3 Ways your BRAIN Tricks You into Thinking AIRPLANES HOVER!

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There are MANY videos of Aircraft that seems to Hover over the trees on approach, taken all over the world. Is this a glitch in the matrix or is there something more scientific that can explain this strange phenomena?
In todays video I will give you 3 different explanations to this and a few more little tidbits as well! Enjoy!
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
Macula Diagram: @ BruceBlaus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macula_...
Harrier Jump Jet: @ Cpl. Jamean Berry/U.S. Marine Corps
cdn.britannica.com/41/27141-0...
Cessna: @ startpac.com
startpac.com/wp-content/uploa...
Airplane standstill in air, strong headwind: @ aviatorpilot21
• Airplane standstill in...
Is this big plane HOVERING???: @ Savage Mister
• Is this big plane HOVE...
Plane Frozen In Midair!: @ Jonathan Martin
• Plane Frozen In Midair!
A330 - Airbus ‘In The Hover’ !: @ Canalcaholic
• A330 - Airbus 'In The ...
TikTok Hover Video: @ alexnino_ (Alex Nino)
www.tiktok.com/@alexnino_/vid...
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Chapter 1: It's all about the resting point
07:34 - Chapter 2: Size Matters
10:14 - Chapter 3: REAL Hovering

[@MentourPilot]

Want to see an absolutely crazy incident?! 👉🏻 kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5e9qpaihpqEebM

[@kuwaitisnotadeployment1373]

If you explain that one 👆 for me I'll donate to your patreon...EDIT: ok so the last one explained it. That's what I figured, I'll keep my promise and donate to your patreon. I should watched the whole video before I commented lol

[@MentourPilot]

@@kuwaitisnotadeployment1373 That’s what I’m talking about at the end of the video.

[@kuwaitisnotadeployment1373]

@@MentourPilot yeah I saw it I commented before I got that far. I'm signing up to your patreon right now lol

[@JohnnieWalkerGreen]

How about sideways landing? What is the maximum safe angle for sideways landing?

[@jeremycompton3010]

Great explanations.

[@adroper62]

Promoting the "boring truth" is much more appreciable in this era of incessant sensationalizing of the mundane for fandom. Well done!

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you! That’s what I’m trying to do.

[@Games_and_Music]

Yeah, it was pretty well done. I had seen an explanation of this optical illusion on a show called Strange Evidence, but they weren't near half as thorough as Petter.

[@77thTrombone]

_"… in this era of incessant sensationalizing of the mundane for fandom."_ ain't it true, though. That statement needs to be subtitled over all KZbin shorts.

[@FindLiberty]

@@MentourPilot 11:45 I've experienced that in my 1981 American Aerolights Eagle 215B Ultralight; flying "backwards" (relative to ground speed). It could take off within about 75 Ft at a ground speed of about 24 MPH with its 20 Hp Snow Mobile engine. _BTW, those huge, towering thunderstorm clouds are sucking up air, very fast and from many miles away._ There's a potential problem when inertia is considered, especially with a large aircraft that requires a lot of airspeed, and especially if this "LOOK, I'M NOT MOVING" situation is happening (or stunt is attempted) at a low altitude... It's very dangerous: How "long" does it take for the engine(s) to respond and then get the aircraft moving again and back up to its minimum air speed *from a standing stop?* It's worse than minimum take off time/distance roll since there's no ground effect to help. Q: What does the pilot do if the wind suddenly dies down or shifts away from direct head-on at a low altitude? A: Apply full power, push stick all the way forward (or belly-to-the-bar flying an Eagle), and then... _CRASH._

[@ursodermatt8809]

the longwinded explanation is done for the doubters and crackpots and nuts.

[@ddichny]

Regarding the case of air speed vs ground speed, I've occasionally seen birds flying vigorously on windy days but traveling backwards. Must be frustrating for the bird clearly trying to get somewhere.

[@Zoroff74]

A bit like riding a bike against a strong headwind... :-)

[@loki6626]

Perhaps birds would benefit from some flying lessons. None of them have actually undergone any formal training and quite frankly are a hazard to other air traffic.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

Our property backs on to a big windy hill and I've seen turkey vultures and redtail hawks hover above the lip of it having what looks like the time of the lives just floating/being pushed backwards. These ones aren't flapping, just checking their aerodynamics like a wind tunnel.

[@RalphCunha]

@@loki6626 😂😂

[@luci-ferre]

I've also seen a bird purposely hovering, not flapping its wings as if it was having a super peaceful moment on a very windy day. It embraced the wind like I've never seen.

[@ceoofupfuckery.8561]

My first thought on the first clip was: "this dude missed a few classes in high school". Then again, i remembered that i have been working with cameras for 15 years - and that most ppl still get mesmerized by simple tricks.

[@petepeter1857]

Shiny objects, lol. Although he's no Einstein either.

