CRJ turb tgt spd
 

Hello,

In our company the turbulent air penetration speed is 280/.75 whichever is lower.

Was told by someone that when bombardier designed the CRJ-200 this was meant to be a MINIMUM speed meaning that if you hit rough air you are to accelerate to atleast that, much preferable something above that. The reason given was this speed designed to be a MINIMUM speed to guarantee buffet protection margin.

What does your company say about that and how do they have you fly? Have any of you heard about anything described above?

Thx
-schone

yeah its the same number i believe for every company. we had that discussion here a little while back on our company message board. we came to the conclusion that there is no way it is a minimum speed speed. if it were that would mean that at 2000 feet you would need to accelerate to 280kts if you ran into some rough air. i personally think it would be crazy if the rj's only protection in turbulance is to speed up. doesn't make sense. if it were rough air all the way down you could never land because if you slowed down the plane would stall. i believe the 280 is maneuvering speed, i.e. don't go faster than it for structural reasons.

Yep - it's a structural limitation. Bingo.

That was my understanding as well, tho I've been strictly told by a ca that bombardier train differently.... figured i'll raise it as a conversation see if other companies say something different.

its a good conversation, i think we went 6 or 7 pages with it. :)

and like that proverbial question asked to ten different CFI's, I bet you get 15 different answers in those pages LoL

Ooh, is your company based in Utah?

hot/heavy and mid 30's at the cruise carats you won't do better than .75M anyway...

If 280 was the absolute minimum speed they wanted you to penetrate turbulence at, then they wouldn't publish the following in the factory manuals:

At ACA/Independence we used 280/.75 as max penetration or 250/.70 for passenger comfort.

Also, FWIW, design maneuvering speeds vary depending on the aircraft weight and pressure altitude from as low as 161 knots (sea level, light weight) to as high as 305 knots (30,000' PA, 53,000lbs).

Design maneuvering speed (Va) is defined as Full Application of rudder and aileron controls as well as maneuvers that involve angles of attack near the stall, must be confined to speeds below Va.

design maneuvering speed also means that the plane will stall itself in the specified area of stress before sustaining structural damage or failure. but that isn't always true either.