Fright Of My Life
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Fright Of My Life
Still Shaking
MICROBUST OVER LAG
Encountered a vicious Microbust and Windshear just over LAG and got the fright of my life, still shaking just thinking about it.
We ere coming in from Kano talking with approach and had just passed 7000ft descending to 3500ft when we encountered rain just about 6500ft and descending, I was the pilot not flying and the captain was at the controls.
The intensity of the rain increased and we started to experience light chops, we monitored the radar , it looked ok for our approach path with basically patches of green in the vicinity. I asked approach if he could give me the conditions of the airfield, he came back with a CAVOK. I then called for my lead crew and told her to finish up their arrival checks and to take their sits early.
We continued our approach and out of 5000ft and about 18nm to lag the controller asked us to descend to 2200ft and cleared us for the ILS 18L approach. At this moment the intensity of the rain increased with minimal changes in turbulence. I did a quick scan with the radar which painted just what we could hypothetically describe as rain in the area.
But frankly speaking something felt funny inside me, on the other hand this situation was not unusual at this time of the year and lagos had been having this kind of weather around this vicinity for over a week or more, but nevertheless I felt we had to be cautious.
While monitoring our descent and the weather in our vicinity it suddenly dawned on me that it just might be prudent to change runways and ask for 18R. I decided to advise my captain and just as I was about to say it and approaching 2200ft the captain asked for 18R which I said was a good idea and was granted by the controller. He must have been reading my mind, I was happy and felt a little at ease.
We started to position for 18R when the intensity of the rain suddenly increased again with light to moderate turbulence and then it stopped as sudden as it came. On interception of the localizer captain called for flaps 1 and then flaps 5 and we continued to monitor our radar and our approach. I remember giving the controller a pirep about the weather we ere encountering and our distance to the airfield , he chuckled and came back with the airfield still cavok and handed us over to the tower. I have always observed in this country that many of my colleagues never find it useful to give pireps about significant wxther during flights, and when someone decides to do it, they come on the radio saying you talk too much or you are blocking the radio!!! Sad….
At this point we ere No.1 for landing maintaining 2200ft with two other jets both 737 behind us on the approach and just coming abeam LAG. The glideslope came alive and I called it for the Captain who asked for gear down flaps 15 and the landing checklist. We did the landing checklist and at that moment popped out of the rain and clouds.
We had the runway straight ahead with lagos surprisingly looking pretty sunny and dry and ere just about to come on the glide when I looked up and noticed this dark cover of cloud ceiling right above and around us looking quite thick and nasty and wondered why my radar had not painted any of that, at that moment the captain called for flaps 25. I had my left hand on the flap handle and was just about to tell the tower we are on the glide while taking flaps 25 when suddenly all hell broke loose..
The aircraft started to vibrate seriously and suddenly it felt like we had stopped flying, instantly with no warning she swung violently to the left about 75degrees, captain stopped the violent swing with rudder and power and I quickly noticed that we had lost airspeed and descending. It felt like some force from above us. I knew what this was but I was in total disbelief about what was happening here. I was looking at 18R from my right side window, this could not be, no way, no way. I knew we had serious trouble here. Barely two weeks ago I had spent an hour in the sim with another captain brushing up on windshear recovery in Dallas with an American instructor.
The captain was struggling to maintain control and the noise around was terrible it sounded like a million birds flapping their wings up and down and it came from the outside of the aircraft at a fast pace, immediately we initiated a go around trying to maintain directional control and easing her from the descent, we had full right rudder fighting to hold her from continuing her violent swing to the left. She did not respond to the go around and continued down still vibrating badly. I remember screaming full power at the captain and putting my hand on his, shoving the throttles forward to verify he had max power, indeed we had it at firewall.
She refused to go around and we ere sinking fast and it was beginning to get frightening at this point. Whatever the force was doing this to us was enormous and overwhelming too. I can still see the captains face next to me and his right leg stretched out putting pressure on the rudder and his right hand on the throttles, battling to see if she would fly, he yelled out at me saying what’s going on Z she is not responding Z. I was looking around to see if there was something we had not done or had done that was giving us this terrible response but we ere in order. So why was the plane not responding, this was taking too long.
