I know there are ways turbulence can be reduced, but what are these ways that keep the ride comforting and also with better stability.
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3$\begingroup$ Turbulence can't be reduced. It can be avoided and the effect of this natural phenomenon can also be minimized. The common ways of doing this are avoiding areas of turbulence by altering your route or altitude, and by slowing down your airspeed. $\endgroup$– Skip MillerCommented Aug 28, 2015 at 0:07
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$\begingroup$ The only turbulence you can reduce is the one created by the aircraft (wake trubulence) and it is done by aircraft's design. Otherwise you can reduce effects of turbulence when flying into. You may edit your question to clarify you are asking for reducing effects of turbulences and not turbulences themselves $\endgroup$– Manu HCommented Aug 28, 2015 at 13:28
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2 Answers
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There is no way to really decrease turbulence per-se since its a factor of the air around you. There are ways to mitigate its effects and some are.
- Climb: In some cases the air higher up is less turbulent or you can climb over the weather system causing the turbulent air. In this case climbing to a higher altitude may help
- Divert: Similar to the climb situation you can divert around the turbulent air if you know where its occurring.
- Timing: This is the one you may have the least control over if you are talking about commercial flying and its not always true but generally speaking the winds and thermal activity tend to be calmer in the early morning and evening. Flying around these times may allow you to find smoother air.
- Size: Again this one is hard to control but there is some truth to the fact that big planes will be less effected by turbulent air than small planes. By this I mean that a 777 is going to bump around less than a Piper Cherokee. But it holds more or less true across the board.
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1$\begingroup$ The 787 Gust Suppression System should probably get a mention. $\endgroup$– BenCommented Aug 28, 2015 at 1:27
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1$\begingroup$ I used to fly Fairchild/Fokker F-27s. Fokker believed in, designed, and built rigid wings. The consensus at the time was that this resulted in a slightly rougher ride, a belief that I subscribe to. $\endgroup$– TerryCommented Aug 28, 2015 at 5:00
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$\begingroup$ Sometimes descending (rather than climbing) gives a better ride. NOAA has a great turbulence modelling tool which includes a "side view" of the turbulence along a route and can be used to forecast the best altitude (for turbulence avoidance) to fly at. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 10:35
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$\begingroup$ See also "Valse des Ailerons" - Airbus descriptions give purpose as "turbulence alleviation". Video. This may not be the kind of (more severe?) turbulence intended in the question. Skybrary $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 14:38
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You're not going to reduce the actual turbulence, but you can smooth out the ride a little bit. Slowing down certainly helps. If you are doing 230KIAS and you hit some bumps it is going to hurt more than at 180KIAS. The PC12 is notorious for this in my experience. I found in the Navajo that dropping the gear made the airplane a little more stable in rough weather in the mountains.
I heard an old-timer tell me that pushing the props forward helped because the props work like a gyroscope and remain "rigid in space." I tried it on a particularly rough day where I was making a round trip in SE Alaska in a PA32 and noticed no difference, maybe someone with a physics background could chime in and explain how the guy is right, but in practice, it was just as rough on the way over as on the way back.
