PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - CAT
Thread: CAT
View Single Post
Old 19th Sep 2017, 14:43
  #3 (permalink)  
Ian W
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Florida and wherever my laptop is
Posts: 1,350
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I can't say that I have experienced a lot more severe turbulence. I have experienced seatbelt lights that go on and remain on for hours of smooth flight

However, there may be non-meteorological reasons for more turbulence and the occasional severe turbulence. RVSM and flight at Opposite Direction Levels are used to send blocks of traffic ("sausage" tm NATS) across the Atlantic all on Mach no. restrictions, and can put you into the turbulent wake of an aircraft ahead and above - and keep you there for the entire flight. We have also all seen what can happen with a stable vortex from the A380 drifting waiting for someone to fly into it.

The good news for the Atlantic at least is that around 2025 the NAT OTS is being retired and instead it will be 'business trajectories' for all. That may cause some extra work for your dispatchers and your flight planning systems will need to be able to provide an optimized flight plan track, level and speed rather than defaulting to Track C. But if you are not flying in trail in an OTS track then I would expect the continuous chop from the wake of the aircraft ahead to become a thing of the past.
Ian W is offline