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Yesterday was a first for me. Calm wind, 56F, ceiling 5600, vis 10sm. 2500MSL, 86 kts, just cruising. Without any warning, the right wing dropped and the plane nosed down, lost 200+ feet in seconds, but thankfully no spin; stall recovery worked. Scared? Big Time. I believe I just met Mr Wind Shear, that devil that lurks unseen in the sky, just waiting to soil some student pilot's drawers. I hope he got a good laugh . I sure didn't.
HAPPYDAN wrote:Yesterday was a first for me. Calm wind, 56F, ceiling 5600, vis 10sm. 2500MSL, 86 kts, just cruising. Without any warning, the right wing dropped and the plane nosed down, lost 200+ feet in seconds, but thankfully no spin; stall recovery worked. Scared? Big Time. I believe I just met Mr Wind Shear, that devil that lurks unseen in the sky, just waiting to soil some student pilot's drawers. I hope he got a good laugh . I sure didn't.
What do you think you encountered? Sink? Decrease in headwind or increase in tailwind? What did your ASI do?
HAPPYDAN wrote:Yesterday was a first for me. Calm wind, 56F, ceiling 5600, vis 10sm. 2500MSL, 86 kts, just cruising. Without any warning, the right wing dropped and the plane nosed down, lost 200+ feet in seconds, but thankfully no spin; stall recovery worked. Scared? Big Time. I believe I just met Mr Wind Shear, that devil that lurks unseen in the sky, just waiting to soil some student pilot's drawers. I hope he got a good laugh . I sure didn't.
If the air was otherwise smooth, don't discount wingtip vortices from an unseen heavy above.
Fly enough and these "air pockets" will periodically rear their ugly heads. Good reason not to have loose items laying around, and a snug seatbelt!
Fast Eddie B.
Sky Arrow 600 E-LSA • N467SA
CFI, CFII, CFIME [email protected]
As a student pilot years ago, on one my cross-countries, I encountered a downburst that was completely crazy. Flying on a summer VFR day in Minnesota - broken layer at 8-9000, I'm flying at about 5-6000, great visibility, no precipitation in the forecast (this was in the 80s so well before all the radar and GPS stuff). I remember I was over one of MN's 10,000 lakes ... As I flew under a darker part of the broken layer - BOOM! It was like I had stepped on the down elevator. VSI pinned at -2000 FPM. No turbulence, IAS remained about 100 as I recall (was in a 152). Attitude remained straight and level. I was just in a rapidly descending air mass that was taking my Cessna with it.
Went to full throttle and slight pitch up attitude. Unpinned the VSI but just barely ... Then as soon as it started, it ended. The plane lurched upward and began climbing .... But I had lost over 3000 feet in just over a minute. Scared the heck out of me. But it was a great lesson in wind/weather and the power of the wind ... Would have been a wet and hard landing if it had continued ...
Glad you turned out ok and didn't go into a spin. I do think the wake turbulence thing may have validity based on the wing drop but I'm no expert ...
Frankly, I don't know what happened. The attitude indicator exceeded 60 degrees of bank to the right, then it went nose down and began falling. Eased back on the stick and leveled the wings. The more I thought about it, I seemed to have remembered something similar happened a few years ago to an airliner on final, somewhere in Texas. That was blamed on windshear, so I just made the assumption.
Sounds very similar to mountain wave, which I have experienced in mild form. Weird feeling to be at full power in a climb attitude and be barely holding altitude or be sinking.
Andy Walker
Athens, GA
Sport Pilot ASEL, LSRI
2007 Flight Design CTSW E-LSA
and the plane nosed down, lost 200+ feet in seconds, but thankfully no spin; stall recovery worked. Scared? Big Time. I believe I just met Mr Wind Shear, that devil 
that lurks unseen in the sky, just waiting to soil some student pilot's drawers. I hope he got a good laugh 
. I sure didn't. 