[@TheVicar]

I watched a phenomena the other night in the skies over England. It would have had a UFO nut jumping for joy as the effect was quite convincing. I was watching a satellite passing over head through 5/10ths cloud cover and it was quite windy. As the satellite passed behind a cloud and emerged once more, it was almost exactly where a star appeared from behind that same moving cloud. This gave the impression that the moving satellite had split into two objects which moved away from each other. Clearly the sat was moving and the moving clouds gave the impression that the star was also moving quickly away. People want to see what they want to see and to tell them that they're wrong is akin to questioning their religion.

[@henrivanbemmel]

Yes, I used to see this from the school bus I rode as a child. The road on which we drove was materially parallel to the glidepath of runway 23 at Pearson Airport in Toronto. I was intrigued and even in grade 6+ I had enough math to figure this out. I found that the reference point over which the aircraft was stationary was about 3 km south of my location. I also know that this approach to Toronto airport was about 15 km away. My school bus was travelling around 75 km/h and the 'motionless' effect would cease when the bus slowed down and stopped for a student. So, by similar triangles I was able to suggest a speed of about 290 - 300 km/h for the airplane as it was on approach. I always regret not following through with an aviation career, but in those days (1970's) if you did not have natural 20/20 vision (mine was 20/410) most doors were closed (even ATC). Sigh.

[@georgemartin1436]

Runways 6 & 24 at Hopkins in Cleveland Ohio; same deal. Anyone who is near an airport seeing that video immediately understands what's up. Same as some of those nonsense "UFO" videos...

[@Speedster___]

20/410 yikes

[@henrivanbemmel]

@@Speedster___ 20/11 with glasses which is the point. I could see being required to carry a second pair and/or wear a strap, but to outright ban young people with correctable myopia while simultaneously allowing older pilots to use reading glasses to read displays and manuals (pretty important) seemed unfair, but there seemed to be no recourse then. No more so than if a pilot candidate had been female. The applications I read were clearly directed at males ... only. Most of the pilots I knew as a boy, however nice, would instantly fume if the topic of female pilots was broached ... and they weren't kidding. Ah, the good old days ...

[@Speedster___]

@@henrivanbemmel I’m so far from a glasses doctor and I wouldn’t know how to even get from taht to 20/11 but my mom has extreme glasses with special lens needed and hers is if I remember correctly like 10/400. So was suprised even with glasses

[@trueriver1950]

I had the same aspiration to fly and the similar experience of being warned that even if I paid my way through PPL and CPL nobody would be likely to give me a job due to wearing glasses. Legally it was no problem: the UK CAA only mandated that I carry a spare pair and have them in a shirt pocket where they were readily accessible in case my main pair fell off. I have wondered since whether the airlines were worried about safety or about customer's confidence taking a blow on seeing a pilot wearing glasses... In fairness it says a lot for the integrity of the flight school at Manchester Barton that they warned me before taking my money. I did 15hours in a Cessna as P u/t to prove to myself that I could do it. Although I enjoyed it immensly including two long distance flights for fun (with my instructor of course) I felt that it was a lot of money to be spending on something that would never pay back financially. I still have my log books, as treasured momentos.

[@ellicel]

I had noticed this phenomenon but never knew the mechanics of it. Fascinating and easy to understand! Thank you so much!!

[@MentourPilot]

Great stuff! Feel free to share it to help the channel reach more people who might like it. 💕💕

[@kenbrown2808]

the other possibility is it's the SHIELD "bus" with its new camouflage mode activated.

[@MJA5]

It's a fascinating effect, nonetheless! It shows how powerful perspective is. Great video!

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you! Yes, our brains are fantastic things but not very hard to fool.

[@Grim_Beard]

As a psychologist, I can confirm that statement.

[@NicolaW72]

@@MentourPilot Indeed. Our brains are made for hunting animals in the badlands, not for observing planes flying in the sky...

[@hassanalihusseini1717]

It took mankind until the Renaissance to develop a true feeling for perspective. But I wonder if people really thought the planes are hoovering. I cannot believe that, but may be it is a phenomena of these times...

[@NicolaW72]

@@hassanalihusseini1717 I think you will unfortunately be right with the last point. It´s the same thing with all the "Flat Earthers" who believe in a MAGA conspiracy of Liberals, Scientists, CIA and Chinese Government to make us believe that we´re living on a planet.

[@walmartdog1142]

I want a shirt covered with cockpit warnings "bank angle" "terrain, pull up" etc.

[@Shontaku]

Then buy a fucking printer and an iron. Why are you telling anyone this?

[@TheVicar]

@@Shontaku Don't hold back on him. You should charge top dollar for your advice.

[@hdtvcamera1]

@@Shontaku You don't have to crap on everything. Let people have fun and enjoy themselves. .

