What squadron are (were) you in?

Bern (Former VP-26 '86-'90)

 

The vast majority of turbulence you will ever experience won't even register as a change in altitude on the altimeter. It might be more helpful to think if it as a speedbump on the interstate. How much the speed bump will affect your comfort as you ride over it will be affected by a variety of factors. Obviously, the speed at which you negotiate the speedbump will have an effect. The size and weight of your vehicle will dramatically affect the ride. The suspension will affect the ride. With the right (or wrong, as it were) combination of factors, negotiating a six-inch tall speed bump can lead to extremely uncomfortable, if not disastrous results.

If you can see a speed bump ahead, you adjust your speed and path to avoid it, or mitigate it's effects on your ride. After all, that's the purpose of the speed bump, to slow you down. Unfortunately, we can't see turbulence. We can see meteorological phenomenon that are often associated with it, and we can hear reports from other pilots that have encountered it, and we can avoid those areas, but that's not a perfect way to avoid it. Sometimes we encounter it in the most unexpected places, far away from any visible clues. It's usually in those cases that the result is most dramatic, because we're not prepared to hit that speed bump. It's the pothole that you didn't see coming that seems to do the most damage.






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