All this while I could hear the controller on my speaker and headset screaming out our callsign and asking “what’s going on, what’s going on” he could see us from the tower, I could tell and he must have seen we ere in trouble. I was only hoping he had heard me when I muttered “going around”….
By this time I also had my hands on the controls and I realised the only way out of this was to fight and try to steer her to the runway. Our descent rate increased with a slightly noseup atitude, I told the captain to steer her to the runway he nodded and held on to the right rudder while also putting in some stick, with me next to him saying if he needed more or less with a slight nudge on my stick. We maintained our path by flying her down with right rudder and heading sideways to 18R and at a tremendous sink rate. We ere flying by the sit of our pants and struggling so hard. We ere holding on to dear life and all that counted now was experience and a lot of strong will.
Our sink rate increased even with a considerable amount of stick inputs and we realised that we could just manage to make it to 18R, but at a pretty unusual landing configuration and though we might impact the runway violently we kept up. As I called out our sink rate and altitude I kept calling out our pitch to the captain for him to either pitch up or down cos our airspeed indicator was reading erroneously for me, and right now, rate of descent and pitch was relevant the way we ere coming down so as not to crash, we ere right over the city.
We impacted 18r to the left of the xnterline barely missing the runway lights with a high noseup pitch atitude skidding badly on the runway and then violently skidding to the right of the runway with a tailwind of about 45kts or more and the right wing dropping so low to the ground I swallowed my heart. we fought hard not to allow her run off the right side of the runway. Captain had his hands full with the reversers and also checking on the speed brakes, to see if it was deployed full aft during the swerves. She ran back to the left side of the runway I felt it was all over cos she was on her way out of the runway this time, with nothing else remaining and out of fear I kicked the opposite rudder and she responded we just struggled to control her all the way till she finally stopped at the end of the runway and amazingly right on the xnterline
Less than twelve seconds after we came to a stop torrential rain poured down on the airport and we could hardly see the ground from the flightdeck. I picked up the mic and told the cabin crew and all passengers to remain sitted and that all was ok, I was shaking so much I could not control my fingers, my eyes ere moist. Captain was asking the tower to confirm with the fire trucks who ran down to meet us at the end of the runway if our aircraft was ok on the outside and the controller replied that all was Charlie also adding that the wind was 50kts tailwind and gusting just as we landed on the runway. I yelled at the guy in the tower to forget us and call the inbound traffic who ere behind us to be informed about what we had just gone through and abort their approaches.
My captain put his hands on my shoulder and asked if I was ok I smiled, he said then after landing checks Z, I calmed down I did the after landing checks and advised the captain to talk to the passengers. He did.
The tower was full of praises and if I must say here, they kept calling out to us during the whole episode but we just did not have the time to talk to them, believe me.
We crawled back to the ramp escorted by two fire trucks and an ambulance in heavy rain.
I was glad the rain had not started just before we impacted the runway, we would never have been able to stop her.
The Captain looked at me and said thank you Z, I am glad we ere together today. I looked back at him and said same here Sir and that he had done a good job. He was still shaken about the whole thing just like I was also, but he was a good captain, kept a straight face and steered his plane to the gates.
I can still see the faces of some pilots looking at us as we parked at the ramp and giving us a nod or something I could tell they had been monitoring us on tower frequency, one Chanchangi pilot came out on his steps even though it was raining and greeted us with a wave, I knew him he was a good friend and I was glad to see him.
After we had disembarked and briefed our cabin crew, engineers and the airport fire service team the captain and I briefly talked about the whole thing and said our goodbyes.
I remained in my chair for a while, for some reason I did not feel like going anywhere that moment, I just sat there with my aeroplane. When everybody had left with only a handful of ground staff still around devouring what was left in the galley oblivious of what had just occurred, I picked up my flightcase and walked to the aft entry door and went down, it was still raining slightly.
As I walked away I looked back and whispered thank you to 5N-FX, once again she had pulled me out of what could have ended in a tragedy.
