Do you enjoy flying in bumpy wind, thermals, etc.

[mcurcio1989]

Simple question do you still enjoy flying when the plane is getting pushed around?

Reason I ask - I'm a couple weeks from my check ride and I have been in training for 5 months or so and probably close to 40 hours (haven't tallied up lately). Before that I have been flying a powered paraglider for 3 years. I never like going up in anything but very calm smooth air in the paramotor, somewhat for safety but also because I have never enjoyed flying in rough air. Flying is purely recreation for me and I like feeling like I'm the one in control not the weather (of course the weather is always ultimately in control of when you can fly). I figured I would learn to be more comfortable and enjoy flying in rougher air once I got comfortable flying a fixed wing airplane. Of course I still have much to learn and hone in my flying but I just still don't enjoy flying in rough air much. When I say rough air I'm not talking howling winds and huge thermals just enough where your getting bumped around consistently.

Maybe I don't understand the full effect of the wind but that feeling where say I'm flying straight and a gust comes from the right and causes the plane to bank to the left. I put the stick to the right to level the wings and maybe apply some rudder if necessary. But when I pushed the stick to the right the air just doesn't have that nice crisp controlled feel, its mushy feeling.

It isn't a fear of not being able to control the airplane or that I think the winds are dangerous its just that I don't enjoy the feeling. What has your experience on this. Is it a personal preference or something you grow out of with more experience. I really just want to know if its personal preference or just a normal stage of progression.

[Wm.Ince]

. . . "something you grow out of with more experience." . . .

I think you nailed it.

That withstanding, after flying for over 42 years, I still have great respect for mother nature . . . especially since entering the light sport world.

[MrMorden]

I'm a low time pilot (I think 130hrs now), and I have been a very conservative pilot regarding all types of weather -- wind, turbulence, cloud cover, and precipitation.

As I gain more experience, my tolerance for these things has increased. For a long time I set limits for myself of no more than ten knots of wind. Then there were a couple of times where I needed to land the plane in spite of higher winds. Once I was flying to a local pancake breakfast...I took off in 5kt winds, and then had to land in 17G22 (!) at the destination. I just assumed I was going to have to go around a bunch of times or fly back back home, but I got it on the ground. Not my best landing, but not my worst. At the breakfast, when I whined about the conditions, a jet pilot buddy of mine just smiled and said "This is the kind of day that will make you a better pilot."

He was right. Those types of experiences help to build confidence and experience. You don't have to be completely comfortable with them, but being slightly outside your comfort zone really does help build skill. Enjoy yourself flying on those calm days, but occasionally force yourself to fly when it's just a *little* more windy or bumpy than you like it. You will build up a tolerance to those conditions and the skills to deal with them very quickly.

[Jim Stewart]

All I can add is that taking your checkride on a hot, bumpy day is usually a good thing. The bumps cover up your jitters and the examiner will want to get the ride over as soon as possible. Worked for me and my friends.

[CTLSi]

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[Merlinspop]

Most of us use an automobile as our frame of reference. Wind gust bumps in a plane don't feel like a pothole bump in a car, and are unfamiliar and can be uncomfortable. But they do feel similar to the wobbles you get in a canoe when you get waked from a bigger boat.

When you feel the bumps next time flying, try to imagine bobbing along in a canoe, and see if changing your reference mindset helps. And if you can, climb. 1000 feet can make a huge difference. Or none.

[Wm.Ince]

All I can add is that taking your checkride on a hot, bumpy day is usually a good thing. The bumps cover up your jitters and the examiner will want to get the ride over as soon as possible. Worked for me and my friends.

Never thought of it that way, but now . . . it makes a lot of sense and cents.
On a more personal note, for as long as I can remember, most of my checkrides were in a full motion simulator (torture chamber) so none of that made any difference.

[mcurcio1989]

All I can add is that taking your checkride on a hot, bumpy day is usually a good thing. The bumps cover up your jitters and the examiner will want to get the ride over as soon as possible. Worked for me and my friends.

Funny you should mention that because that is really what caused me to write this. I went out yesterday in weather I didn't want to fly in because I wanted to do ground reference maneuvers and practice flying in bumpier air as my CFI gave the same advice. Personally I think everything is easier in smooth air and I can do whatever I have good control of the airplane so I would rather just do it in smooth air but it is very easy to see how the bumps cover up little mistakes

I really like the idea of viewing it as a boat.

