Holy line of Thunderstorms batman

[avbug]

Great story though, coming into DAL this morning, we were preceeded by a corp jet that reported "Severe" turbulence coming down through the descent...do any of you know what "severe" turbulence really is?!?!? We had to correct him and let him know it was only continuous light to occassional moderate, nowhere near severe. Oh well, i guess there are those out there who think even the smallest bump is "severe"...wimps.....:laugh:

You may or may not have experienced severe turbulence before, but it's awfully arrogant of you to "correct" another report of severe turbulence. Were you on the other aircraft? Didn't think so.

It's getting severe when you can't read the instrument panel any more, when you no longer are in control of the aircraft, when your wings crack and when your flight engineer gets ejected from his seat. Been there, done that, for many, many hours on end. In fact, I've spent a good portion of my career in severe turbulence, or greater.

One thing I don't beleive I've ever had the arrogance to do is to correct another pilot who reports a condition encountered in flight. I can report what I find, but I've been aloft a good many times when I found dead calm and the other guy got slammed, or visa versa, or I got severe icing and the other guy got none. Who's to say what the other guy got.

I was on approach in a Lear, late one night. The tower reported that the crew ahead of me had reported some significant shears. It was dead calm. I should have paid attention to the difference in the surface winds, but I justified myself into disbelieving. At 300,' the sound of airflow over the cockpit changed radically, and it appeared to become very quiet. The airplane rolled right and full left aileron was required along with takeoff thrust.

I had been about to report negative shear (though I wouldn't have had the audacity to "correct" the other crew), and it shut me up post haste.

Next time you feel like correcting a report wrought by another crew, perhaps you should shut up post haste and think for a minute that they may have experienced something you have not.

 

[minitour]

So you go over at 430...which is great. What do you do when you're right over the middle of it and lose one? How fast is the descent? Is it more of a drift down to a suitable SE altitude?

just curious

-mini

 

[inthewind]

deleted

 

[jaxpilot]

yeah we kept on getting called back to put more fuel on the airliners today. I figured something was up.

 

[NoPax]

I've only encountered severe turbulence one time, and it was after an unscheduled stop at Abilene - due to a line of thunderstorms that had organized themselves while I was enroute.

So I decided to sit them out for as long as it took. Going on 12 hours on the duty day, and given that the TS had passed (now 10-15 miles away), but still light to moderate precip (in pockets), I decided to go.

Levelled off at 6k, some alto-cumulus clouds above, otherwise clear then I encountered sudden shear headwind of about 45kts. I loaded up the airplane - pulled up with the gain in altitude - if I tried to maintain altitude the airspeed would have gone well into the caution range, and expecting the downdraft, turbulence and loss of altitude to come, felt this was the best thing to do at the time.

Rode it up to 9k, then something cracked, I lost my headsets, and my charts, flashlight, cargo (which was restrained) etc, was floating around the airplane, and smashing on the floor.

This was then followed by 45 knots tailwind, and close to stall flight. Went from 9000 to 4200 - not much clearance from the ground. Absolutely no control in the descent.

The flight continued with continous light, occasional moderate until 30nm E of Midland. I was checking the wings to make sure they still looked like they were where they should be.

Moral of the story - there is really no telling where the turbulence is around a CB, but it is there, go ahead if you want, roll the dice.

 

[avbug]

Geez...that sounds like a normal drop run on a going fire. Except they didn't want you to come back and do it again.

 

[inthewind]

Yeah but when the black guy in the back is so scared that the fo could see his freckles, you know it was pretty damned scary. I can't wait to get fired for saying no!

 

[avbug]

I say no all the time. The company is paying you for that judgement. Your duty is to exercise it.

 

[FlyingFisherman]

Inthewind has it bad. This coming from a lowly Mooney driver. Ya ever get hired, wind?

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Whats wrong with flying cargo on these kinds of nights? We just climbed up to 430 last night and went right over them, nice and smooth, and one heck of a good light show as the clouds lit up from below. It was also nice, because we were the only ones around...since everyone else is scared of them .

Now maybe if i was still in the props then it would be a different story, but they still wouldn't have been that bad, you find a hole and go through it. Maybe a little bumpy, but nothing too bad.

Great story though, coming into DAL this morning, we were preceeded by a corp jet that reported "Severe" turbulence coming down through the descent...do any of you know what "severe" turbulence really is?!?!? We had to correct him and let him know it was only continuous light to occassional moderate, nowhere near severe. Oh well, i guess there are those out there who think even the smallest bump is "severe"...wimps.....:laugh:

One thing comes to mind after reading this post......

Ametuer.

be careful in that Learjet, Chuck Yeager.