|
|
|
|
Turbulent Experience
Thu Mar 10, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Today, Robin White finds out what it's
like to fly in extreme turbulence.
Most of us have experienced bumpy rides in planes, but few experience turbulence so
severe that the plane loses control. Pilot Rich Caviness has. It was a routine trip in a
California blue sky, then suddenly:
RC: It was an upward move and the sensation was just like a big hand lifted the
airplane, just threw it up in the air and tossed it like you were ... nothing.
The turbulence was caused by wind moving over the mountains. Imagine water
moving over rocks and how it creates bumps and waves in a river. It's the same with air
and in this case the wind caused a standing wave which took the plane on a wild
ride.
RC: The altimeter, the air speed, those things you can't even read ‘em you're being
shook so fast, so you just try to keep the airplane under control until you get out of it
and then you see how many thousands of feet you have moved .
In only a few minutes, Caviness'plane was 6,000 feet higher.
RC: It seems like a long time when you're out of control.
Caviness knew about the turbulence: a small plane had reported it shortly
before. But air traffic control had told him the choppy air wouldn't affect a 300,000
pound MD-11 cargo plane such as the one he was flying.
Even after a safe landing, such an incident requires that the plane be inspected before
flying again. And for pilots, that inspection turns inward.
RC: You feel like you're in a big heavy jet, going fast and doing something and then the
weather will come along and make you feel very small.
For The Weather Notebook, I'm Robin White. The Weather Notebook is produced at the
Mount Washington Observatory, with help from Subaru of America, and the National
Science Foundation.
|
|