This flight has taught me a lot about how I analyze and do things in the flightdeck now. Since then my approach to a lot of things in the cockpit and how I look at and interpret what’s going on concerning my aircrafts immediate environment and surroundings in the air have changed.
We had 68 pax onboard. The crew at the rear did a great job, the stories about what was going on in the cabin with the pax during the whole episode was quite alarming but they handled the pax and themselves very well. As for the Captain I flew with on that day, he has now moved on to greener pastures and I wish him all the best and many happy landings in the future.
It was a miracle, and I feel very humbled today.
Any replies and suggestions would be welcome.
Zazoo
MICROBUST OVER LAG
Encountered a vicious Microbust and Windshear just over LAG and got the fright of my life, still shaking just thinking about it.
We ere coming in from Kano talking with approach and had just passed 7000ft descending to 3500ft when we encountered rain just about 6500ft and descending, I was the pilot not flying and the captain was at the controls.
The intensity of the rain increased and we started to experience light chops, we monitored the radar , it looked ok for our approach path with basically patches of green in the vicinity. I asked approach if he could give me the conditions of the airfield, he came back with a CAVOK. I then called for my lead crew and told her to finish up their arrival checks and to take their sits early.
We continued our approach and out of 5000ft and about 18nm to lag the controller asked us to descend to 2200ft and cleared us for the ILS 18L approach. At this moment the intensity of the rain increased with minimal changes in turbulence. I did a quick scan with the radar which painted just what we could hypothetically describe as rain in the area.
But frankly speaking something felt funny inside me, on the other hand this situation was not unusual at this time of the year and lagos had been having this kind of weather around this vicinity for over a week or more, but nevertheless I felt we had to be cautious.
While monitoring our descent and the weather in our vicinity it suddenly dawned on me that it just might be prudent to change runways and ask for 18R. I decided to advise my captain and just as I was about to say it and approaching 2200ft the captain asked for 18R which I said was a good idea and was granted by the controller. He must have been reading my mind, I was happy and felt a little at ease.
We started to position for 18R when the intensity of the rain suddenly increased again with light to moderate turbulence and then it stopped as sudden as it came. On interception of the localizer captain called for flaps 1 and then flaps 5 and we continued to monitor our radar and our approach. I remember giving the controller a pirep about the weather we ere encountering and our distance to the airfield , he chuckled and came back with the airfield still cavok and handed us over to the tower. I have always observed in this country that many of my colleagues never find it useful to give pireps about significant wxther during flights, and when someone decides to do it, they come on the radio saying you talk too much or you are blocking the radio!!! Sad….
At this point we ere No.1 for landing maintaining 2200ft with two other jets both 737 behind us on the approach and just coming abeam LAG. The glideslope came alive and I called it for the Captain who asked for gear down flaps 15 and the landing checklist. We did the landing checklist and at that moment popped out of the rain and clouds.
We had the runway straight ahead with lagos surprisingly looking pretty sunny and dry and ere just about to come on the glide when I looked up and noticed this dark cover of cloud ceiling right above and around us looking quite thick and nasty and wondered why my radar had not painted any of that, at that moment the captain called for flaps 25. I had my left hand on the flap handle and was just about to tell the tower we are on the glide while taking flaps 25 when suddenly all hell broke loose..
The aircraft started to vibrate seriously and suddenly it felt like we had stopped flying, instantly with no warning she swung violently to the left about 75degrees, captain stopped the violent swing with rudder and power and I quickly noticed that we had lost airspeed and descending. It felt like some force from above us. I knew what this was but I was in total disbelief about what was happening here. I was looking at 18R from my right side window, this could not be, no way, no way. I knew we had serious trouble here. Barely two weeks ago I had spent an hour in the sim with another captain brushing up on windshear recovery in Dallas with an American instructor.
The captain was struggling to maintain control and the noise around was terrible it sounded like a million birds flapping their wings up and down and it came from the outside of the aircraft at a fast pace, immediately we initiated a go around trying to maintain directional control and easing her from the descent, we had full right rudder fighting to hold her from continuing her violent swing to the left. She did not respond to the go around and continued down still vibrating badly. I remember screaming full power at the captain and putting my hand on his, shoving the throttles forward to verify he had max power, indeed we had it at firewall.
