What exactly is turbulence, and is it at all an indication of danger during a flight?
In: Physics
Different pieces of air have different properties. Turbulence is just the plane adjusting itself to fly in a different type of air. When the difference is big the turbulence is worse but the plane will handle it no problem. There is basically zero danger to turbulence and in the extremely rare cases there is there are procedures to avoid it.
Turbulence is nothing to be afraid of. The weatherman can’t even really tell if it’s gonna rain. Should the pilot be expected to know if a random quarter mile of the atmosphere is going to be a bit silly? It’s just air that isn’t like the air around it for whatever reason, be it temperature, humidity, etc. It has nothing to do with the condition or safety of the plane.
Turbulances are basically wind. There is always turbulances everywhere. And it is not a black or white thing.
So is it an indication of danger? Is wind dangerous? Light wind will not even be noticed. Moderate is annoying. Heavy is seatbelt. Crazy high wind is like a tornado, it may throw things arounds. Pilots avoid them, but sometime there is just no real way to avoid it, or sometime to even predict them.
The main danger is not for the aircraft itself, but for objects being throw due to the suddent movement of the aircradt, and unbuckled passengers. But that is only when it is very severe turbulences
My friend’s dad is a pilot for a major airline. When I once told him that turbulence makes me nervous he said, do you get nervous when you drive on a toad that’s a little bumpy? I said “no” and he said, “turbulence is basically just a gravel road in the sky.”
Here is a video on turbulence by a 747 pilot
where he explained turbulence like this:
Aircraft are built to handle conditions many times worse than those actually experienced. The only reason to care about turbulence is passenger comfort so they will try to go around or slow down if they see it.
He also flies cargo planes and in that case they just ignore it, plane can take it and pilots are strapped in anyway.
Turbulence is turbulent air, the plane is colliding with denser moving air which makes it shake and rattle. Moving air can leave lighter, less dense patches which can make the plane ‘drop’.
Large planes create a lot of turbulent air from their thrust, there’s a case where a large plane flipped a Learjet flying below them due to the turbulence.
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