view for all the spectators on the ground. The nice part was, that we only could see ACTOS below and in the cloud while Helios and the helicopter were already above the cloud layer. With the sun shining from above, ACTOS plus helicopter cast a shadow on the clouds which was clearly visible from below.


Another nice view from the ground we got when the G1, operating in the ACE-ENA campaign, flew over the airport. During one runway approach G1 and ACTOS did come quite close.

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