JBLUA320 From United States, joined May 2002, 3041 posts, RR: 23 Posted (7 years 4 months 1 week 8 hours ago) and read 461 times:
Okay, I finished reading the "Worst Turbulence You Ever Had" thread, and honestly, I have now become paranoid.
I dont mind a bump here and there, and I have encountered medium-chop (thats my heaviest....)....
After reading this, I have butterflies in my stomache about my next flight, which os down to Florida from JFK on...well, you should be able to guess the airline.
My question: What are the odds of hitting air pockets or clear air turbulence in such a state that it causes the sever jolts, opening bins, and rollercoaster transitions.
I am white knuckled in my computer chair....and I am probably going to be a wreck on the plane. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
BR715-A1-30 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (7 years 4 months 1 week 7 hours ago) and read 443 times:
During Descent into ATL on January 26, 2002... We were just about to touch down, and BAM, Our plane went down and swerved left and right, up and down. We had entered a Company DC-9's Wake Turbulence, and it sent us Up, and Down, Side to side. It was my worst, and best turbulence experience.
Duff From New Zealand, joined Oct 2001, 106 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (7 years 4 months 1 week 5 hours ago) and read 419 times:
Don't worry. Just make sure your seatbelt is done up at all times (regardless of what the light says). Whether CAT occurs on your flight or not depends on upper level jetstreams so don't bother trying to look out the window to look for any signs although cirrus cloud can sometimes offer clues.
BR715-A1-30. I'm not sure you experienced CAT in it's official sense. Just sounds like standard Wake Turbulence
PhilB From Ireland, joined May 1999, 2915 posts, RR: 23 Reply 6, posted (7 years 4 months 1 week 3 hours ago) and read 382 times:
"CAT Stalks the Skies" was a headline that appeared on an authoratative avaition mag many years ago. A tabloid headline for a very interesting and thoughtful article.
Most CAT is forecastable based on the jeststream, divisions between pressure systems, temperature changes between ocean and continental mass, known as "coastal chop" and thunderstorm activity either well below or to one side of track. Whilst forecastable for an area in general, the exact location and duration is often less predictable and the severity can also be difficult to forecast.
Often, the best indicator of CAT is the previous traffic. Whilst generally CAT is very localised, it can extend over wide areas and be very deep in altitude. There are days on the Atlantic when CAT is extensive, though in 20 years of regularly crossing, I've only had a couple of bad shakings.
The most interesting handling of CAT was given by a Virgin pilot at Newark, prior to departure in October 1992. Knowing he had a group of elderly first time long haul pax on board, he explained we would be en route to Gatwick for 5 hrs 59 minutes due to riding the top of the jetstream. He explained it could be choppy from time to time and that perople shouldn't be worried.
The trip was fast (5 hrs 50 mins) and I'm told quite choppy. I don't remember - I had dinner and was woken with breakfast.
BTW turbulence from a preceding aircraft is not CAT - it is wake turbulence.
Cx340 From Mexico, joined Sep 2000, 541 posts, RR: 3 Reply 8, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 324 times:
I had a pretty interesting conversation with an Aeromexio 20+ year veteran captain on a flight from HMO to MEX about 3 months ago (I wrote a trip report on this) and one of the issues we talked about was CAT, because as I've said before, I'm not a fan of turbulence and have been involved in some not so nice incidents with CAT.
He said to me that CAT is, as PhilB said above, predictable to some extent, but that you really can't know exactly when it's going to hit and how hard will it be. But he also said that modern commercial jets are built to withstand severe CAT, and that even in his worst experiences, the plane had held toghether perfectly. The real problem is, he said, that most passangers never follow instructions to keep their seatbelt on during the entire flight, and then injuries present themselves.
He also said that the odds of finding severe CAT are minimal, and that most passangers will never experience it.
Trickijedi From United States, joined May 2001, 3266 posts, RR: 7 Reply 9, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 305 times:
JBLUA320,
In all my years of flying, I have never encountered clear air turbulence. Don't let those stories freak you out. There a re several planes that fly everyday and only very few of them encounter the worse of the worse when it comes to turbulence. And more than likely, those make the news. Anyway, don't sweat it.
Enjoy your flight.
Its better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground. Fly safe!
Heavymetal From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 296 times:
Whenever I get hefty shakes (like a descent through Hurricane Michelle last fall in an MD-80) I always remember "steel girder".
That's quite literally the heart of the structure of most commercial airliners, the wing spar(s). Sometimes the Buses and Boeings look fragile and dainty, but you really have to stop and think how strong they are and the forces they're designed to withstand (ever seen a stress test on a static hull? The wings are bent until they snap, and just by looking at the pictures you know there's not likely to ever be a wind gust that can bend a wing to 130 percent of its' stress limits.)
N79969 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 275 times:
Just to clarify, if you experience turbulence in or near a storm- that is also not CAT. Neither is wake turbulence. I think CAT is turbulence that exists independent of any turbulence-causing weather phenomena (e.g. storms, fronts, lenticular cloud formations and so on)
Interestingly, Northwest Airlines has developed some techniques to forecast CAT quite accurately. I do not know the specifics but I have seen references to their research quite a bit. I think CAT is a real problem over the north Pacific Ocean.
N79969 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 256 times:
777kickass, You might have actually experienced "mountain waves." They are really common around the Denver area. I think CAT is a high altitude phenomenon.
777236ER From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2001, 12706 posts, RR: 57 Reply 14, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 258 times:
It's very hard to detect any turbulence, but turbulence associated with clouds/weather cells can be predicated. Where there's cloud (and rain as seen on the weather radar) there's probably going to be turbulence. Vortex wake can be predicted and seperation can be kept. CAT isn't associated with anything detectable by the weather radar (that is rain droplets -- which provide lots of hits for the radar) and so it's impossible right now to detect CAT.
777236ER From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2001, 12706 posts, RR: 57 Reply 16, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 240 times:
Interesting. No mention as to how it works though. It seems it's NOT an on-board system (radar would be useless) so I'm assuming its just a prediction technique that's using nifty differential equations to predict the location of CAT, not by actually finding out where it is.
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