Yesterday I was on a flight when there was a some slight turbulence. The type of very slight shake that doesn’t so much as cause experienced passengers to look up from their book. A few seconds later the pilot announced that all passengers and flight crew should take their seats and fasten seatbelts immediately. His voice wasn’t panicky, but it was certainly the most agitated and emphatic announcement I have ever heard from the flight deck. Very shortly afterwards (less than 30 seconds later, probably much less) we hit the worst turbulence I’ve ever been through. Not enough to injure anyone, and no significant harm done. It was all over a few seconds after that.
How did the pilot know that the plane was about to hit turbulence, and that it was going to be bad?
Presumably, if it was based on knowledge of weather or wind patterns in the area, he would have known about it much earlier, not just a few seconds before. It seems as if he must have received a particular indication, at the last moment.
What instrumentation would have been involved? Radar?
Or I suppose alternatively he did know that the plane was going to pass through significant turbulence at a particular height (we were climbing, still) but simply forgot to announce anything until he was reminded by the initial slight shake.
IANAP, but i suspect a previous plane had gone through it shortly before and that plane’s pilot relayed that information to a control tower, where upon it was relayed to your pilot.
All airliners and even smaller planes give en route weather updates to Air Traffic Control any time there is something notable. These are considered to be the best and most current weather reports. Airliners tend to be routed at consistent altitudes and headings so severe turbulence is usually reported from the planes just ahead and either heard directly by the following plane or relayed by ATC.
We gave basically the same answer but the control towers are at the airport and they are not the whole air traffic control system. En route aircraft at altitude talk to the center controllers which are usually housed in a nondescript building at the periphery of some of our major cities. They guide flights once they are away from the immediate vicinity of the airports.
Also pilots can look out to the front of the plane; if there´s a significant cloud formation, something like a thunderstorm on the flight path and really no place or time (or there are clouds everywhere) to go around it he pilot will know that when they get into the updraft area of the cloud things will get jumpy.
Large cumulonimbus can stir a lot of air even at hight altitudes.
The short answer: most likely, another plane ahead on the same or similar route had encountered the turbulence and had made a radio call to alert others, which was either heard directly by or relayed to other pilots
I guess that’s true if by “periphery” you mean “way out in the sticks”. I did a project involving 6 different Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Of the 6, only the Dallas/Fort Worth ARTCC was even in the same city. Chicago’s is in Aurora, Seattle’s is in Auburn, and Los Angeles’ is all the way out in Palmdale! I guess Salt Lake City’s could be considered “on the periphery”, but really, once you hit the periphery of SLC, there really isn’t anything else to hit.
For flights that I take, a small sensor in my seat cushion signals when I get up to move about the cabin, like for a bathroom break. After a short delay, me with pants pants down, the pilot makes the announcement about severe turbulence and everyone except Steve in the bathroom must buckle up. I then experience numerous weightless moments slamming about in a leaky closet with the lights flashing on and off.
Stunningly common occurrence! Just check my seat for occupancy if sharing my flight.
Don’t forget the Northeast ATC center, nominally Boston. But it’s located about 40 miles away, in Nashua/Merrimack NH. Of course, it covers a vast area.
As to the OP…
If you were climbing, you were VERY likely on near enough to exactly the same track as another outbound plane, which would have been gone through the turbulent zone just a minute or two before.
One other thought I had is that perhaps another plane had crossed your path, the pilot had seen it, and knew that it would cause some turbulance once you hit the wake turbulence. Years ago, while in a small plane (Beechcraft Skipper) flying from Lawrence MA to Portland ME, just to get my friend some hours in his log, a T-38 trainer took off from Pease. The ATC came on and advised us that it was crossing our path, some number of miles away. When we went through his wake, the plane rocked around quite a bit. :eek: I’d guess that it had been about 2 minutes from the time we saw the T-38 climb through our altitude/heading. I know that the sizes are very dissimilar from those of a large commercial passenger jet, but the ideas are the same. If anything, the ‘time to dissipate’ would be longer with the larger disturbance of air from a ‘Big Iron.’
My friend, by the way, was not amused at the ATC’s routing of the T-38. I was thrilled, as it looked like it was climbing near to vertical.
If you encounter such turbulence “stunningly” often, I may never fly again. Turbulence is the worst part of flying for me and I can barely tolerate the littlest of bumps. You’ve REALLY been in the can when you bounced around? And it’s a COMMON occurence? What routes? Oh, man, I hate reading that.
Around here Aurora is considered part of the “greater Chicago area”, a.k.a. “Chicagoland”
Despite being in another state entirely, my current residence is also considered part of Chicagoland (under some protest by some locals, but geographically and economically that is the case)
Well, I don’t have quite the same problem. What happens is that a sensor seems to be implanted in my bladder which, as soon as it registers that I need to go, will signal the captain to activate the seatbelt signs.
Some airlines (most frequently, in my experience, United) give you the opportunity to listen to air traffic control over the plane’s entertainment system. It’s quite common to hear pilots passing on information about turbulence to the air traffic control people; ATC will also sometimes ask certain planes about the level of “chop” they encountered during their ascent, or in certain airspace.
Dunno where Princhester was flying, but on the main routes from Australia to Asia/Europe, things tend to get pretty bumpy over the Borneo area for some reason.
Strangely, I often see a funny side to turbulence. Rows and rows of people with their heads rolling around in perfect time is quite a sight.