[@h8GW]

"stolstol bidididididi - stolstol bidididididi" -or you can include a stick shaker-

[@joelbiju7183]

Im loving that Petter is gonna be my Physics Teacher!!!!!!!

[@Elijah_react]

Ikr

[@tolisdrums]

Knowledge about aviation: CHECK Direct, spot-on, "aggresive" narration: CHECK Giving answers and not perpetuating a viral sensation: CHECK Acknowledging the people who helped: CHECK A little humor in the end: CHECK There are the reasons who make this video exciting.

[@MentourPilot]

Thank you! Me and the team are really trying.

[@noahway13]

Sexy accent-- Check.

[@thewolfofmalkara6203]

@@noahway13 at the concorde video : "Ingestion of *h ø t g j æ s e s*

[@verabolton]

It's physics and maths. They taught it in schools when I was young. What do they teach these days, I wonder 🙄

[@mikebergman1817]

I had this same thing happen when I was about 10 years old, while my mom was driving. Except it looked like it was dropping like a rock. I was freaking T F out. Edit: it was a C17 too, so I thought a HUGE plane was going down a few miles away. Then we came up to a stop light, and life started to make sense again..

[@ajr4698]

As a glider pilot flying in mountain wave conditions, I've absolutely had negative ground speeds!

[@vinayramkumar]

So you’ve added Ophthalmology to your already broad set of skills 😄. Love this “different” type of video this week.

[@MentourPilot]

Happy to hear! I needed to mix up the content a bit. Hope you like it!

[@vinayramkumar]

@@MentourPilot Loved it. I remember my dad explaining this exact phenomenon to me back when I was very young. He’s a retired licensed aircraft maintenance engineer and my bedtime stories used to be all about the weird and wonderful things he encountered in his career. Watching this brought back some really good memories 😃

[@tessiepinkman]

@@MentourPilot Det här var en härlig omväxling, tack! :)

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

@@MentourPilot I love everything you cover, even though I don't fly (even as a passenger). I'm genuinely fascinated by the engineering, the technology, your skills and so on, but flying is a definite no no! I haven't even had a passport in decades (I'm in the UK). Nothing against any other country, I just can't afford it, and even if I could, I haven't seen anything like the whole of Britain yet :) I have been to Germany (as the base - sis lives there) a few times, and into surrounding countries. They're beautiful and I loved it. But until all my kids grew up, the possibility of even buying a passport let alone a ticket was nonexistent. Now we're able to do it, but we have a boat, so why leave when we have many rivers and broadlands to explore? I do want to go on a cruise around Scandinavia, though. That has been a dream of mine for years. Maybe one day... (As long as I don't have to fly... Sorry, but I had some really bad experiences in the few occasions I did fly as a teen, and as I've aged, I've developed a fear of flying. Yes, I know it's irrational. It's not actually the flying, it's the falling out of the sky thing that scares me 😂)

[@MarksamtheMarksman_Official]

I already knew why sometimes people think they can see planes not moving, but Mentour explains it so thoroughly that it opens a whole new world for you and you learn even more the someone just normally explaining it to you.

[@DarthTella]

I live near a large international airport and I've seen this "hovering plane" phenomenon many times. Even though I know it's just an optical illusion my brain still goes "hold on, that's not right" every single time.

[@paul756uk2]

This motion parallax is something that you have to be aware of when driving. An example is when approaching a roundabout, a vehicle, particularly a bike or motorbike sometimes won't be seen because it's being obscured by the A pillar. The motion of the 2 vehicles causes a kind of moving blind spot. It's why you need to physically move your head to make sure there isn't anything there.

[@bethhentges]

And why nothing should hang from the rear view mirror.

[@BlueCyann]

I think the same thing used to happen to me at a certain intersection near our house. It's not at exactly a 90 degree angle. In one car we had (it never happened with the other), there was a confusing blind spot at that intersection for traffic approaching from the right. It definitely had to do with the shape/angle of the pillar in that specific car, but I think it also had to do with the fact that you start scanning for approaching traffic while you're still moving, not just once you've slowed to a full stop. The cars coming up stay in the blind spot longer than your brain expects them to be there, which tricks you into thinking that nothing can be there at all. Like you describe, we figured out we needed to take a few extra seconds, move our heads around, to really be sure.

[@paul756uk2]

@@BlueCyann it's also a reason why sometimes aircraft appear to be stationary when driving. (I had to check what video you were referring to as I put a similar one on another channel! On the subject though, yes it can be dangerous and something to be aware of.

[@ramprasaddas5290]

One of the best explanations ever. Actually we called this illustration known as Resting Angular Illusion. It followes a Parabolic Graph, at Start it looks like normal, in middle it looks like Stoped in Air and At last it will be again normal. And always these videos are being shot by Mobile cameras which is actually Not the stable camera at All. So hand Movement and reflex Action with Arm that holding it makes the illusion a great Deal. And mostly these videos always are in Approach part of aircraft, when mostly the aircraft isn't accelerating That much.

