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By: 21st March 2005 at 11:39 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Turbulence is something you can't ignore, and it is a terrifying experience. I got severe turbulence over Belgium when i flew Cologne-Gatwick with Germanwings last year. For the 1st time ever whilst flying, i felt scared.
Also i've had severe turbulence over the Atlantic, on our way home to MAN from ORD in 1997, turbulence in the dark = not nice!
By: 21st March 2005 at 11:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It is a strange fact that any unpleasant flying experience is exagerrated during the hours of darkness. My KLM flight was an overnight flight which I'm sure made things feel worse than they actually were.
By: 21st March 2005 at 12:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I was finishing off my night qualification in a PA-38 tomahawk, flying back from PIK to GLA after doing 5 full stop landings. Flying up the west coast at 2500' 90 kts, everything going well, heading for Millport before I enter GLA's zone for a straight in approach to 05, when we started to climb to 3000' in an up draught I though oopps what's going on here?
I couldn't see any cloud formations due to it being dark, plus there wasn't any CB action forecast - then we started getting thrown about, my head was bouncing off of the ceiling, and that was the first time I've thought about putting a plane down in a precautionary landing, but I just kept the speed within rough air limit. We had to turn right and cross a range of hills that were about 1800', as we were doing this we entered the down draught. We had full power on, a climbing attitude, and were still losing 50-75 fpm when I looked down all I could see was the top of clouds but I knew just below them was the tips of some hills!
After contacting GLA to let them know of our situation things started to settle down and we were at 2200' - phew. We continued onto GLA and landed, but it did get me thinking about how safe flying in a single with hardly any power at night is? However next night I went up solo - just to make sure it never spooked me too much.
dme
By: 21st March 2005 at 13:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-I was finishing off my night qualification in a PA-38 tomahawk, flying back from PIK to GLA after doing 5 full stop landings. Flying up the west coast at 2500' 90 kts, everything going well, heading for Millport before I enter GLA's zone for a straight in approach to 05, when we started to climb to 3000' in an up draught I though oopps what's going on here?I couldn't see any cloud formations due to it being dark, plus there wasn't any CB action forecast - then we started getting thrown about, my head was bouncing off of the ceiling, and that was the first time I've thought about putting a plane down in a precautionary landing, but I just kept the speed within rough air limit. We had to turn right and cross a range of hills that were about 1800', as we were doing this we entered the down draught. We had full power on, a climbing attitude, and were still losing 50-75 fpm when I looked down all I could see was the top of clouds but I knew just below them was the tips of some hills!
After contacting GLA to let them know of our situation things started to settle down and we were at 2200' - phew. We continued onto GLA and landed, but it did get me thinking about how safe flying in a single with hardly any power at night is? However next night I went up solo - just to make sure it never spooked me too much.
dme
Well, the fact you lived to tell about it proves you;ve got a level head :)
I'd fly with ya anyday ;)
By: 21st March 2005 at 15:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-my worse flgiht was also turbulence related. Myself and other group members were on an Aerolineas Argentinas B737 (LV-JMY 6/11/96) from Asuncsion in Paraguay to Buenos Aires. Took off mid pm for us to catch the flight back to London via Madrid. All was going well until top of descent into some dark clouds and some gentle bumps. As we got lower the tubulence got steadily worse until one sickening drop which had any loose items thrown up to the cabin roof. This included a passengers briefcase that 'hovered' in mid air for what seemed like ages but was probably only a few seconds. Also included a passeger whose seatbelt had broken but luckily he was not injured. My trouser leg was torn by the seat in front of me as it had a sharp edge to its frame and on looking found a small cut to my leg. As we continued the roller coaster I could see the ground through gaps in the cloud. At BA (at the time) the procedure was to join overhead and then route to whichever runway was in use and as we flew over the airport I knew it would not be much longer before we landed.
As we turned finals we could see the burnt out wreckage of an aircraft that had crashed a couple of weeks earlier. I was sat on the right side behind the wing and had a good view of the runway lights on account of the drift angle being used. This was kicked off at the last moment and we made a very smooth touchdown but could certainly feel the aircraft slipping/skidding on the very wet runway. Fellow pax applauded as we turned off the runway so we did the same.
We got off the plane and headed for a bar as a drink was very necessary ! before getting on the next plane a few hours later.
As we were sat in the departure area a MD11 landed and something did not look quite right - it was very fast and landed a long way down the runway. Shortly afterwards we could see a lot of red lights heading that way as the MD11 had run off the runway as it as turning off.
Have had many flights since then but none have come that close in terms of the violence of the turbulence we were in.
Posts: 920
By: Pembo330 - 21st March 2005 at 11:09
Thinking of KLM's 767s this morning has brought back memories of my worst flight back in 2003; a flight from Newark to Amsterdam.
As a reminder - here is what I thought of the trip at the time:
Whilst all logic tells me I shouldn't be apprehensive about situations like this, when you're up there and living it, you feel like you're in the middle of no-where, no-one else is experiencing it and that if things get any worse, you're almost certainly doomed.
The point of this thread is to hear what your worst flying experience was, and how this has affecting your view of flying since?
Look forward to reading your thoughts. :)