Tips on flying in turbulance

[Morph]

In 2000 when I started my licence I had a bad experience on a crosscountry with turbulance and as a result lost my verve and stopped flying. I was at 22 hours. This year I started again, got the licence and am up to 75 hours (I have put 53 hours on in the last 4 months)

But, I am still sh!t scared of turbulance. The moment I hit some I find I am grabbing the joystick so tight that I get cramps in the arms. If I am alone i.e. I invariably return to the airfield and stop flying for the day. It doesn't help that I am at Morning Star, surrounded by Port Jacksons and Blue Gums that create a moer of a lot of turbulance over the airfield even with the slightest wind.

If I am flying with other guys I usually tag on behind them and if they hit anything I can see it or hear them say something about it and prepare for it. The problem is that I can't always get up in the air with other guys so as a result I am quite apprehensive in going up on my own unless conditions are as near to perfect as possible.

Any advise on learning to handle turbulance better

[C205]

I have a similar concern in turbulence. I don't get rattled much by turbulence (a bit of a bump here and there doesn't fase me) but I'm very light (get bumped around a bit) and don't have much in the line of muscles.
Will I have to always fly early in the morning on the Highveld or does that depend on my experience level? Or maybe start working out in the gym? :D :D :D

[Morph]

Demon, I don't think it's so much the cause of turbulance, which as you rightly put it, I should and do know about.

I'ts the gut wrenching reaction I get once I hit the turbulance and how best to train myself to accept/handle it better. There are a few other guys at our field that just won't go up if it is even remotely bumpy. Me I'll get up there and try, if it's too uncomfortable I'll land. Does it get better with time?

I still skrik as much now as I did 50 hours ago.

[Fairy Flycatcher]

I have a similar concern in turbulence. I don't get rattled much by turbulence (a bit of a bump here and there doesn't fase me) but I'm very light (get bumped around a bit) and don't have much in the line of muscles.
Will I have to always fly early in the morning on the Highveld or does that depend on my experience level? Or maybe start working out in the gym? :D :D :D

Having some turbulence is just a normal part of flying. I weigh in at about 60kg now, but am no gym bunny, yet I fly with the best of them (well maybe the top 70-80%)

A trick to learn in a trike is to not use too much force. Do not fight the bar. In turbulence just nudge the trike to keep direction, and learn the correct technique for your wing. Fly at the correct speed for turbulence as well. Flying too fast or too slow will make your life even more difficult. Check your owner's manual for the approximate speed. I don't think I have ever looked at the ASI when flying, so as a rule of thumb, I pull the bar about a fist in from HOT (hands off trim).

I have seen pilots get into pilot induced oscilations from flying too fast and over-correcting, and then after landing they complain about how turbulent it is.

We do something with the students to get them over their fear of turbulence. When they have enough altitide and safe space on a turbulent day, the instructor forces the student to take his hands of the bar and keep them off for at least 30 seconds. (hold your breath for 30 seconds and see it is quite long) They are always amazed to see that they don't go inverted and that the trike is actually quite stable, and for the most part corrects itself.

The only time I have a need for brute force in a trike is when I taxi in a crosswind exceeding 12 knots. From about 20 knots I will just park on the runway and wait for someone to rescue me



I don't have any advice for the 3-axis guys, maybe my skygod can give advice? I will ask him. Although it is more uncomfortable for me to fly in turbulence in a 3-axis, I have always thought it was easier??

[RudiGreyling]

Ditto...

First, know where to expect it, and try to avoid these places.

Secondly, if you can't avoid it, relax and fly through it with a little more power and keeping the plane pointing in the right directions without exherting to much force on the control inputs. Typically the planes we fly is inherently stable so it will come back to neautral, after an ossilation or two. Trying to force the plane back to neautral in one motion is the biggest mistake here.

Thirdly, if you get that unexpected whack, relax, a little more power, point plane in correct direction and give slight inputs to bring plane back to neutral after an ossilation or two. After the plane is back to Neautral try and reflect what could have caused it. Learn from it.

Flying in midday you'll get the turbelance and you'll learn to relax instead of fighting the plane back to neatral in one motion. Do it over two ossilations instead.

Some people do a "washing machine roll" on the control input when they hit it .i.e. run a small circular movement which cycles the wing left, up, right, and down and then back to neautral.