[@MentourPilot]

Correct!! I was putting this together on what little j could find out and figure out myself, thanks for filling in the holes!

[@ramprasaddas5290]

@@MentourPilot welcome captain, thanks to my son too. He explained me to these videos quite Well When Social media was Full of these things without proper explanation.

[@nikkitronic80]

I was just explaining to a friend last nite about how this is just an optical illusion. And now this morning my favorite aviation channel Mentor Pilot has a video explain just that (and much better than I ever could). Thanks for the perfectly timed and really great video! ❤️✈️❤️✈️❤️✈️❤️✈️❤️

[@gaylanlee6447]

I remember in West Texas in the U.S. sometimes the winds would be up enough that there were those that would have backward flying contests in small aircraft. In my younger days I worked at a small airport that a pipeline pilot flew out of in a Cessna 150. One day the wind was very heavy, he called in for us to open the doors on the main hanger. He came in flying against the wind and looked like a helicopter landing on the apron. When he was on the ground he was still flying until he reached the cover of the hanger, where the wind broke and he came on into the hanger wherein we quickly rolled the large hanger doors shut. That image has always been with me. He was very experienced, he flew P51s in WWII. Enjoy your presentations very much!

[@hotsoup1001]

A weird phenomenon that never ceases to amaze me is the videos of seeing a propeller driven aircraft starting its engines and knowing I'm about to "see" the propeller stop and reverse! I looked up there reason why once, but I don't recall the explanation. Anyway, that's just something I immediately thought of while watching this video.

[@DavidSmith-vr1nb]

That has to do with the "sampling rate" of the eye-brain system, usually about 55Hz for most people. It appears on fan blades and car wheels too. Whenever they pass through some multiple of that rate they will appear very slow, then stationary, then reversed as the rate increases.

[@clivedavis6859]

Great explanation, thanks. It can also be considered like an invisible lever with the fulcrum at the resting point, one end at the plane and the other at the car. I have also been in a slow aircraft flying backwards while climbing into a headwind, so I understand that.

[@drboze6781]

Cessnas fly many times faster than 747s, or so I've observed. They are a lot louder, too. And both are beaten by chickadees.

[@daniellassander]

Well i've just watched the first few seconds, and the plane appears to be standing still in the air because the plane and the car are moving in opposite directions, so it appears the plane is standing still above a certain spot, but that is just due to perspective. What helps to create this illusion is that they are pretty far apart so the angle doesnt change so much.

[@jamesgoss1860]

I've noticed this phenomenon when passing certain cars on the opposite side of the highway. Sometimes there is a barrier between us with a gap. My car's positioning and the opposite car's positioning is just right that the other car appears between the barrier gap, and remains that way as I approach it, pass by it, and then see it in my sideview mirror. It works when the car is in the same relative lane going the same speed.

[@trueriver1950]

There is a dangerous corollary of that: dangerous for cyclists. When approaching a side road which meets your road at a slant angle there is a combination of speeds that makes you appear stationary to a driver who is on a collision course. Sometimes that puts you in their blind spot (due to the pillar at the side of the windscreen) and they genuinely don't see you. In the UK there would usually be a STOP sign on the side road, but fatal accidents happen when the car driver decides to just drive onto a main road that looks empty. Some junctions are notorious for this; sometimes to the extent that the highways people spend lots of money redesigning the junction just because drivers ignore the STOP. Tom Scott has made a video about that. I am so glad that the standard of piloting is so much higher than that of too many drivers.

[@Hirnlappen]

My dad once encountered such strong tailwind in his Cesna that he turned around for fun, reduced his airspeed close to stall speed and then he returned to his home airstrip with negative groundspeed. That was in a Föhn-situation where he flew to Aargau from the Alps.

[@PermanentWTF]

A notable thing being able to fly backwards is an Antonov An-2 biplane, which can have a controlled flight at 25mph airspeed. Basically it's the fastest plane flying backwards :)

[@dilettabiggi75]

The effect also known as: when you're trying to sneakily look at someone on the other side of the street but you're going in opposite directions and you keep seeing them behind the same fucking pillar. And no, you can't stop because otherwise they'd notice you're staring 😂

[@peterdemkiw3280]

Happens to me all the time haha

[@huskytail]

YES! That's why I don't understand how it's possible that anyone might be surprised, or worse, caught into a strange world explanation of this otherwise cool looking phenomenon.

[@Ralph2]

True story

[@RydalS]

Most people in today's world are so easily fooled.

