Wake from a Ted Airbus

[248to2.8]

Flying in a Beech the other day I flew right through a NWA airbus wake. BAM! Kick it up a notch. As the passenger were getting off a couple asked what that was. Told them I think I hit a racoon.

 

[FlyChicaga]

This is just great. Guys in CRJ700s and A319s all flying "a dot high." What about the guy behind you (me) that weighs in at 1/5 of your MTOW?

So the 757 is flying a dot high for the 747 he's following. The A319 is flying two dots high for the 75's wake. The CRJ is three dots high to avoid the Airbii vortices, and the Beech behind 'em all will simply pitch twenty degrees nose up, point the thermal tiles at the earth, and reenter, space shuttle style, in a glowing cloud of plasma.

Hilarious, yet true. I've jumpseated on B737s where the crew flew 1/2 to 1 dot high behind a B777. That made me wonder what was going on behind if an RJ or turboprop was flying ON the glideslope.

I think training and knowledge in the physics of wake turbulence, as well as recovery techniques, is much more important than destabilizing an approach to try and avoid it. Unless you know for a fact the flightpath of the heavy in front of you, wake turbulence if often a mystery. It's invisible, dangerous, and it's location can't always be accurately predicted. I've been in the Saab at times when a B757 landed at MDW a little passed the touchdown zone. Should we have landed even farther past the touchdown zone on that 4925 ft rollout to avoid possible wake turbulence?

I'm usually more worried about it on departure. After all, "heavy, clean, and slow."

 

[MJG]

Funny thing is that the geniouses at NASA are now advising that we all "fly the glideslope like normal" instead of a dot high. Apparently their latest research indicates that there is no advantage to flying up a dot to avoid a previous aircraft's wake. Sorry I'm still not buying it. While I agree that it is difficult to predict where/when you might encounter someone's wake, I still feel better sitting a dot high.

Worst encounters I've had are behind the big 73's -800's and -900's. Those things should be given the same seperation as 757.