High winds
 

Hi, the other week I was blown off track in an A321 by a seemingly strong stray gust of wind, it really shook the cabin, and then it was fine after a second or two.
Does anybody have any idea of how many mph the gust was at, My engines were almost at max and I was in mid flight at around 33 000 feet
any help would be appreciated?

oh, and if it helps I was flying over the slovenian mountains
http://www.mtbslovenia.net/an/images/triglav.jpg

Engines at 'max' at that altitude is not so unusual.
But there is no way for us to tell you how strong that wind was. Or if it was wind at all. My guess: you crossed the path of another aircraft (wake turbulence) or a small burst of clear air turbulence, possibly caused by the mountains.


Wind at that altitude can be anything from 10 to 200 mph in smooth conditions!

I went off about 35 degrees to the left

and thanks for the help PENKO

What wind was showing on your ND? Did that vary at all?

Not much, only some very light gusts before that, lovely flying weather untill it occured

Ok, 35 degrees off track sounds impressive. I have not experienced that before, so can't help much further!

Thanks for the help anyway, I think I came fairly close to something like a 747 then

By that I read that the aircraft changed track by that amount? Maybe that was due to proximity of the next waypoint? If you were 200nm from the next waypoint, it would make a much smaller adjustment.

If you meant that the wing dropped 35 degrees, then that's not unknown, not comfortable, but not that unusual. The autoflight system worked as designed.

It sounds to me as if you are quite inexperienced and have a lot to learn. Don't take that as a put-down, and feel free to ask more questions and put these events down as part of the learning process.

I went of track by that amount, changed my heading
I flew the dash 8 for two years in france and have only been flying the A321 for a year, thanks anyway
it it likely I was near another aircraft then?

A321,

You think you were near another aircraft? Are you for real? Or just enjoy winding people up here?

sorry, I will re-write it
Do you think it is possible that being close to another aircraft caused the change or was it simply a strong gust?

But then, how did this heading change happen? Did you suffer a sustained dropped wing? Or did you yaw 35 degrees? Over how long a period?

it was sudden, the gust came along and I was swung to the left, there was only a slight change in the sloping of the wing.
The auto-pilot took me straight back to the correct heading, It all lasted about 5/6 seconds

I am going to take the bait again;

In post one, you are asking about the strength of the gust in MPH?

In post one you state that you you were "blown of track" in 2 seconds

In post 3 you state that "you went off about 35 degrees"

In your last post you state "you were slung to the left" and " there was only a slight change in the sloping of the wing"

Let me ask the blatantly obvious again, are you for real? Maybe stick to FS4, or at least learn the lingo.

look, I am a real pilot

I just dont know if it was wind or a plane, and if it was wind then how fast