This I shall never forget - even though it happend in 1970!!
* Pax on Salisbury (now Harare) to Johannesburg.
* Air Rhodesia Viscount.
* Thunderstorm. A real AFRICAN thunderstorm.
* Ceiling of Viscount (IIRC) FL160, so no where to go but through.
* The sector was about two hours and we were in the storm for about 45 mins. Unfortunately, they had just served breakfast ...
* Meal service suspended and CC told to strap in.
* The bumping and jostling and general throwing about was matched by the throwing up of my fellow pax!
I am always quietly appreciative of modern operating heights, wx rader and the airlines realisation that we prefer to arrive late from having driven around the edge of the storm, than to arrive on time but in a mess!
About two weeks ago, I was in a 747-300 on a domestic sector from the South African coastal town of George (in the Cape) to Joburg.
The storm cloud easily reached up to us at FL350 and it was a good dose of 'driving over cobblestons' and some pax were grumbling. My memories of the 1970 journey ensured that I thought it was a doddle, even though I was sitting inthe very last row and was feeling every bit of the motion.
[ 07 January 2002: Message edited by: PAXboy ]</p>