Wake Turbulence - Tiger Moth!
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Wake Turbulence - Tiger Moth!
Someone posted here not long ago, mentioning that we start flying with a full bag of luck & an empty bag of experience; the trick being to fill the latter before emptying the former. For what it’s worth, my two penneth . . .
Trundling around the circuit this morning in a C152, we turned downwind about a mile or so behind a Tiger Moth that had just joined overhead. We were using 04R (tarmac), he opted for 04L (grass). Even though we extended the downwind leg to get some separation, turning finals the gap was down to about ½ a mile. No problem though, lovely clear day, lovely view of the Moth at 11 o’clock, and not a breath of wind . . . Can you guess the rest?
Nicely established on finals, 300’ AGL, 65kts, full flap, when suddenly – wham! 30 degrees left roll in about ½ a second. OK, so it wasn’t that scary, and even with my 9 hour bag of experience I managed to correct it and pull off a reasonably tidy landing. However, it did get me thinking, what if we’d been any lower, and what if the preceding a/c had been anything even slightly bigger?
Now I’m well aware of wake turbulence, and I read AIC 17/1999 (Pink 188) not 2 days ago. What took me by surprise was that something as innocent looking as a Tiger Moth could upset a C152 that much, and so suddenly. Lesson duly learnt, and I’ll be ensuring a lot more separation in future.
I can imagine more experienced heads reading this and nodding knowingly, or even tutting at me for getting myself into this sort of situation. Let me assure you I take flight safety very seriously, and certainly don’t fly around in a cowboy hat. I just hope that anyone else at my level tucks this message away in their memory banks, to use one sunny day when there isn’t a breath of wind.
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Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit pruning.
Trundling around the circuit this morning in a C152, we turned downwind about a mile or so behind a Tiger Moth that had just joined overhead. We were using 04R (tarmac), he opted for 04L (grass). Even though we extended the downwind leg to get some separation, turning finals the gap was down to about ½ a mile. No problem though, lovely clear day, lovely view of the Moth at 11 o’clock, and not a breath of wind . . . Can you guess the rest?
Nicely established on finals, 300’ AGL, 65kts, full flap, when suddenly – wham! 30 degrees left roll in about ½ a second. OK, so it wasn’t that scary, and even with my 9 hour bag of experience I managed to correct it and pull off a reasonably tidy landing. However, it did get me thinking, what if we’d been any lower, and what if the preceding a/c had been anything even slightly bigger?
Now I’m well aware of wake turbulence, and I read AIC 17/1999 (Pink 188) not 2 days ago. What took me by surprise was that something as innocent looking as a Tiger Moth could upset a C152 that much, and so suddenly. Lesson duly learnt, and I’ll be ensuring a lot more separation in future.
I can imagine more experienced heads reading this and nodding knowingly, or even tutting at me for getting myself into this sort of situation. Let me assure you I take flight safety very seriously, and certainly don’t fly around in a cowboy hat. I just hope that anyone else at my level tucks this message away in their memory banks, to use one sunny day when there isn’t a breath of wind.
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Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit pruning.
