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Turbulence - What happened?
Been flying 16-20 (mostly 4+ hours) flights a month for 10 years now.
I have certainly encountered turbulence and bumpy flights before, as well as the hard landings that any frequent flier has. Ive been in a few scary landings in Northern Canada in blizzards in small planes as well. Ive even done some basic acrobatics training in a T-6 with a full complement of maneuvers. Ive been on a few flights where one or two people were making noise and puking, but on a recent trip from Thessaloniki to Frankfurt though I encountered my first flight where most of the plane was screaming and in fact praying. Myself, I wasnt quite sure whether it was something to worry about or not. The plane was a 737 IIRC, and a newer model. Anyways, it wasnt a tiny plane, but not a wide body. Somewhere over the mountains the plane started into some quite heavy winds. A few bumps, but then it proceeded to feel light the pilots were really having to work the plane. The whole incident lasted 20-30 minutes as the pilots tried to get free from it. There were more than a dozen times where the plane descended quickly enough that if not for the seatbelt I would have floated up (not flown out, but it was like an extreme drop on a roller coaster and there is no doubt that without a seat belt Id have been holding on or out of my seat). Mostly the plane kept going down in extremes, although the pilots of course many times brought it back up. When the descents occurred, a loud buzzing could be heard over the wings. It sounded like the spoilers had been fully lifted, but Im guessing this is not something that would be done in flight anyways, and looking at the wing it certainly was not the case. The plane didnt pitch noticably, but it did roll a bit, and yawed a lot. Sorry for any technical misuse - but how usual is this? Was it anything to be worried about. |
#2
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Turbulence - What happened?
On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 07:27:36 -0000 'Wanderer'
posted this onto rec.travel.air: Been flying 16-20 (mostly 4+ hours) flights a month for 10 years now. I have certainly encountered turbulence and bumpy flights before, as well as the hard landings that any frequent flier has. Ive been in a few scary landings in Northern Canada in blizzards in small planes as well. Ive even done some basic acrobatics training in a T-6 with a full complement of maneuvers. Ive been on a few flights where one or two people were making noise and puking, but on a recent trip from Thessaloniki to Frankfurt though I encountered my first flight where most of the plane was screaming and in fact praying. Myself, I wasnt quite sure whether it was something to worry about or not. The plane was a 737 IIRC, and a newer model. Anyways, it wasnt a tiny plane, but not a wide body. Somewhere over the mountains the plane started into some quite heavy winds. A few bumps, but then it proceeded to feel light the pilots were really having to work the plane. The whole incident lasted 20-30 minutes as the pilots tried to get free from it. There were more than a dozen times where the plane descended quickly enough that if not for the seatbelt I would have floated up (not flown out, but it was like an extreme drop on a roller coaster and there is no doubt that without a seat belt Id have been holding on or out of my seat). Mostly the plane kept going down in extremes, although the pilots of course many times brought it back up. When the descents occurred, a loud buzzing could be heard over the wings. It sounded like the spoilers had been fully lifted, but Im guessing this is not something that would be done in flight anyways, and looking at the wing it certainly was not the case. The plane didnt pitch noticably, but it did roll a bit, and yawed a lot. Sorry for any technical misuse - but how usual is this? Was it anything to be worried about. The northern hemisphere jetstream heads down over the Balkans and Greece and this is most likely what you encountered. Probably the most recent bout of severe turbulence I encountered was heading west over India towards Dubai from Bangkok 18 months ago in an Emirates B767. It maybe lasted 25mins and happened just after a meal had been served up, so that exacerbated the problem. I also encounter strong jetstream currents flying from Europe to South America when crossing the equator. The upside is that when you're going the other way it can knock a lot of time off the journey without much turbulence. The reasons are clear: very strong and fast jetstreams. |
#3
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Turbulence - What happened?
