hi all, a quick question
 

sorry, i am not a pilot but have a niggling question i cant find the answer to.

when in turbulance ho far does the plane raise or fall etc is it only a few feet or hundreds?

Unless you have ambulances meeting the airplane, most turbulence is only a few feet. It's like going over a pump at 5 MPH or 500. The faster you go the more violent it is going to feel. Airplanes slow down if they get in bad turbulence. In all but sever turbulence, you can hand fly the aircraft and keep it within 100 feet of the assigned altitude. You would know if it was sever because there will be injuries and damage in the cabin.

i have just come back from sanford florida on TCD it was horrible turbulance, people were screaming etc and coming out of their seats was a bit scary but everything was fine. strange how much a few feet can affect you ay?

Below is a table that describes various levels of turbulence as published in the Aeronautical Information Manual


7-1-24. PIREPs Relating to Turbulence


Turbulence Reporting Criteria Table Intensity
Aircraft Reaction
Reaction Inside Aircraft
Reporting Term-Definition

Light - Turbulence that momentarily causes slight, erratic changes in altitude and/or attitude (pitch, roll, yaw). Report as Light Turbulence; or

Turbulence that causes slight, rapid and somewhat rhythmic bumpiness without appreciable changes in altitude or attitude. Report as Light Chop.
Occupants may feel a slight strain against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects may be displaced slightly. Food service may be conducted and little or no difficulty is encountered in walking.

Occasional-Less than 1/3 of the time.

Intermittent-1/3 to 2/3.

Continuous-More than 2/3.

Moderate - Turbulence that is similar to Light Turbulence but of greater intensity. Changes in altitude and/or attitude occur but the aircraft remains in positive control at all times. It usually causes variations in indicated airspeed. Report as Moderate Turbulence; or
Turbulence that is similar to Light Chop but of greater intensity. It causes rapid bumps or jolts without appreciable changes in aircraft altitude or attitude.

Moderate Chop - Occupants feel definite strains against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects are dislodged. Food service and walking are difficult.
NOTE

Severe - Turbulence that causes large, abrupt changes in altitude and/or attitude. It usually causes large variations in indicated airspeed. Aircraft may be momentarily out of control.

Severe Turbulence - Occupants are forced violently against seat belts or shoulder straps. Unsecured objects are tossed about. Food Service and walking are impossible.

Extreme -Turbulence in which the aircraft is violently tossed about and is practically impossible to control. It may cause structural damage.


High level turbulence (normally above 15,000 feet ASL) not associated with cumuliform cloudiness, including thunderstorms, should be reported as CAT (clear air turbulence) preceded by the appropriate intensity, or light or moderate chop.

I've encountered severe turbulence twice in my career... once was in a Piper Seneca flying over Appalachia... we hit mountain wave and it was enough to pick my flight case and some of the cargo in back up and smash it into the ceiling hard enough to break the plastic covering...

The other was at 29,000' working our way around imbedded thunderstorms... we hit an updraft that didn't paint (and had small hail in it)... that one tossed the folks around in the back pretty good and put a negative G load on us for about 2 seconds followed by a positive 2-3 G load for another couple of seconds. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

wow, scary stuff, anyone else have any stories?

Tubulence and T-Storms
 

I was over Egypt last week and entered a thunderstorm b/c ATC couldn’t post a vector clearance. The weather office had briefed NO icing and isolated thunderstorms. It wasn’t long before we were accumulating ice and getting bumped around. Our radios began to squeal b/c the VHF antenna is in the wind stream and also accumulates ice, which then prevents you from talking with ATC all the while you're still in the thunderstorm.

Then, the airspeed started to bleed off, our icing systems were working fine, so we must have been seeing some bizarre winds maybe some wind shear. I set our maximum power and we were only making about 180kts. We had been cruising at 250kts prior to reducing speed for turbulence and now I’m barely making 180kts at max power. I felt that knot tighten in my gut, but just about the time I was thinking about making my own vectors we cleared out the storm. We don’t have a weather radar, and the radar we have is very limited in detecting strong storms. Looking back at the clouds we had just exited they were large, high and had the text book anvil shape. We were at 24,000 and these were stretching very high above us. I’ve been in T-Storms before but not like that.

skirting a t-storm in a DC-3 freighter, hit an updraft, followed by a downdraft so strong,that it tore up the floor boards exposing the cable runs.we were in clear sky,miles from the deathstar cb. lost a few hairs.

Hey, Bubba. Good post, enjoyed it.

I was in the middle east this week, flew around many build-ups. We crossed over a few large anvil tops over the Indian Ocean, too. It was great being at 40,000 feet looking down at them.

On my MEI checkride we hit bump with my seatbelt was not fastened tight enough and I hit my head off the ceiling so hard I was literally seeing stars and spots. Took me a few seconds to get reoriented. Not fun:(