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Old 22nd Dec 2010, 11:01
  #940 (permalink)  
EXWOK
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: UK
Age: 58
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Turb mode

'Dude -

I didn't ever use this mode, and never saw anybody else use it.

Significant turbulence was almost unheard of in supercruise - light to mod was the worst I ever had. Subsonic one would be subject to the same air as the blunties, but in an aircraft which had a high wing loading and good controls. Once you got down into the low-level turbulence on a windy day (say 2000' and below) you were in vortex lift and this seemed even better.

I flew this machine through some vicious conditions and it was - by a country mile - the best aeroplane I've ever flown in bad air, better even than the 747. I could bore you with war stories, but will illustrate the point with the time we asked Tower to advise the aircraft following us that it was pretty wild below 2000', only to hear that everyone else had cleared off owing to the wind conditions.......

The only people that really got a rough ride were the flt crew, who were at the front of a long extension ahead of the really stiff part of the hull, which tended to whip around long before it got bumpy in the cabin.

It wasn't like flying a transport aircraft at all in rough conditions, and this was a real help in keeping a prestige operation in the air when bad wx appeared. (Of course it wouldn't have helped in the present BAA-induced debacle).
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