[@bluefish239]

This reminds me of the moment I realized just how big and high clouds often are, and how bad we are at telling the scale of something once it passes a certain point. I was looking up at the remnant of a hurricane about 10 years ago, and thought they were really close because they were so big and I could easily see lots of details. I hadn't even realized they were hurricane remnants at the time, but then a passenger jet that was high enough to look really tiny passed by *underneath* the clouds and it dawned on me that the clouds were humongous! I am still surprised by this on occasion, it's always kind of a fun realization to make though.

[@charlesoxley7242]

I had that same realization a few weeks ago, when on a discovery flight. There were quite a few scattered clouds, and I was concerned about flying into IMC. The flight instructor indicated that the clouds we were seeing had to be at least 20,000 feet high. She was right; once we got airborne, we were able to clearly see Mt. Rainier, which has a 14,000 foot summit. The clouds were clearly well above the mountain. *edit: for any non-pilots reading this, IMC = instrument meteorological conditions.

[@jeromethiel4323]

Reminds me of the whole "can an airplane take off if it was on a treadmill that was on mythbusters. If you understand the physics of flying, even just a little bit, then the answer is obvious. But it is VERY counter intuitive if you don't understand how an aircraft generates lift.

[@MentourPilot]

Exactly

[@keiyakins]

I still think an airplane probably can't, not because the physics doesn't work, but because you're likely to exceed safe rotational speed of the landing gear :P

[@mitchyk]

Living on the south coast near bournemouth airport we regularly see single engined aircraft "flying backwards" because of strong headwinds as they approach over the sea. It's quite interesting to watch as the pilot has an airspeed of 120 knots or something and a groundspeed of minus 40mph! lol. It usually happens during windy season, which in the UK is anytime between January 1st and December 31st! lol

[@johncoyle8139]

Mentour, your presentations are so polished and professionally presented now. However, a nostalgic part of me longs for you sitting in your house office on Sunday night. Love your channel ❤

[@PaulBrownclk-me]

It's definitely a perspective thing, I was driving home one evening and I looked up to see what looked like a passenger plane stopped motionless in mid air, it scared the heck out of me, but now I've driven that route many times, I often see similar things , not quite as amazing as that first time , but I guess planes are never quite in the same place, sometimes they look like they are moving in slow motion, so definately I'm just viewing them from a slightly different perspective.

[@francescogiuseppearagona1109]

Yeah, it's like when you travel by ferry: if you walk on the deck in the same direction as the ship goes looking at the sea, the ship will appear slower, if you go in the opposite direction the ship will appear faster. As for the airspeed fenomenon, you can clearly see this with birds. As airplanes, they don't care at all of their ground speed, only the airspeed matters, so, when it's really windy, you can see birds flapping as strong as they can trying to fly against the wind, but standing absolutely still or even going backwards.

[@grene1955]

I am a retired video surveillance field engineer, and I really liked this video. I did some studies of how human vision actually works, to explain to security professionals why they cannot always trust their eyes, whether watching live video or recordings. If I was still working, I would show this video during some of my presentations. Well done!

[@jannepeltonen2036]

I loved the kind of "outer limits" style of this video :D That thing about vision and large objects further away - when I was a child, sleepily traveling in the backseat of our family car, I noticed that the bright yellow harvest moon behind the trees seemed to be going the same direction with the same speed as us. It seemed weird, so I ended up asking around and working through, well, all this. It may have helped that my dad was an airline pilot and had a good grasp on optical illusions like this :-P

[@noahway13]

I wrote a short version of this before I saw your comment.

[@erictaylor5462]

When my sister and I were little our dad trained us in "see and avoid." So we didn't call out every aircraft we saw he said to look and see if the airplane is moving relative to the window. If we saw the other plane moving we were okay. Only if the plane was not moving did it mean we were on a collision course. I can tell you, when you look out and see a C-5 rolling out of its bank and it stops moving, and it is already really close, that can be a little bit scary.

[@flightographist]

I fly PG, we call the apparent wind speed /ground speed effect being "parked" Under the right conditions, you get to your preferred altitude, turn into the wind, relax back in your harness and chill.

[@AdamA20N]

Completing the ‘C’ of my CLASS, really informative video! Thoroughly enjoyed watching you de-bunk this phenomenon.

[@MentourPilot]

Good stuff!! Now it’s just the LSS left

[@stevesutcliffe3490]

I remember seeing effect this back in the 60s as a ten year old while my dad was driving past Heathrow airport. I thought it was very cool but not for a second did I think it was anything other than an optical illusion.

[@davidp2888]

This really makes sense now. I appreciate your explanation.

[@FinnishLapphund]

Notification popped up, read title, thought Meh, I'll probably not understand half of it. Still decided to give it a go, and it was another great, informative, and fascinating video. Wish I had had more teachers like you in school, I bet other pilots enjoy working with you.

[@NGAGEFPV]

I have real trouble believing people even question these simple things… being a human today has never been so frustrating. Good work though as ever my friend!!

