NYT: Airlines Take the Bump Out of Turbulence
Well we're getting "Shenzhen-specials" PDF readers in our cockpit. We're state-of-the-art. And we can send air-to-air ACARS because we can't rely on our dispatchers to give the planes behind us a heads up!
While others divert around areas of potential severe turbulence, we plan our flights THROUGH it. The savings in $$$ will more than pay for the cost of a few injuries. How many planes these days have you picked up only to see in the logbook severe turbulence encounters? A lot more than there used to be!
Just a few years ago, airlines got their weather reports by telex. Pilots pored over reams of paper and compared the forecasts with their flight plans. Once airborne, they depended on radio communications and rudimentary radar to avoid bad weather.
Now, pilots download detailed flight plans and weather reports full of intricate graphics onto tablet devices. Flight dispatchers track aircraft in real time and provide up-to-the minute weather data. New generations of airplane radar systems allow for easy in-flight adjustments.
Turbulence poses a particular challenge because it cannot be seen by satellite or radar. But meteorologists use complex weather models as well as reports from pilots to predict areas of heavy turbulence. Sensors on some planes operated by Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines can automatically relay turbulence information to dispatchers to look for alternative routing for later flights.
Southwest Airlines recently outfitted 87 of its 600 Boeing 737s with sensors that measure water vapor in the air to determine the location of fog, cloud formation and cloud ceilings. Hawaiian Airlines is developing real-time weather maps in the cockpit to give pilots access to the same detail of information available to dispatchers on the ground.