[Robin Hood]

Now you have hit on a 'worry spot' of mine Morph. I turn round immediately when alone as well! And for at least a year after getting my MPL it did not really phase me at all. I now avoid any koppies like the plague! And I fly high - at least 2 000 AGL. All the guys are laughing at me.

About a month ago I was alone at the field. Windsock was moving up and down a bit but the trees showed no movement. I went up and 20 feet in the air I was looking at the sky. Then up, then down. Bouncing like hell.
I gave no calls, just plonked on the tarmac as soon as I could. Shaking like a leaf.

There was no way I could have expected that. All my previous experience showed me that all was 100% for a flight. What happens if I hit that when far from the field? I am terrified of trying to execute a turn in those coditions - will the trike not flip very easily?

[Fairy Flycatcher]

About a month ago I was alone at the field. Windsock was moving up and down a bit but the trees showed no movement. I went up and 20 feet in the air I was looking at the sky. Then up, then down. Bouncing like hell.
I gave no calls, just plonked on the tarmac as soon as I could. Shaking like a leaf.

I am going with Demon on this one. Know your sky and what causes turbulence and you will be much more comfortable. Do you lapse rate was for the day? Was it post frontal by any chance?? Remember there are a lot of variables in the weather. Post frontal (cold front) conditions are normally much more unstable. If the sky is light blue and the sun warm, chances are that the thermals will talk a bit more than on other days. And you do not have to have cu's hanging all around for thermic turbulence to be pressent. Clear skies, high lapse rate, light winds - these things can make for much worse conditions than clouded skies and strong wind. Clouds can be excellent indicators of stability. If there are any clouds around, see how much vertical development they have (how far their tops extend from their bottoms)

There was no way I could have expected that. All my previous experience showed me that all was 100% for a flight. What happens if I hit that when far from the field? I am terrified of trying to execute a turn in those coditions - will the trike not flip very easily?

Fear of the unknown is the biggest contributing factor for disliking turbulence. Know your micro-meteorology backwards!!

If you stick within your aircrafts' turbulent operating paramaters, you will be fine. The safety measures built into trike wings are amazing (sweep-back, reflex, washout etc.) And although thermic turbulence can get nasty as well, if you keep your banks to medium turns (no more than 20 degrees), you can correct any increases caused by turbulence (don't do steep turns in thermic turbulence, it may cause a side-slip which needs a lot of height to recover)

Just because you have flown from your local airfield a lot, does not make it any safer than anywhere else, in fact, you might want to keep a couple of alternatives in mind with different micrometeorology factors in case your local airfield is not ideal.


Dealing with turbulence gets a lot easier as you build hours. I think as you slowly accept it as just another part of flying and "survive" so many bumps, you build confidence and grow to accept

[IFLYHI]

Turbulance does not phase me (not to badly). If flying becomes work well then it is just that -work- So first price is avoid working and fly for pleasure only, but if I am on my way somewhere and hit a rough patch I will just "work" through it. Not to much input, if the general direction is on coarse the plane will not fall apart (but then again I fly a T-bird ) Changing altitude sometimes work too. The other day I gradualy decended, I hit a layer of about 200' that was extremly bumpy passing that it was smooth as glass again.
I think the fact that I spent a record time in rough highveld weather circuits just because my instructor did not want to send me solo in the August winds also help to built my confidence

[Morph]

Do you (know what the) lapse rate was for the day?

FF where do we get this information? I know that if the ELR (Environmental Lapse Rate) exceeds the Saturated Lapse Rate (3deg C per 1000 feet) then you have unstable conditions and vice versa for stable conditions. I have looked on Weather SA under the aviation and normal sections and they don't give it.

[Robin Hood]

Thanks FF

Now that was amazing information for me. I have to ask a question at the risk of getting shot down. You ask - "Do I know what the lapse rate was for the day?" Man, I don't even know what lapse rate means!!

Where can I look this up? SA Weather? And what do I look for or how do I read it?

Lastly, was it it you and your Skygod offering the advanced flying course? If so, Where do I find out costs/time needed etc.?

[Fairy Flycatcher]

If I am unsure (or if it is relevant to where and how long I will be flying - cause at the coast it hardly ever matters -) I ask the local met office. We phone the one in Durban on 0822 33 9500 and ask for Aviation met. They have some new guys there, who together with some of the older ones are very helpfull.