She refused to go around and we ere sinking fast and it was beginning to get frightening at this point. Whatever the force was doing this to us was enormous and overwhelming too. I can still see the captains face next to me and his right leg stretched out putting pressure on the rudder and his right hand on the throttles, battling to see if she would fly, he yelled out at me saying what’s going on Z she is not responding Z. I was looking around to see if there was something we had not done or had done that was giving us this terrible response but we ere in order. So why was the plane not responding, this was taking too long.
All this while I could hear the controller on my speaker and headset screaming out our callsign and asking “what’s going on, what’s going on” he could see us from the tower, I could tell and he must have seen we ere in trouble. I was only hoping he had heard me when I muttered “going around”….
By this time I also had my hands on the controls and I realised the only way out of this was to fight and try to steer her to the runway. Our descent rate increased with a slightly noseup atitude, I told the captain to steer her to the runway he nodded and held on to the right rudder while also putting in some stick, with me next to him saying if he needed more or less with a slight nudge on my stick. We maintained our path by flying her down with right rudder and heading sideways to 18R and at a tremendous sink rate. We ere flying by the sit of our pants and struggling so hard. We ere holding on to dear life and all that counted now was experience and a lot of strong will.
Our sink rate increased even with a considerable amount of stick inputs and we realised that we could just manage to make it to 18R, but at a pretty unusual landing configuration and though we might impact the runway violently we kept up. As I called out our sink rate and altitude I kept calling out our pitch to the captain for him to either pitch up or down cos our airspeed indicator was reading erroneously for me, and right now, rate of descent and pitch was relevant the way we ere coming down so as not to crash, we ere right over the city.
We impacted 18r to the left of the xnterline barely missing the runway lights with a high noseup pitch atitude skidding badly on the runway and then violently skidding to the right of the runway with a tailwind of about 45kts or more and the right wing dropping so low to the ground I swallowed my heart. we fought hard not to allow her run off the right side of the runway. Captain had his hands full with the reversers and also checking on the speed brakes, to see if it was deployed full aft during the swerves. She ran back to the left side of the runway I felt it was all over cos she was on her way out of the runway this time, with nothing else remaining and out of fear I kicked the opposite rudder and she responded we just struggled to control her all the way till she finally stopped at the end of the runway and amazingly right on the xnterline
Less than twelve seconds after we came to a stop torrential rain poured down on the airport and we could hardly see the ground from the flightdeck. I picked up the mic and told the cabin crew and all passengers to remain sitted and that all was ok, I was shaking so much I could not control my fingers, my eyes ere moist. Captain was asking the tower to confirm with the fire trucks who ran down to meet us at the end of the runway if our aircraft was ok on the outside and the controller replied that all was Charlie also adding that the wind was 50kts tailwind and gusting just as we landed on the runway. I yelled at the guy in the tower to forget us and call the inbound traffic who ere behind us to be informed about what we had just gone through and abort their approaches.
My captain put his hands on my shoulder and asked if I was ok I smiled, he said then after landing checks Z, I calmed down I did the after landing checks and advised the captain to talk to the passengers. He did.
The tower was full of praises and if I must say here, they kept calling out to us during the whole episode but we just did not have the time to talk to them, believe me.
We crawled back to the ramp escorted by two fire trucks and an ambulance in heavy rain.
I was glad the rain had not started just before we impacted the runway, we would never have been able to stop her.
The Captain looked at me and said thank you Z, I am glad we ere together today. I looked back at him and said same here Sir and that he had done a good job. He was still shaken about the whole thing just like I was also, but he was a good captain, kept a straight face and steered his plane to the gates.
I can still see the faces of some pilots looking at us as we parked at the ramp and giving us a nod or something I could tell they had been monitoring us on tower frequency, one Chanchangi pilot came out on his steps even though it was raining and greeted us with a wave, I knew him he was a good friend and I was glad to see him.
After we had disembarked and briefed our cabin crew, engineers and the airport fire service team the captain and I briefly talked about the whole thing and said our goodbyes.
