West Coast
4th Jan 2007, 22:22
Any good web sites out there with data about wake? With my exposure to RVSM since it came to the states I've had a lot more wake encounters at altitude. Looking for any validated data about lateral wake displacement from winds aloft, still trying to figure out offsets that make me comfortable on the downwind side to avoid spilling anyones coffee.
alexban
5th Jan 2007, 10:43
One think I keep in mind is that the wake turbulance tends to descent with 1000' /minute ,so ,if you make good use of the TCAS,you should be able to predict,or avoid most enroute wake turb.You should also consider wind,type of the aircraft ahead..
Lateral displacement,maybe considering actual xwind,you can calculate how much is the displacement.
Anyway,more than 3 minutes behind another plane won't give you any significant turbulance.
So,if you have a 60 kts xwind,in 2 minutes the mass of air will move 2 NM,I think.And descent 2000' (the wake turbulance,I mean).
West Coast
5th Jan 2007, 15:39
Unfortunately I find not all those old rules of thumb to be true, thus I seek validated information. Perhaps its not out there.
What got me thinking about this was crossing the track of a DC8 a few weeks ago at the same altitude, about 10 miles spacing. We got a good thump from him.