Delta Weather Procedures

[Goose Egg]

Our "classic" definition of Va is the speed at below which an aircraft will stall before any structural damage occurs. Perhaps that definition needs to be looked at again.

Flying at or below Va will only guarantee the prevention of structural damage if the aircraft is experiencing symmetrical loads. In a thunderstorm, there is no guarantee that loads will be symmetric.

-Goose

 

[satpak77]

I'm just curious, what exactly can an aircraft handle, thunderstorm wise? Obviously flown at Va, anything from a 172 to a transport category aircraft.

Serious T-Storms should be avoided in ANY aircraft. Its the shear and vertical currents that will break an airplane apart, not necessarily (all though these will too...) the horizontal turbulence.

Revisit DAL in DFW in 1985-ish, TWA(?) or Pan Am in New Orleans in 70's, AA at Little Rock in 99(?)

Also observe VA may or may not be the "turbulence penetration speed" in your POH. Whatever the speed is, that is for a brand new airplane, not one flown by 100 freight doggers/CFI's/student pilots/prior owners/etc/etc.

Use your judgement.

My cry-baby puzzy a$$ self avoids all major towering cumulus with tops above 250, and I will deviate BIG TIME (fuel etc, allowing) to stay "VMC" between the clouds. I also prefer my human eyeballs over a radar anyday, altho I couple radar data with stormscope data and attempt to make an educated guess as to storm activity.

Back in my cancelled-check 135 days, we never flew IMC (almost never) thru T-storm areas, we went VFR with flight following and dodged them. At times this meant dropping down LOW LOW to the "highest sector" (or whatever its called, the highest number in that particular quadrant) altitude on the VFR sectional, and dodging rain shafts. Talking to your buddies on 122.85 up ahead also helped. Back then (now?) the only freight dogs with "real radar" were the Show Me or Martinair guys in Caravans. We used their Pireps alot.

later

 

[ATCER]

falcondriver - after watching just about every carrier deal with weather I'll say that they all handle weather very similar. More then once I have seen 2 or 3 A/C "find a hole" and get through the worst of it to get into the airport. I have also had to deal with the guy that tried the same thing and it closed in around him. I notice that 99% of pilots are very conserative enroute but get a little more liberal as they get clsoe to the field. Where they would deviate 30 miles around a buildup enroute, some choose to find a hole to fly through if they are close to their destination.

As for best and worst from my observations... AAL is by far the most conservative. Where everyone goes 10 miles, they go 30. They often are the only ones that deviate. Slight bad rides reported up high... they all file for FL280. Worst... many foreign carriers, especially some of the south american flag carriers. You give them sigmets, airmets, etc. they roger you and stay on the route while everyone is slowing down and deviating.

 

[FlyingSig]

I think this is the oldest thread I've ever seen resurected.... I had been just furloughed for about 2 weeks when I made that post ... 3 years, 2 months later ....


...nevermind, now that I read more threads I see Le Pilot is on a tear.....

 

[Flyer7SA]

I think this is the oldest thread I've ever seen resurected.... I had been just furloughed for about 2 weeks when I made that post ... 3 years, 2 months later ....


...nevermind, now that I read more threads I see Le Pilot is on a tear.....

FlyingSig, you're absolutely right. It is kinda strange how all that time has passed since that thread and somehow I got a reply to it in my inbox and it seems to have started a snowball effect. Someone must have done a search on a word and didn't realize how old the thread was... No matter. Kinda nice to be back on the board again. My how times have changed, eh?

As for bad thunderstorms, we had an exciting afternoon in Wichita. A couple of friends made it in just before the storm (which seemed to die out pretty fast after dark). I had moved from Atlanta to Wichita since I made that post, and I thought that we had some pretty good storms in the south until I moved out here. The Wx out here is full of extremes. In the fall, seriously, watch out for trying to get into ICT on a foggy morning. I drive past the approach end of RWY 19R every day to work and there were some mornings I couldn't see the airport fence 15 feet from the road. I was watching a pretty good light show the other night, listening for sirens and then watching hail accumulate on my deck thinking, I'm glad I'm not up in that - and this was around 11:30PM. We never had hail in ATL that I can remember at night, yet alone very often.

Back on topic, though, sometimes I've chuckled at airlines that deviate WAY out of their way to avoid the slightest bumps or clouds. I shutter to think how my version of "medium chop" must feel to some of those airliner types... Then again, I think that my version of "smooth ride at 330" must be a harrowing experience to some . I've learned to gage my pireps according to the audience listening. Perhaps one pilot's "light chop" is another's "moderate turbulence". -Hard to say.

Livin' the dream,
Flyer7SA

 

[wil]

B.S. Flag!! Pax are flying price only. Same lame a$$ will be back for the next cheap flight. I saw SWA go off a runway at AMA in 2003 and they aren't hurting for pax!

And, Delta did get you to DFW and not via an ambulence so shut the F up you so called no it all-

 

[mnixon]

FlyingSig, you're absolutely right. It is kinda strange how all that time has passed since that thread and somehow I got a reply to it in my inbox and it seems to have started a snowball effect. Someone must have done a search on a word and didn't realize how old the thread was... No matter. Kinda nice to be back on the board again. My how times have changed, eh?

As for bad thunderstorms, we had an exciting afternoon in Wichita. A couple of friends made it in just before the storm (which seemed to die out pretty fast after dark). I had moved from Atlanta to Wichita since I made that post, and I thought that we had some pretty good storms in the south until I moved out here. The Wx out here is full of extremes. In the fall, seriously, watch out for trying to get into ICT on a foggy morning. I drive past the approach end of RWY 19R every day to work and there were some mornings I couldn't see the airport fence 15 feet from the road. I was watching a pretty good light show the other night, listening for sirens and then watching hail accumulate on my deck thinking, I'm glad I'm not up in that - and this was around 11:30PM. We never had hail in ATL that I can remember at night, yet alone very often.

Back on topic, though, sometimes I've chuckled at airlines that deviate WAY out of their way to avoid the slightest bumps or clouds. I shutter to think how my version of "medium chop" must feel to some of those airliner types... Then again, I think that my version of "smooth ride at 330" must be a harrowing experience to some . I've learned to gage my pireps according to the audience listening. Perhaps one pilot's "light chop" is another's "moderate turbulence". -Hard to say.

Livin' the dream,
Flyer7SA

Exactly, your light chop to me in my c172 is "ah hell here we go". The other thing that I try to stress to every students and all my instructors make Pireps. While your flying around in good conditions, there are others sitting on the ground pushing back or cancelling flights because of what a briefer/computer is telling them.