I remained in my chair for a while, for some reason I did not feel like going anywhere that moment, I just sat there with my aeroplane. When everybody had left with only a handful of ground staff still around devouring what was left in the galley oblivious of what had just occurred, I picked up my flightcase and walked to the aft entry door and went down, it was still raining slightly.
As I walked away I looked back and whispered thank you to 5N-FX, once again she had pulled me out of what could have ended in a tragedy.
This flight has taught me a lot about how I analyze and do things in the flightdeck now. Since then my approach to a lot of things in the cockpit and how I look at and interpret what’s going on concerning my aircrafts immediate environment and surroundings in the air have changed.
We had 68 pax onboard. The crew at the rear did a great job, the stories about what was going on in the cabin with the pax during the whole episode was quite alarming but they handled the pax and themselves very well. As for the Captain I flew with on that day, he has now moved on to greener pastures and I wish him all the best and many happy landings in the future.
It was a miracle, and I feel very humbled today.
Any replies and suggestions would be welcome.
Zazoo
Last edited by ZAZOO; 27th Aug 2007 at 18:47.
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Z,
Thank you for the insight into the whole event
I am glad we have people ready to give out this sort of experiences for others to learn from, it's really very sad that in nigeria we dont have a news letter where crew can write about these situations and gain valuable knowlege.
Once again thank you and Fly safe.
Thank you for the insight into the whole event
I am glad we have people ready to give out this sort of experiences for others to learn from, it's really very sad that in nigeria we dont have a news letter where crew can write about these situations and gain valuable knowlege.Once again thank you and Fly safe.
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Nice write up Zazoo, and we thank God for the miracle.
Just out of IR training and one of the things i learnt was:
''Infact, weather avoidance radar provides information on precipitation based on echo returns.Avoiding the areas of precipitation will often (not always) keep you out of the greatest turbulence.Radar does not show water vapor.Thus, clouds and fog, i.e IFR conditions are not indicated"
But one of the saddest thing is that the tower/approach couldnt give you a reliable brief of what was happening.It shows how bad the system is.
Please it will be appreciated if other pilots will follow nthe steps of Zazoo so that we can all learn. This is indeed a good lesson for all.
Just out of IR training and one of the things i learnt was:
''Infact, weather avoidance radar provides information on precipitation based on echo returns.Avoiding the areas of precipitation will often (not always) keep you out of the greatest turbulence.Radar does not show water vapor.Thus, clouds and fog, i.e IFR conditions are not indicated"
But one of the saddest thing is that the tower/approach couldnt give you a reliable brief of what was happening.It shows how bad the system is.
Please it will be appreciated if other pilots will follow nthe steps of Zazoo so that we can all learn. This is indeed a good lesson for all.
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But one of the saddest thing is that the tower/approach couldnt give you a reliable brief of what was happening.It shows how bad the system is.
Great flying by you guys ZZ. The Kenyan 738 accident had major weather, similar to that encountered by you, associated with its circumstances, and we all know how that turned out...
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Well done Zaz; happy to hear you guys managed to walk away from it. I made an ILS approach to LAG 18L with 50 knots tailwind in a helicopter last year and it wasn't fun, but being a helicopter we were able to make a turn to land into wind after getting visual and arriving over the runway.
Jirginsama, you haven't got it quite right. Aircraft weather radar works by detecting solid and liquid water in the atmosphere in the form of ice and rain. What it can't normally detect is water vapour which is an invisible gas. It could be detected if we had any way of measuring humidity in flight, but of course we don't. The actual returns will of course depend on the type of radar fitted in an individual aircraft. Drizzle and fog will normally only be detected by very short wavelength (1cm) Ka band radars, which you'd be unlikely to find in a normal commercial airctraft weather radar.
Jirginsama, you haven't got it quite right. Aircraft weather radar works by detecting solid and liquid water in the atmosphere in the form of ice and rain. What it can't normally detect is water vapour which is an invisible gas. It could be detected if we had any way of measuring humidity in flight, but of course we don't. The actual returns will of course depend on the type of radar fitted in an individual aircraft. Drizzle and fog will normally only be detected by very short wavelength (1cm) Ka band radars, which you'd be unlikely to find in a normal commercial airctraft weather radar.