CTLSi - I don't fly to go places I fly for fun and I don't think being way high up is any fun its just kind of boring. a couple thousand feet or less is where I like to be and I think LSA's really fit my MO a lot better.

[MrMorden]

I really like the idea of viewing it as a boat.

It's actually an excellent way to look at it. Fluid dynamics and aerodynamics are actually the same discipline; the only difference is the density of the fluid medium involved.

Airplanes are like submarines that are extremely negatively buoyant (because of how thin the liquid medium of air is). Instead of ballast tanks filled with a medium lighter than the fluid we "swim" through, we use speed and REALLY large bow planes called "wings" to generate buoyancy (lift).

There *are* craft that use ballast tanks full of lighter media, we call them "blimps", "zeppelins", and "balloons"!

Wind and turbulence behave exactly like their equivalent currents in water, because it's the exact same thing, only thinner.

[CTLSi]

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[MrMorden]

All I can add is that taking your checkride on a hot, bumpy day is usually a good thing. The bumps cover up your jitters and the examiner will want to get the ride over as soon as possible. Worked for me and my friends.

Funny you should mention that because that is really what caused me to write this. I went out yesterday in weather I didn't want to fly in because I wanted to do ground reference maneuvers and practice flying in bumpier air as my CFI gave the same advice. Personally I think everything is easier in smooth air and I can do whatever I have good control of the airplane so I would rather just do it in smooth air but it is very easy to see how the bumps cover up little mistakes

I really like the idea of viewing it as a boat.

CTLSi - I don't fly to go places I fly for fun and I don't think being way high up is any fun its just kind of boring. a couple thousand feet or less is where I like to be and I think LSA's really fit my MO a lot better.

That's fine. You havn't seen serious turbulence or xwinds yet.

Let me give you two examples. Clear air turbulence, and thermal downdrafts.

I have hit both twice, and each time it made me think twice about going back up again in the CT.

Two CFis I know each had a story for each type of wind too. The first CFI is a 5,000 hour guy who instructs ATP, helos, multi engine etc. He is part owner of a flight school. He was ferrying a CTLS he just bought for the school down the Las Vegas. He hit clear air turbulence just North of the KVGT (a common thing in that part of the desert) and it was so violent he and his CFI passenger both hit their heads on the cross beam in the CT and were knocked semi-conscious. He lost a thousand feet before waking enough to pull the stick back and save both of them. He had blood trickling down his face, and struggled the last 10 miles to the airport. I also hit the same kind of turbulence in pretty much that same spot. But luckily only bad enough to knock stuff off the shelf behind the seats and allow me to regain control without too much loss of altitude.

The second CFI was giving a lesson in his own CTLS near the Sierras. He had done it a lot and knew how to deal with mountain wave winds. On one particular day the winds came up suddenly and he and his student got caught in a downdraft. They were pushed all the way to about 300 feet agl from 3500 agl quickly before he was able to snag back enough control to escape the downdraft and level out and get to the airfield. If he had a little less altitude, it would have been a no BRS crash he said...

It is true the little bumps are no big deal. But there lurks real danger out there,. Knowing what kind of weather and what kind of terrain produces what kind of wind and where these kinds of winds lurk is key to any low level flying you are gonna do over the long run.

You can always count on CTLSi to really help a pilot try to overcome apprehension.

[FastEddieB]

In my experience, no one likes turbulence, but most pilots learn to accept it.

In visual conditions I can pretty much "roll with the punches". Karen trusts me and if it does bother her she doesn't complain.

Mainly, low level turbulence just makes flying a lot more work - all the more reason to get above it when you can.

In instrument conditions I loathed turbulence. So much that I'd go to pretty extreme measures to avoid punching through anything resembling a cumulus cloud. I found something vaguely claustrophobic and unnerving about not knowing how long the conditions would endure, and how strong the turbulence might become. It was always a relief to punch through the other side back into clear air.

But VFR. No problemo. Just take very seriously any Airmet for moderate turbulence or greater. Especially in a Light Sport.

[CTLSi]

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[dcotton]

You never get used to being kicked in the teeth in a light aircraft. If you don't like the experience, get a private license and fly a heavier aircraft. That is what I am doing. Flying above the weather is the key. Flying low and slow and in the crap is no fun. And very limiting.

Funny, all my commercial/high hour friends say the exact opposite. They really, really want to go low and slow.

"Low and Slow baby, its the only way to go" was a recent quote by a friend with over a hundred thousand hours.

Guess it is all a matter of perspective.

[SportPilot]

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