Wanderer writes:
Somewhere over the mountains the plane started into some quite heavy winds. A few bumps, but then it proceeded to feel light the pilots were really having to work the plane. The whole incident lasted 20-30 minutes as the pilots tried to get free from it. There were more than a dozen times where the plane descended quickly enough that if not for the seatbelt I would have floated up (not flown out, but it was like an extreme drop on a roller coaster and there is no doubt that without a seat belt Id have been holding on or out of my seat). Mostly the plane kept going down in extremes, although the pilots of course many times brought it back up. When the descents occurred, a loud buzzing could be heard over the wings. It sounded like the spoilers had been fully lifted, but Im guessing this is not something that would be done in flight anyways, and looking at the wing it certainly was not the case. The plane didnt pitch noticably, but it did roll a bit, and yawed a lot. Sorry for any technical misuse - but how usual is this? Was it anything to be worried about. Sounds like heavy turbulence, but nothing dangerous. If nobody came back with broken arms or legs, you weren't even close to the tolerances of the airframe, so there's nothing to worry about. Even when unfastened people in the aircraft _are_ injured, it's generally still too gentle to pose any threat to the airframe. Unfortunately, where there are mountains, there tends to be turbulence, even in clear air and sometimes even well above the mountaintops. Sometimes there's no easy detour (and it may not even be possible to figure out where the turbulence starts and stops), so you have to just fly through it. |
#4
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Turbulence - What happened?
On 17 Jun, 08:27, Wanderer wrote:
Been flying 16-20 (mostly 4+ hours) flights a month for 10 years now. I have certainly encountered turbulence and bumpy flights before, as well as the hard landings that any frequent flier has. Ive been in a few scary landings in Northern Canada in blizzards in small planes as well. Ive even done some basic acrobatics training in a T-6 with a full complement of maneuvers. Ive been on a few flights where one or two people were making noise and puking, but on a recent trip from Thessaloniki to Frankfurt though I encountered my first flight where most of the plane was screaming and in fact praying. Myself, I wasnt quite sure whether it was something to worry about or not. The plane was a 737 IIRC, and a newer model. Anyways, it wasnt a tiny plane, but not a wide body. Somewhere over the mountains the plane started into some quite heavy winds. A few bumps, but then it proceeded to feel light the pilots were really having to work the plane. The whole incident lasted 20-30 minutes as the pilots tried to get free from it. There were more than a dozen times where the plane descended quickly enough that if not for the seatbelt I would have floated up (not flown out, but it was like an extreme drop on a roller coaster and there is no doubt that without a seat belt Id have been holding on or out of my seat). Mostly the plane kept going down in extremes, although the pilots of course many times brought it back up. When the descents occurred, a loud buzzing could be heard over the wings. It sounded like the spoilers had been fully lifted, but Im guessing this is not something that would be done in flight anyways, and looking at the wing it certainly was not the case. The plane didnt pitch noticably, but it did roll a bit, and yawed a lot. Sorry for any technical misuse - but how usual is this? Was it anything to be worried about. Many kids love this sort of thing...Me, not so much... What I worry about is that drinks trolly flying all over the cabin. I know they stop serving but you cannot predict turbulence. Actually sometimes I see passengers complain when they stop serving..! |
#5
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Turbulence - What happened?
Craig Welch writes:
You refer to the pilots 'really having to work the plane', 'pilots of course many times brought it back up'. It was likely on autopilot the entire time. Maybe, although they may have shut off altitude hold or other modes in heavy turbulence, as some autopilots try to correct excessively for small excursions in altitude. The actual movements of the aircraft are only a few feet, and sometimes it's easier to turn off some modes of the automation and just let the aircraft ride through the turbulence, with occasional inputs from the pilots to keep it from drifting too much (it will tend to fly straight and level by itself, but turbulence might gradually cause course or altitude to drift slightly). |
#6
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Turbulence - What happened?
To be clear - I wasnt concerned about the airframe. I know they can
take a LOT. But how hard is it to control by the pilots in such a situation? And our movements were more than a few feet in this case for sure - the plane was being pushed down enough to cause me to rise out of my seat and float for 5+ seconds if I didnt have my seatbelt on. A few feet wont do that. Also any idea what the buzzing was? Was it just air moving down over the wing? |
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