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Jirginsama, you haven't got it quite right. Aircraft weather radar works by detecting solid and liquid water in the atmosphere in the form of ice and rain. What it can't normally detect is water vapour which is an invisible gas. It could be detected if we had any way of measuring humidity in flight, but of course we don't. The actual returns will of course depend on the type of radar fitted in an individual aircraft. Drizzle and fog will normally only be detected by very short wavelength (1cm) Ka band radars, which you'd be unlikely to find in a normal commercial airctraft weather radar.
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The danger in microbursts is not only the strength of the wind change, but also the speed at which it happens. I had an accident when the wind changed from 020/12 to 200/37 kts in 18 seconds during my t/o run.
The only advice I have:
Do not attempt a t/o when there is an active thunderstorm within 3 miles of the airport and have your finger far out when attempting a landing in the same conditions. Rather wait for the storm to move away.
The only advice I have:
Do not attempt a t/o when there is an active thunderstorm within 3 miles of the airport and have your finger far out when attempting a landing in the same conditions. Rather wait for the storm to move away.
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Pireps
This is why Pireps to tower and on the freq are so important. It may not have killed you but it might be worse for the next guy! It only takes a second and it could save someones life!
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Reminds me AGAIN of the tower that told the AC on aproach that: " There is no weather". After landing in a storm the pilot asked the tower how they can claim no wx when its a storm at the field. Reply:" Eischh we deed not receeve METAR from met office tooday."
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Good job to you and your captain Zaz, I remember having it once in the Delta in a C206 (a lot smaller and less pax but the effect on me was the same) There were isolated storms all around and I had joined overhead to check the windsock, it was indicating 17 so I took rwy 17, there was a storm about 15nm to the south and a huge dark cloud betwene the storm and the strip (to the north was clear) being a 600hr pilot at the time, I didnt even think to analize what I was seeing and decided to land 17 from the storm side, it all went fine untill about 300ft when it felt like god himself came down and smacked the a/c from above. we dropped like a stone with 0 airspeed, I fire walled her and started the go round, I had full power in and the stick in my chest trying to climb out but was still dropping, unintentionally, i touched down with full power/climb attitude about 2M short of the runway, thank god it was not too rough there. I closed power and rolled down the runway shaking like a leaf, as I rolled past the windsock it was pointing down 35 and standin errect! Got out, still shaking and went to have a smoke to calm my nerves, before i had a chance to finish it it started pissing down.
I learnt that day, If the wind is blowing into a cell, it is going to change direction 180 deg and violently when the gust front hits or the rain starts to fall out and entrain the air down with it, since then, I have always landed with the storm in front of me.
Safe flying
Dog
I learnt that day, If the wind is blowing into a cell, it is going to change direction 180 deg and violently when the gust front hits or the rain starts to fall out and entrain the air down with it, since then, I have always landed with the storm in front of me.
Safe flying
Dog
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WooOW.
Well done to you and the captain Zaz
I thank the good lord for giving you guys the courage to fight back and bringing you home!
From your writeup its so obvious you have a great passion for this profession.
All the best and happy landings Sir
I thank the good lord for giving you guys the courage to fight back and bringing you home!
From your writeup its so obvious you have a great passion for this profession.
All the best and happy landings Sir
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Well put ZAZ and I'm glad you lived to tell the tale!
This is a good forum for us to share these kind of experiences. We need to talk about them ourselves to get it off our chests, and perhaps we can learn something from it at the same time?
Particularily judging the weather is something I struggle with everyday at work. Our homebase has no cloudmeter and no accurate measurement of RVR. What is reported as CAVOK can often turn out to be minima plus 100... Very annoying indeed. We have adopted a system in which we always report the various cloudbases etc. More or less systematic use of PIREPS and it helps a lot.
/LnS
This is a good forum for us to share these kind of experiences. We need to talk about them ourselves to get it off our chests, and perhaps we can learn something from it at the same time?