The best link for lapse rates and thermal activity is www.weathersa.co.za/glider

I do not think you have to always know the exact lapse rate, but it important to understand how factors like these affect your flying, and when the lapse rate is likely to be higher or lower.

It is not just wind and hills. Weather and the sky is complex, and you often get blue-sky turbulence (non-cloud-indicated turbulence) which takes a while to figure out, if you ever do.

Weather, and specifically micrometeorology is something I think lacks in our general training. I love trying to figure out what is happening in the sky, and have often been accused of hang-driving. (looking out the windscreen at the sky - as apposed to hang gliding)

I guess it is not something we all care about, but if you are flying in the sky, don't you want to know more about it?

[Tailspin]

I find that if there is turbulance or i get caught by a front i try to get away from it as quickly as possible. By not grabbing the bar but loosely holding it just enough so it cannot get pulled from my hands and then try to relax my arms as much as possible - and sorta guiding the plane more or less in the direction i want it to go and just let it kick and buck with the wind till it settles. Seems to have worked so far.

Will try to avoid it though as much as possible.

[krusty]

I find that if there is turbulance or i get caught by a front i try to get away from it as quickly as possible. By not grabbing the bar but loosely holding it just enough so it cannot get pulled from my hands and then try to relax my arms as much as possible - and sorta guiding the plane more or less in the direction i want it to go and just let it kick and buck with the wind till it settles. Seems to have worked so far.

Will try to avoid it though as much as possible.

That's pretty much been my (limited) experience as well. My instructor (Dirty Harry to those who know him) taught me that you can learn to anticipate what the wing is going to do before it actually does it. This is not scientific and sounds a little hocus pokus, but it's almost like the wing/bar becomes an extension of your arms.

I only have 7.4 hours on trikes and 95% of that is in the berg where you fly with turbulence, or you don't fly at all. (I've had one awesome late afternoon flight around 11000ft in the berg where we sat in an inversion and I felt like I was (f)lying on candyfloss - best flight ever.)

I always suffered from the cramped arms and white knuckles until I was shown the 30second thing as FF mentioned above. Since then I've been ok with bounces and have learned to hold the bar loosely and just steer in the general direction.... You can't fight every bump, just learn to roll with it.

Also, the circular motion thing mentioned above is also GREAT to get things stabilised.

[Fairy Flycatcher]

Thanks FF

Now that was amazing information for me. I have to ask a question at the risk of getting shot down. You ask - "Do I know what the lapse rate was for the day?" Man, I don't even know what lapse rate means!!

Where can I look this up? SA Weather? And what do I look for or how do I read it?

Lastly, was it it you and your Skygod offering the advanced flying course? If so, Where do I find out costs/time needed etc.?

Sorry Robin Hood, I was busy posting my message when you asked these questions. Your instructor should have given you some notes on weather? I am confident that most PPL pilots don't know what lapse rate is either, and probably a good chunk of the microlighters out there.

Anyway, lapse rate is the tendency for the air to get cooler as you go higher. There is standard atmospheric lapse rate which is about 2 C for every 1000'. When the lapse rate for that day is higher, thermals rise very quickly, as they never catch up with the temperature of the air around them.

Example: Thermals rising cool down at about 2 C per 1000', but the air around the thermal cools down by 3 C per 1000', so the thermal is always warmer than the air around it, so it keeps rising, and it needs less of a trigger to start. So higher lapse rate, more unstable.

When the lapse rate is lower, the rising thermal catches up to the temperature around it very quickly, so thermals do not go very high, nor very fast, and the day is more stable.

There is a great book by Dennis Pagan, "Understanding they Sky" I still do not undertand a lot of what he writes in the book, but it has helped a lot!

[BIG-G]

I would say that most of us hate being bounced around fighting the bar.

There is not too much you can do if you run into a frontal system other than doing a 180 turn and running away. I know its often not easy, but maintain a steady force on the bar. Dont fight it you will exhaust yourself.

Often the wind can be howling but smooth. This can be a great oppurtunity to learn to read the wind. Imagine you are dealing with water and what would water do when hitting cetain obstacles. Dont fly on the downwind side of mountains, obstacles etc.

You could also use the wind to ride the ridge lift. A lot of fun and you may even be able to switch off your engine.