[@CMDRFandragon]

Even when I was like 7 years old, I knew the plane was still moving. I always found that little phenomenon kinda interesting, but knew it wasnt hovering, since I knew planes didnt hover. This must be the same thing that happens to trains. When they are approaching a crossing, sitting there watching the lights, the train seems to just be sitting there. THen as it gets closer, you realize its really haulin'

[@randyphillips2263]

I first experienced the first effect years ago at the Spokane Airport. Took me a few seconds to figure it out. Now I see it very often driving on the divided highways. A few years before the Spokane incident our small town in Washington State was having their 4th of july parade. Look up in the sky and there was a Piper Cub flying backwards over the parade. It was a local pilot who made most his living spraying crops. Funnest flight I ever been on was with him as he took us as close as he could in a Cessna 182 on some of the spray runs he makes. One we was down in a coulee flying below the top of the coulee. And it was kind of a narrow coulee.

[@cornbreadflapjacks]

My job isn’t even remotely tied to aviation and I am honestly scared of flying but I love watching your videos anyway! You make things very interesting and easy to understand.

[@randomgeocacher]

Something I other do to remove to remove human weird misperceptions is “prepare test; sleep 15 seconds; test”. If I don’t add a sleep command, I think I have waited minutes and the test wasn’t ready. Humans are terrible at observing things. And in regards to Harrier Jump jets, I think that was what in the US long ago (1996? Maybe). Strange object hovering very close to an highway and then suddenly shooting off extremely quickly when we got closer. Only in the last sections I could fairly clearly make out the general shape of a fighter plane. If I hadn’t seen that it was some sort of fighter plane in the end, it would have been an unexplained UFO observation to me. That was one of the first time it really started to hammer into me “humans are really bad observers”. Never trust your initial look and never trust your sense of time.

[@andrewsprojectsinnovations6352]

Technically before you knew it was a fighter jet it could have been considered a UFO. You hadn't identified it yet, it was flying, and it was an object. It's not as interesting as the phrase makes it sound, but all three boxes were checked.

[@topgun9666]

It's fascinating the forced perspective changes the larger the plane is.

[@iamsandrewsmith]

Here's another possibility: when you're in a ground vehicle going nearly as fast as the aircraft. A few years ago I took the high-speed train from Paris to Amsterdam. As the train reached 200 kph or so in the level, open countryside just north of Paris, I saw a 747 on approach to CDG airport. Since the plane's direction of travel was at an angle to the train line, it looked like it was floating in the sky.

[@cr10001]

Or when you're running alongside the autoroute at 300kph and all the fast-lane 130km/h traffic alongside you is going rapidly 'backwards' :) (And any occasional intervening trees etc are just a blur).

[@redmoon6796]

This reminds me somewhat of the feeling looking at a semi truck from the window of your car: if the truck is passing you, you feel like you are going backwards while both vehicles are traveling at 60-70 mph.

[@Chishannicon]

I have *always* wondered about this. A few times in my life, I've experienced this illusion, and I had no idea what was going on. Thanks for explaining!

[@eddieharkin2550]

I spent day after day, month after month, yea.. (well you get the point) after being taught this at school just looking out for it everywhere. Still do 😁 Isn't it know as parallax, or perhaps that's something else? The hovering bit was new to me though - fascinating. Thanks.

[@mb8804]

On a few occasions I've taken off under my hang glider into a reasonably strong head wind, The incredibly low sink rate combined with flying backwards is a wonderfully odd experience

[@blezen4727]

Moving from explaining of aircraft construction to explaining eye construction. Game elevated Dr. Mentour Pilot 👍😉

[@anilakman]

I trully admire the way you explain and make things much easy to understand, especially for people unfamiliar to the subjects. 🙏👍

[@psychocuda]

LMAO, I burst into laughter when I saw that vid at the beginning.

[@mariekeweichert973]

It's quite funny, when flying gliders and it's a little more windy it in fact is not that hard to fly even backwards. Even though I almost experienced this only once and our GS was still positive, I heard a lot of stories about people flying (epecially) older gliders that have a quite low stall speeds who were really going backwards then.😂

[@briancox2721]

I live near GRR in Michigan. The way the approach path and interstate are laid out, you'll quite often see this optical illusion when traveling eastbound and aircraft are heading west to land. It's very cool.

[@aerospaceguy4639]

This video could have took 1 minute to explain. But as usual Mentour does a 10+ min indepth deconstruction of the subject. SUPERB CONTENT!! Keep it up

[@ShatNdd]

They say if the An-2 Colt flies backwards then it's a bit too windy out there.

[@NicolaW72]

Yes, indeed...:-)

[@rex8255]

For the record, I have seen a fixed wing aircraft "hover". It was at an Air Show, and involved a Piper Cub and a headwind above it's stall speed (which is pretty low).