Particularily judging the weather is something I struggle with everyday at work. Our homebase has no cloudmeter and no accurate measurement of RVR. What is reported as CAVOK can often turn out to be minima plus 100... Very annoying indeed. We have adopted a system in which we always report the various cloudbases etc. More or less systematic use of PIREPS and it helps a lot.
/LnS
Great report, any chance of you organising a FDR download for analysis and details such as in this report: Windshear.
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strange experience
Reading this brought to mind a very strange experience I had flying a Piper Seneca five to Malaga from the UK single pilot with the owner on Board.
We had refueled at st Sebastian and I took off climbing to FL120.
The aircraft was level on autopilot with only me and the owner on board.
I was approaching the vicinity of Madrid and a line of thunderstorms.
Temperature at Madrid was 42 deg C.
Seeing two cells ahead I picked a route in clear air between the cells.
There was light chop but nothing the autopilot couldnt handle.
All of a sudden the airspeed needle shot from 155 kts ias to 70 kts ias in a matter of seconds.
I hit the autopilot off pushed the nose over and applied full power.
I sat there with nothing on the controls, IAS still on 70 kts ias and the aircraft dropping like a stone in a level vertical profile.
Frankly the aircraft felt as if it had flown into a vacuum.
I dropped 4000 feet from 12000 with nothing on the controls.
The experience was not frightening as I knew it would eventually come out which it did.
I have experienced wind shear before, but this was different and like nothing I had ever experienced in over 20 years of flying business jets and twins all over Europe.
As stated this felt more like a vacuum than wind shear and as if the aircraft was no longer in air!!!
I reported the problem to the controller as we had lost 4000 feet in controlled airspace.
Anyone explain this to me?
pace
We had refueled at st Sebastian and I took off climbing to FL120.
The aircraft was level on autopilot with only me and the owner on board.
I was approaching the vicinity of Madrid and a line of thunderstorms.
Temperature at Madrid was 42 deg C.
Seeing two cells ahead I picked a route in clear air between the cells.
There was light chop but nothing the autopilot couldnt handle.
All of a sudden the airspeed needle shot from 155 kts ias to 70 kts ias in a matter of seconds.
I hit the autopilot off pushed the nose over and applied full power.
I sat there with nothing on the controls, IAS still on 70 kts ias and the aircraft dropping like a stone in a level vertical profile.
Frankly the aircraft felt as if it had flown into a vacuum.
I dropped 4000 feet from 12000 with nothing on the controls.
The experience was not frightening as I knew it would eventually come out which it did.
I have experienced wind shear before, but this was different and like nothing I had ever experienced in over 20 years of flying business jets and twins all over Europe.
As stated this felt more like a vacuum than wind shear and as if the aircraft was no longer in air!!!
I reported the problem to the controller as we had lost 4000 feet in controlled airspace.
Anyone explain this to me?
pace
Last edited by Pace; 28th Aug 2007 at 21:14.
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Thought it might just be wise to bring this back up again, since its that time of the year we go through that climate transition into the harmattan season and the rains now could be violent with unpredictable weather changes here in West Africa, especialy along the coastline areas.
Fly Safe guys and Happy Landings
Zazoo
Fly Safe guys and Happy Landings
Zazoo
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Well, at least you had an aluminum cocoon to protect you......
http://www.airspacemag.com/issues/20...and_beyond.php
One other was reported killed during this event...struck by lightning......
http://www.airspacemag.com/issues/20...and_beyond.php
One other was reported killed during this event...struck by lightning......
we had full right rudder fighting to hold her from continuing her violent swing to the left. She did not respond to the go around and continued down still vibrating
All that fighting the turbulence with over-controlling usually means the spoilers are moving rapidly and this makes things worse than they should be.
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Zazoo - thanks for a vivid insight into an experience I hope not to encounter. I guess you need to put in an expense claim for a new pair of cast-iron underpants after that!
I think Centaurus is having a bad day - most people will take your account in the spirit it was offered, as a personal account of what must have been a horrendous minute or two.
I think Centaurus is having a bad day - most people will take your account in the spirit it was offered, as a personal account of what must have been a horrendous minute or two.