31
votes
Can you ride a storm to save fuel?
Not storms, but there is a concept called "Pressure Pattern Flying" where you plan routing to stay in favourable circulation around Highs and Lows, to the extent that deviations to follow ...
- 136k
17
votes
Accepted
How much water does it take to cause a flameout in a modern turbine engine?
Turbofans are the best at taking in a large volume of water. Almost all of it stays in the bypass stream, as it's deflected away from and around the core's inlet. Most turbofans are designed to Part ...
- 30.2k
16
votes
Has a micro-burst or wind shear caused fatalities on takeoff?
One (of several) incidents that I remember was Pan Am Flight 759. It encountered windshear after takeoff from New Orleans' Moisant Airport July 9, 1982 and crashed, killing all aboard and several on ...
- 161
14
votes
Accepted
Can you ride a storm to save fuel?
What size aircraft are we talking about? The FAA recommends staying at least 20 miles from any thunderstorm activity for GA aircraft. I can only imagine that they would double, triple, or quadruple ...
- 16.6k
13
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to navigate a storm?
If you're flying through a thunderstorm, lightning is the least of your concerns. Airplanes are struck by lightning all the time, and while it may mess with your electronics (navigation, radio, etc.), ...
- 12.8k
13
votes
Accepted
How did this air force plane likely get into the eye of Hurricane Florence?
They fly straight through, as part of their mission to collect meteorological data about the storm, used for forecasting (NOAA's G-IV fleet flies the periphery of storms to collect data used to help ...
- 8,326
7
votes
Accepted
Why is taxiing super slow after an ILS CATIIIB landing in almost zero visibility?
The reason for using taxiway C is described in the Low Visibility Procedures from the AIP:
4.4.4 At present, TWY ‘C’ and Stand no 11 to 14 are equipped with CAT IIIB lighting system as per short term ...
- 37k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the weather term for snow and dust mixture?
I lived and flew in North Dakota for about three years. While I was there, people talked about (and I experienced) the delightful mixture of snow and dirt called snirt. It can be the result of plowing ...
- 23.4k
5
votes
Is the size of hail on the ground any indication of the winds and updrafts of a thunderstorm?
The October 2018 issue of AOPA's "Flight Training" magazine provided the following illustration and comments.
A 24mph updraft will form ~1/4" hail, while a 98mph updraft will form
4" hail.
Down ...
- 11.5k
5
votes
Accepted
How do modern commercial aircraft handle dust storms?
There is an interesting presentation on the impact of dust on aircraft here. And the Flight Safety foundation has a good article that breaks down a lot of aspects here and is worth the read.
It's ...
- 102k
4
votes
What is the weather term for snow and dust mixture?
I've never heard of that, as an aviation term or otherwise. The term doesn't show up on the NOAA page for decoding METAR reports, and a Google search doesn't show anything promising along those lines ...
- 53.7k
4
votes
Accepted
How does an organization decide to evacuate planes (e.g. in a hurricane)?
This can be dependent on a few things. For larger organizations like airlines resources may not be an issue (they generally have pilots needed to move the planes). For smaller organizations it may ...
- 102k
4
votes
Accepted
Can Ballistic Parachute Recovery Systems be safely deployed in a storm?
Manufacturers are going to have different opinions of this scenario, but this answer follows the opinion of Cirrus Aircraft in their flight manuals and CCIP syllabi for the SR2X airplanes.
First off, ...
- 75k
4
votes
What would define a thunderstorm that you would stay 20 miles away from?
Well, you won't get a ticket if you get too close, but please remember thunderstorms can produce very violent winds, and the cloud is produced by the updraft.
Sinking air and turbulence may be present ...
- 21.4k
3
votes
Why is buffet and/or stall more likely to occur in a thunderstorm?
This is a strange question and answer. (It would be great if you could post a link to or citation for this "question" and "answer.")
First of all... don't fly in thunderstorms!
If ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
How much water does it take to cause a flameout in a modern turbine engine?
You may wish to start by looking at a maximum amount of rain possible per given volume of air. Then evaluate air flow into the turbine, as any circular motion will tend to sling droplets to the side.
...
- 21.4k
3
votes
Accepted
What ILS type approach my flights landing could be?
The 3 METARs all indicate extremely poor visibility. The first one (02:30Z) said:
0000 R27/0075 FG VV///
which means visibility less than 50m (0000), Rwy 27 RVR 75m (R27/0075), fog (FG) and vertical ...
- 58.3k
2
votes
Can Ballistic Parachute Recovery Systems be safely deployed in a storm?
In contrast, consider the success rate of another emergency egress aircraft system: The ACES II ejection seat USAF reports that in envelope success rate of ACES II is 94.4%, and combined in envelope ...
- 8,817
2
votes
How do modern commercial aircraft handle dust storms?
Yea, the simple answer is avoid them, but of course that's not always possible. With enough forewarning, maintenance crews would do their best to get aircraft in hangars, or evacuate them from the ...
- 1,443
1
vote
What would define a thunderstorm that you would stay 20 miles away from?
I've come across a rule of thumb that says to stay as many NM away from a storm as its tops in '000s of feet. So 20NM would be a minimum distance for a storm that tops out at FL200. For a really ...
- 131
1
vote
Accepted
What are the Requirements for the implimentation of Low Visibility Procedures at an airport?
It is the RVR values that are used to determine the applicable minima.
The switch from normal to LVP Ops varies from airport to airport but the changeover process typically commences when the dropping ...
- 1,625
1
vote
What is the best way to navigate a storm?
You DO have other choices than to fly through a thunderstorm, or trying to land in one.
It has been mentioned, and I will repeat again, thunderstorms present great danger with wind
shear, hail, ...
- 21.4k
1
vote
How did this air force plane likely get into the eye of Hurricane Florence?
The US Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron's main task is to gather data about storms. They fly C-130s into and around storms including hurricanes.
Anilv
- 4,576
1
vote
Is the size of hail on the ground any indication of the winds and updrafts of a thunderstorm?
Certainly. There are two effects involved here which I will describe briefly as follows:
first of all, a small spherical object will exhibit a well-defined terminal velocity when free-falling in air. ...
- 22.2k
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