[@fanatic26]

I sure am glad I paid attention in school, I knew the answers going into the video. The way your brain can trick you and the way it can fill in the gaps when it cannot quite comprehend something it is seeing is fascinating.

[@cooxy9964]

Really great to see how much your production quality has improved over time! Great channel, I always look forward to new videos!

[@GlenHunt]

The most important part of this was left out: This is in the US where we use Freedom Units. Converting from that to the metric reality of the world always distorts perception.

[@xiro6]

Cant be on the US, i didn't hear any OH MY GOD!!!

[@VisibilityFoggy]

Ehh, 100 km/h = 63 m.p.h. Pretty much standard speed limits in Europe and US, respectively. So that's pretty much a wash. I'm American and agree that we SHOULD adopt metric units for everything (we DO use it for some things) but this isn't as simple as that.

[@spyrosg3172]

"Freedom Units" might have been less popular in the US if they were called "barely modified British Empire units"... which is what they are.

[@FranksMSFlightSimulator]

Would be interesting to see how such perspective issues affect VFR pilots and the need for them to “see and avoid”. Cheers.

[@N9830G]

Zero relative movement to another airplane is your first clue that you’re on a collision course.

[@stevenbalderstone709]

MP another great video! Thanks also for explaining the situation whereby a fixed wing aircraft can effectively hover or even drift backward in flight, relative to the ground. Many years ago when flying a Piper Tomahawk into a strong headwind, the instructor took control and did exactly what you described; we were hovering relative to the ground for at least 30 sec and then drifted backward for some distance without loss of altitude. Most people don't believe that is possible so thanks for describing the technique so well.

[@ThomasKossatz]

Very interesting. In Germany in WWII the Fieseler Fi 156 (Fieseler Storch) was one of those very slow, very light planes that needed not much headwind for a vertical takeoff or landing. The Top Speed was only 175 km/h, and the Minimum speed thru air was only 45 km/h, that compares to 6 Beaufort wind. So, you did not even need strong wind for a VTOF.. I liked this Video!

[@noahway13]

When I was a child, in the car, I thought the moon was following us. I appeared that way. Optical illusion.

[@Andrea-wz9sj]

"a glitch in the matrix" 😂😂😂

[@TrungleBot]

Thank you for the great explanation! By the way, in the first case, if you start looking at the close point (a house at a scheme) and the clouds simultaneously, the perspective appears and the plane starts moving.

[@tedsommer]

Thank you for this video. It's been on my mind for a couple years as I couldn't quite figure it out. Cheers

[@seanmcerlean]

Fascinating explanation.Great video. Wonder if this explains why the aircraft that is flying towards you from directly in front is this the hardest to see and then all of a sudden grows really quickly & of course is the most dangerous collision risk. As to scenario number 3,been there in slow flight training, awesome fun but difficult to fly.

[@MentourPilot]

Yep, that’s it!

[@privskorp.9865]

He upload it right now and you commented an hour ago, tffff?

[@ahmadtheaviationlover1937]

Or it’s a possibility that there’s a very strong crosswind

[@Elijah_react]

@@privskorp.9865 yeah that make no sense

[@ahmadtheaviationlover1937]

Nice chair in your video

[@radudeATL]

If you're driving, put down your danged camera/phone and drive! Stop gazing at airplanes! 😭

[@MentourPilot]

Haha! No one ever will!

[@radudeATL]

@@MentourPilot So true!

[@TheVicar]

He wasn't driving, it was the road that was moving under his vehicle.

[@radudeATL]

@@TheVicar Touche' 🤪😆

[@charliem989]

I appreciate you handling this so patiently, I would not be so nice. People need to look up and appreciate the world around them more, way more interesting than anything on TV.

[@charliem989]

It's moving against the clouds behind it!

[@vonStahlhelm]

I saw exactly that two weeks ago as i drove as passenger in a bus near EDDF. It was a very strange thing in deed. Thanks for that very good explanation.

[@Memnoch4711]

This really needs to be explained? To adults? Goodness!

[@MentourPilot]

Oh, there is much more that needs explaining. I’m getting so many flat-earth messages you wouldn’t believe

[@jeffn8218]

@@MentourPilot Not that it would convince the flat-earthers but a video explaining how navigating on a sphere differs from navigating on a flat plane would be an interesting and a useful tool when debating those fools.

[@willnill7946]

I’m not saying it’s aliens, but…

[@petergilbert144]

I saw a perfect example of this hovering illusion and it made me think of this video instantly.

[@crhvideo]

One day I was flying over a reservoir near my home airport. My flight instructor asked me to demonstrate minimum controllable airspeed, which was about 45 knots with two people in the plane in clean configuration. The CFI looked down and told me "Look, we are hovering!" Over the reservoir almost always a stiff breeze from the north is observed, which on this day was unusually strong at about the 45 knots my air speed indicator showed. We stayed in the same position for a couple of minutes. It's a fun experience to know you are moving through the air at freeway speed but not going anywhere.

