Thunderstorms, anyone fly thru them?

[JAFI]

Just wondering. I know they contain every danger known to man and airplane but my boss wants me to fly thru or under them and I don't feel it's safe. Thoughts?

IMHO, the "pilots" that tell you it's OK to fly through ANY thunderstorm are giving poor advice to you. You could be a test pilot experencing conditions that the aircraft may not have been stressed to take. Because someone was able to do it in (name your aircraft) does not mean the aircraft you will be in can do it.

Have pilots flown through and lived - Yes.

Have pilots flown in and died - yes...

How lucky or stupid do you feel today?

At best you will stress the aircraft.

At worst you will see what happens when you over stress the aircraft.... This does not always end well.

 

[avbug]

Fly through them all the time. The key is to keep your speed up...oh and keep your coffee away from your crotch.

Acting stupidly doesn't make it right.

 

[Nolife]

When Yip flew through those TRW's in the 60's the Earth was still cooling from the recent ice age and therefore the storms weren't as strong as they are today.

I've flow with some very crazy or stupid guys in my cargo days and what always bugged me was suppose I get one of the planes they've been flying and I go through some moderate chop and thats the time all the stress fractures from several flights through severe plus link up and do me in. I even avoid build-ups when I can and to date no one has complained that I'm taking too long or burning too much fuel.

Also when it comes to untrained captains with regards to radar your butt-cheeks are planted right next to theirs so politely point out that the big red blob with no ground echoes behind it is not good and if anything happens let them know that when they're explaining hail damage or something you will let the company know that you told him forceably not to do it. That usually changes their minds.

 

[GLEXPilot]

Yeah sure just go right through. Just ask for vectors to take you through the worst part, ATC won't have a problem with separation because you will be the only one there, probably get to your destination quicker.

 

[pilotyip]

Which is entirely irrelevant, both because this is no longer the case, and because it does nothing to support the notion of intentionally flying through convective activity based on the dbz level of the thunderstorm.

Avbug is correct the TW penetrations were entirely unintentional

 

[retired guy]

Made my living flying for 40 years. Never saw a thunderstorm that I couldn`t go around.