A320 Severe Turbulence Speed
 

At FL330 with cruise speed 0.74M, the aircraft fly into the extreme turbulence. What does the pilot should do?
a. Reduce speed until the vibration stopped.
b. Maintain the cruise speed 0.74M
c. Increase speed to the severe turbulence speed 0.76M

d. Increase speed to the MMO 0.82M to get out from the extreme turbulence as fast as possible.

ANSWER is C ....

Why ?????
What is the meaning of " Best protection against the effect of gust" on SUPPLEMENTARY TECH
3.04.91 p1 ????

At 074 at FL330 the A320 would have only a small buffer to Vls and a larger buffer to Mmo. 076 would give you the best possible compromise for protection to both under- or overspeed conditions. (Somewhere halfway the grey area on the speedtape between the orange low speed area and the red overspeed zone.)

Gusts can give you sudden airspeed increases and decreases which can take you either up to the VMO/MMO or down to VLS. M0.76 is normally equidistant from these speeds and as Sabenaboy said above, it therefore offers you the most protection from unexpected airspeed excursions caused by gusts associated with turbulence.

There is a clue in there somewhere ...... :ugh:

Vb or severe turbulence speed
 

The original concept was that it is better to stall the wing than to have it break, so before jet aircraft, the Vb speed or severe turbulence speed was the square root of the designed g load of the wing which was 2.5 positive g (clean configuration); the square root being 1.58 times the stall speed. The square of the speed margin factor above stall is the g load in a condition severe enough to stall the wing. So, the Vb speed varied for the gross weight.

With jet aircraft, that concept was impratical considering the narrow range of speed at operating altitude, so a design maximum gust was used. Considering the wide range of weights, a single speed is probably not the best answer. Lighter aircraft of the same type should fly slower to avoid excessive g loads.

During severe turbulence if, in fact, the g-load subjected was excessive on the wings would the pilots have some indication? Are there special procedures to be followed in such cases after the event / after landing?