[@doncalypso]

Perspective...

[@MentourPilot]

And a bit more. 😉

[@carlalex4429]

Love all your vids. Research flat earth. 🛫

[@MentourPilot]

There is no research needed… it’s just really silly.

[@wurlitzer895]

Like many glider pilots, I've 'flown backwards' on occasions. It's a strange feeling to look at a structure on the ground, and then a minute or so later realise that it's now further ahead than before!!! Another very interesting episode. Thank you!!! With all good wishes as always. Peter A :) :) :)

[@bethhentges]

Kind of like canoeing or rowing up river.

[@PutteKillen]

Your best episode so far Petter! Du är bäst! Following every single thing you publish! Took my ”C-Diplom” as a Glider Pilot in Sweden many years ago… Your aviation videos on KZbin Are absolutely the best! Stort tack Petter! Fortsätt snälla!

[@monikamaksinova3]

I was actually traveling by train this week and saw a plane “not moving” and was wondering what it was, thank you for great explanation as always :)

[@Showing_the_car_]

Brilliant intro Petter ! Another very interesting and entertaining video, thank you.

[@thethailandcelt8394]

My first ever long haul flight was 21 years ago on a China Airlines 747 from Skipol to Dom Mueang Airport in Bangkok. There's a golf course abbuting the runway and as we neared touchdown I watched a golfer putting on the green. I remember thinking "why doesn't this fall from the sky" This video puts that in perfect perspective, thanks 😊

[@EuroYXX]

Thank you Petter for another great video, full of knowledge and for listening to comments regarding the sponsors!

[@godwinalex]

I once witnessed the same thing and got very confused and was a mystery for me for years . I Saw a big plane hovering over me for few seconds and it was quite windy back then . I understood the theory explained clearly . Appreciate your effort in explaining even the tiniest detail

[@Alverya]

Science Physics lesson from Mentour Pilot! Love this!

[@MarcovandenHout]

Nice, I recently had this experience on a train. The AoA didn't look very extreme so I decided it couldn't be flying too slow, but it's nice to have an explanation :)

[@darkprose]

Fantastic. The same illusory processes are at work in many videos and sightings of famous lake and loch monsters like Nessie and Ogopogo. Several classic sightings were witnessed from inside a moving vehicle. So, too, are sightings reported when the water surface is flat, making accurate judgment of size and speed difficult along with some spectacular mirages caused by light conditions and observer distance.

[@rpyle76]

I love aviation and I am former naval aviation maintainer myself one of my newest pursuit of passion is disc golf.

[@brucefowler8690]

I had a friend who flew his light tandem tail dragger on a windy day. He climbed out straight ahead, reduced speed to near stall, GOT BLOWN BACK OVER THE AIRPORT backwards at pattern altitude and landed straight ahead. A "circuit" of the field without ever turning a corner! Light aircraft can be such fun!

[@susanne5803]

Having watched lots of Mick West debunking UFOs, this makes me smile! Thank you very much!

[@treyn8070]

Very informative and fantastic as always but you just broke the minds of many people who thought they have figured out the matrix and thought they knew something that nobody else did.😂🤣😂🤣😂. They will get over it and what is even better is that they learned something real from you about aviation and how the human eye and body actually works.👍👍👍👍👍

[@MandaPii_]

The entire time I watched the video I have been obsessed with the fact that a cat was invading your studio in the intro.

[@aviatorpilot21]

Excellent explanation and breakdown of my hovering/zero groundspeed video, and the others you detailed very well! Thank you for sharing! -Mike Jeswald

[@Roseenmarie]

Thank you for making sense of this for me, i have experienced this phenomena 😁 I was travelling in the opposite direction also

[@1TakoyakiStore]

I've known about this effect for awhile (Tom Scott did a great video on it but it was concerning traffic at a particularly deadly intersection). Now I did see something like this in the late 90's. Someone was illegally flying their kit built airplane only 10ft at most above the treeline and into a 20-30mph headwind. The effect was that he was only moving forward roughly 5mph. Very bizarre. So far that's the only modern canvas skinned monoplane I've ever seen. I figured they couldn't wait for the FAA to approve their kit airplane, hence the slow speed and low ground clearance. One last thing I wanted to mention is that I've also experienced the opposite effect on a passenger jet. The jet stream can be 100-200mph. If that happens to be a tailwind for your plane you get a nice boost in speed. I remember looking at the flights current status on the screen and it said the ground speed was well above 700mph. I thought the data was wrong because that would mean that we were transonic. It happened again on another flight in the same airspace and in the same direction. It was likely moving slower in relation to the wind direction. That's why we couldn't break the sound barrier to my confusion 😅