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Thread: Wake Turbulence
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Old 14th July 2009 | 20:33
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fly-by-wife
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Joined: May 2007
: PPL
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From: Dark side of the Moon
Callum,

A good question - ultimately you, as PIC, have responsibility for the safety of your aircraft. You would hope that ATCOs / FISOs would be advising you of hazards they should be aware of, but you should not rely on it.

In your situation, you could have replied to your clearance with "G-ABCD holding position, due wake turbulence from rotary traffic departure" - if you were expecting / anticipating a problem (which you probably will be next time!)

If you were to reply "holding", you would then HAVE to still wait for a new or confirm your existing clearance again before commencing your take-off, once you assessed the wake turbulence had dissipated, because you would obviously need to be aware of the larger picture - other aircraft movements, etc.

But if an ATCO was trying to get the rotary off, launch you with someone else on final - well they were cutting it too fine! If the other traffic has to go around because you are stationary on the runway - tough.

I'm not sure I would describe it as minor turbulence, either - you don't say how high you were, but I would not want that amount of roll with a stall warning anywhere near the ground - wingdrop plus stall = spin.

Well done for recovering, and you have probably learnt a lot today!

FBW
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