Ray51

Has anyone experienced much air turbulence discomfort , on the flights to , or from Oz ?
If "yes" : on which sections of the route/s?
Thxs!

jothefw

My mum's just returned from Adelaide back to Heathrow via Singapore and had turbelence on both legs of journey.

Didn't really cause too many dramas and I'm not sure you could take a route and guarantee no turbelence if that's the reason behind your question?

themerlin

I think you tend to get it more in the tropics becuase of all the storms. But you can get it all over the place.

thebears

When the air dollies want everyone sitting down (ie just before serving meals or when they want a break).

Seriously though expect it as you pass from land to sea or over mountainous regions.

sassie

There is no rhyme or reason when air turbulence may occur as it can occur for a number of reasons, i.e. thunderstorms, atmospheric pressure, jet streams, flying through cloud can cause some minor turbulence, flying over mountain ranges, cold or warm fronts, etc. so it can occur at any time.

Swerv-o

Turbulence is generally caused by the rising and falling of the convection currents in the earths atmosphere. The warm air is rising, but as it cools, it loses energy, then sinks back again in a cycle. The turbulence you experience in a plane is when you fly through either a strong current or a current boundary.

When you get a more pronounced boundary between two currents, then you get more pronounced air turbulence. For example, when flying over mountains, the air is cooler, but if you then start to fly over plains, then you will encounter turbulence as the air becomes warmer and is rising faster.

It's pretty hard to predict when and where you will encounter it though. Usually it isn't dangerous though. Just get a scotch and think of something else

S

Ray51

...just that the OH is petrified of such long flights - the furthest we've flown so far were places like Cape Town , Toronto , Hong Kong , Dubai i.e. half the distance to Oz , at best , maybe ?
Valium-time , then ?

thebears

The last 5 flights from Singapore to Oz have encountered none or very little turbulence. Just remember that the pilots do instill artificial turbulence for crowd control.

Always sit with your seat buckle on

Pollyana

PMSL!!!! (my best friend is an airline pilot........

Thats really good advice - always keep your belt done up, even if loosely, when seated. CAT (Clear air turbulance) can strike anytime anywhere, and though the pilots are sometimes wanred by flights in front which have encountered it, often there is no warning at all. Worst I've know was an hour over central Aus, heading MEL-London - that was bad enough for the crew to stop serving food, but it didn't cause me to spill my drink!

thebears

Yes I had it happen to me back in the 80's flying over Brisbane. Dropped 200 metres in about 2 seconds.

Then my stomach a minute later.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Worst incident I have had flying was when the pilot overdid the throttle back of the engines, taking off from Prestwick airport. The plane dropped like a stone and scared the shit out of everybody on board, including the stewardesses. several of whom were white after it happened.

Brisben

I hate flying and then I love it all in one flight... I had turbulence from northa america for 5 hours , I had white knuckles and no amount of whisky cured me...

The Bloke

...and that was only in an express elevator in a highrise.

Mid Lifer.

I remember reading in the paper that a Pilot had left his intercom on while landing .On the 1st bounce he shouted out "Whoaa there big fella".

gidxg03

I've flown loads of times. Never had a problem... until we flew Jetstar from Sydney to Christchurch last year. Worst *****ing experience of my life...

3 Hour flight, take off was fine and all was well for about 30 mins. Then we hit the turbulence. Not regular bumpy turbulence but plane shaking all over the place turbulence. Seatbelt signs came on and air hostesses sat down. Pilot came an intercom to say we would hit this for a few minutes and then we would be clear. It went on for 90 mins. One of the air hostesses started crying. My wife was praying. No further announcements from the pilot which scared the shít out of everyone..

We eventually came through it and meal service resumed. I asked the air hostess was this a regular thing and would she think we would hit more (trying to clutch to a little comfort). No it was not a regular occurance and yes we would hit more coming into Christchurch. I thanked her for her comfort.

I hate flying ever since. As soon as we hit any turbulence I get really scared!! We flew to Orlando last October and the plane hit bad turbulence on take off, rising and falling, flying sideways etc. If I had a parachute I'd have probably jumped out!!

I did a lot of reading up afterwards and was very interested to read the statistics. The wings of a 747 are stres tested by pulling them back [b]45 degrees[b/] during manufacture. Turbulance is like bumps on the road for a car and really nothing to worry about. I don't think a plane has ever crashed from turbulence. The chances of dying in a plane crash are so slim it is ridiculous to worry about it. It's about 1 in 10 million. Dying in a car crash is much much higher. Ryanair (over 1 million passangers), Air Lingus, Virgin and many many more airlines have never crashed and think about how many planes per day fly!! B.A. have only ever had one incident in Manchester airport where the plane caught fire before take off. Sadly many died but this was years ago.

Still this is of little comfort to me when we hit turbulence. Sorry for long winded reply but this is, unfortunately, something dear to my heart!!