Can a plane descend from ?

[roadman65]

Watching a vapor trail in the sky over Tampa from Lakeland.  Was headed south to southeast like he might of been going to Miami even though he might of been headed for South America or even South Africa.

Now Miami and Tampa are about 200 miles apart as the plane flies. So would a plane bound from Miami passing over Tampa be still making vapor trails or does a plane already have its descent at that distance away?

Just curious as I often wondered how far away from the point of landing a pilot would break out of a 30 plus cruising altitude?

[tolbs17]

I used to be afraid of flights, but since I'm older I should be brave by now. The thing i hate about planes is when it takes off it puts pressure in your ears.

[Bruce]

You get used to it. Worst part of the plane is boarding and getting through security theatre.

[tolbs17]

You get used to it. Worst part of the plane is boarding and getting through security theatre.

Like going through the metal detector and what not?

[ilpt4u]

Just curious as I often wondered how far away from the point of landing a pilot would break out of a 30 plus cruising altitude?

Check out the FlightAware app. It contains the Track Log of flights in its database, which includes Altitude, Speed, and Heading, for the duration of the flight, sampled at pretty small intervals

[Duke87]

So would a plane bound from Miami passing over Tampa be still making vapor trails or does a plane already have its descent at that distance away?

Yes.

Planes don't stop creating contrails the instant they start descending from cruising altitude. They will continue creating them so long as the moisture content of the engine exhaust remains higher than the saturation point of the surrounding air, though this does become less likely to be the case the lower the plane goes.