A turbulence matter...

[nice line-up]

I would like to know, what is the worst turbulence experience you have had? I always like to have the seatbelt fastened when sitting down, and so far I have experienced light to moderate turbulence (i think), but it never bothered me particularly. Except the toilet experience, when I had to "divert" to my seat, in the middle of the process!. . <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> :)

[Long Range Cruise]

Sad to hear you had to divert from the toilet!. . . .Turbulence comes in different 'quantities' so to speak. Occasional, light, moderate, severe and so on. I have encountered near to severe when i had to make a divert because of a critically ill passenger. The only direction i could head (apart from forward) was into a storm. The airplane was descended down to about FL120 initially, and we made a landing in strong winds (head wind fortunately) and made it to the gate in one piece.

Taking turbulence to extremes, there is something known as Clear Air Turbulence. . .CAT is the bumpiness experienced by aircraft at high altitudes, usually above 18,000 feet, in either cloud-free conditions or in stratiform clouds. It occurs when gravity waves (undulations if i remember correctly) in the upper atmosphere become steep and unstable, then break down into chaotic motion. These unstable waves occur when vertical wind shear becomes locally excessive, allowing the waves to overcome the stability of environmental temperature conditions. Most CAT occurs on the fringes of (not within the core of) the jet stream in the vicinity of upper level frontal zones where temperature contrasts are strong.

A way to see these area are viewing a "Deformation-Vertical Shear Index" or DVSI. forecast image.

Hope this helps . . :) :)

[sanket_patel]

Long Range Cruise, "The airplane was descended down to about FL120 initially, and we made a landing in strong winds (head wind fortunately) and made it to the gate in one piece. "

Now correct me if Im wrong but do we not use . .say FLonly after 18,000'? Below that you would just express that as 12,000' instead of FL120... <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[pigboat]

Not in Europe, where everything above the height of the flag pole is expressed as a flight level. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

[411A]

Worst for me was operating a B707 on climb from Madras eastbound to Singapore....could not read the instruments for about 3-4 minutes...a wild ride to say the least. . .Good thing Boeing built 'em tough.

[Don D Cake]

The transition altitude in Europe is 3000' though I'm sure I read somewhere that there are plans to increase it to 10,000'.

[Long Range Cruise]

Appologese about my altitude recognition language. FL or alt with three O's can be used.

On departure from Heathrow, id say climbing six tousand. A climb to FL80 may be given by ATC, so ill leave it at that.

[split throttle]

Here in europe the transition alt is 3,500ft while over in the states it is 18,000ft. Anything above 18,000 in the states i believe is class A airspace which is IFR only so it doesn't confuse the hell out of a PPL student!

[Few Cloudy]

Well - so much for turbulence...

TA in Europe actually varies quite a lot, depending on terrain (7,000 in Geneva) and air traffic zones (6,000 in the London area) otherwise the UK standard is 3,000.

In USA it is 18,000 ft and in Japan 14,000 ft.

There are doubtless others...

[Captain104]

1)In a 742F coasting in south of St.John moderate to severe CAT. Instruments not readable. Lucky, ATC gave us a chance and we had to descend below FL 260?(forgot) to reach conditions, the journalist on bord stopped crying. He later made a big story out of it in Playboy. <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> . .BA behind us went higher (FL 370?) and had injured FB and PAX. . .2)In a 742 between ANC and OSA in january FL 330? with a jet on the nose. HWC 200+ moderate to severe CAT. Due traffic no level change possible.. .The longest 15 minutes in my flight career. . .One reason I'm in love with Boings good old girl.. . <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[FE Hoppy]

severe turb- tubulence that causes large abrupt changes in altitude and/or attitude. It usually causes variations in indicated airspeed. Aircraft may be momentarily out of control.

After some years flying maritime patrol in a modified 60's airliner I have to laugh at how many pilots report light to moderate turbulence as severe. Just cause the pax don't like it doesn't make it severe.

Of course if your in an Airbus this does not apply!!!!!

And the worst I've had was extreme and it broke the jet but we were on a job about 40 west back in the cold war days so the rules were a bit different.

[nice line-up]

What is it about the Airbus? Will their wings fall off?. . <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[Captain104]

Yes, that's the reason for SIM sessions. Airbus pilots train the so-called WING REATTACHEMENT procedure.. .They are strongly advised to keep a tube of superglue ready in any emergency. :) :) :)

[Flintstone]

Most recent was on descent into Sonderstrom Fjord about two weeks ago. Severe (that's 'proper' severe) turbulence at FL120 that resulted in a broken toilet door. This happened just as we were crossing from the ice field to mixed terrain. No passengers on board fortunately.

Most scary was in a good old C210 on approach to Darwin when the tower vectored me clear of a cell only to put me straight into a second. Nav bag upturned, pencils and crayons all over the place. Took me ages to tidy up.

[Fraudsquads]

Anything small and slow has to be the worst thing to be when it comes to experiencing turbulence.

I remember a Brymon Dash7 falling what seemed like a few hundred feet overhead the CI's enroute to EXT.

Luckily we'd been advised and all pax crew were strapped down at the time or there would have been a few bruises I'm sure.

FS. .(Better up front where you can see where you're going than in the back looking at whats going by)