Don’t let anxiety over turbulence ruin your next flight. Having a clear understanding of turbulence will overcome your fears. It’s amazing when I travel in coach class how often I see people freak out when theres’ a little ruffle of turbulence in the air. What’s important to know is that turbulence may make you feel uneasy,but it has never caused an airplane to crash. However,there is one minor exception that I will discuss later. All airplanes are build to withstand a lot of air pressure, & structural stress. The wings are made to take an incredible amount of flexing & bending in which turbulence can’t replicate. There are five reasons for turbulence. In general,the most common type of turbulence occurs when the suns’ radiation heats the earths’ surface. This turbulence is called convective.This heated surface creates updrafts that create convective currents. These currents ascend up,& descend down so that when an aircraft is flying through it,you get constant bumps. This is the most common type of turbulence, & you could usually predict it by the puffy shape white clouds associated with it called cumulus clouds. Another type of turbulence comes from obstructions near the airport.
Obstructions near an airport like rough terrain,or buildings disrupt smooth wind flow into disruptive patterns. You will usually feel this type when when taking off,or landing. One example of an airport that suffers from this type of turbulence is Las Vegas McCarran Airport. There are mountains-surrounding this airport, but also a series of large casinos in close proximity of the airport-Turbulence from thunderstorms is another type of turbulence that occurs because of unstable air around thunderstorms. Thunderstorms create tremendous updrafts & downdrafts. This type of turbulence is easy to see because- its on weather radar & pilots could fly around it,or over it. Another common type of turbulence is called wake. This is the only turbulence that has caused an airplane to crash & is that one rare exception. But this is not turbulence in the traditional sense.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/983963
