Worst turbulence you've experienced?

DTWD said:
They only tend to work up to a certain altitude. Way below cruise altitude that's for sure. However they are used for the landing as they bang on accurate as you say.
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About 2,500 feet for Rad Alt. They also use GPS but its not as accurate as barometric or radar altimeters.
 
the worst and only 1 i have had was on the way to Orlando this year paradigm was on the flight so he may be able to tell you how bad it was but it felt like we dropped a lot of altitude very quickly but my kids being how they are treated it like a roller coaster saying weeeeeeee guy next to us way busy praying every one cheered and clapped when we landed
 
No serious turbulence issues, but I flew on an MD-11 outbound from Manchester to Atlanta once. It was great, even landed the right way up and everything. :)

Then on the Atlanta-Manchester return run, it spat out an engine, and we ended up landing in lovely rustic Gander, Newfoundland. :(
 
never experienced any massive turbulence , interesting to read about dublin landings though because by far the worst landing i ever had was there on a ryandare! we seemed to skip the gently descending part and just fall sideways to the ground with a few bounces.

had to chuckle when the few screams stopped and the ''another safe journey'' trumpet thing they do played though :p
 
In a 2 Seater Chipmunk Trainer on a jolly with the Air Cadets back in the early 80's, thought we were going to die big time even though it was actually quite fun in a mad roller-coaster sort of way.

I also remember hitting turbulence on a flight to Ibiza where it definitely frightened someone on board as the worst thing about it was the whole cabin filling up with that acrid aroma that only a fresh emergency bowel evacuation can emit, which was promptly followed by several passengers filling sick bags, what a nice olfactory experience that flight was...
 
Suarez7 said:
After watching that Horizon program and seeing how much force wings on a plane can withstand I don't think I'll worry about it again. Flight back from Ibiza had turbulence practically all the way back and some people looked pretty worried, only thing that annoyed me was I couldn't sleep through it.
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Have you a link flr the show?
 
I've flown a fair bit and have been lucky enough to never encounter any proper turbulence. Anything I've experienced would probably be classed as light chop. Honestly, never felt anything strong enough to even move my little plastic cup, yet alone spill my beverage!

I did land at Chicago in a blizzard once, which was amazing. The airport was actually closed but we didn't divert for some reason. Couldn't see anything out the window - could have been 50ft off the ground or 5,000ft. Suddenly there was a gentle bump-bump and we were down :D It was an incredibly smooth descent - just one moment when we rolled a little to the left after a jolt of wind. That storm dumped 2ft of snow on Chicago. Plane was a 777 btw.
 
Newcastle to Mexico during the landing. Pilot had to attempt landing twice due to a cross wind (I think from the way the plane was swaying). I'm not a nervous flyer at all, but even I broke out in a cold sweat :D
 
Rusty_Noob said:
Flying between Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney is always fun, given the size of the planes used and the amount of wind that comes through the Channel.
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Try to the Isles of Scilly, 8 seater, with the wind that comes straight off the atlantic!
 
Russinating said:
Not turbulence as such, but flying back from Malta to Bristol in November when we had the particularly bad storms and floods 4 years ago. It was so windy that the plane was literally landing sideways, ie I could see the end of the runway from my window seat. Props to the pilot.
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Crosswind landings happen a lot more than people realise :)
 
Freefaller said:
Worse turbulence was probably during a skydive lift which caused the spotter (chap who lines up where we jump out of) to fall out of the plane (fortunately we were high enough).

In a commercial flight - the worse experience I have had (not that it scared or bothered me) but that caused me to wake up and not allow me to have a coffee, actually popped open some overhead luggage compartments - it didn't trigger the oxygen supply though as we only dropped a couple of hundred feet according to the captain (I asked him once we had landed).

It really isn't that scary, but for those who are nervous flyers, I can imagine it being hell on earth (or in the air) as for those people it is undoubtedly really disconcerting.

I'm a very passive flyer. I guess after spending 6-7 years of my life travelling weekly around the place you get used to it.

Unlike Will Gill who'd rather be lamped before getting on the plane :p
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dear god do i hate flying

when i was much younger (you could still smoke on planes!) we flew over what quickly became a hurricane, which i have subsequently found out was two massive weather systems meeting/hitting each other, we hit an air pocket and dropped 6-7000 feet, we were unable maintain altitude and were (apparently) in a minor spot of bother. There were drinks flying everywhere, people flung all over the gaff and my pants filling with poo. it was just like oblivion at alton towers, just less fun....
it made the papers at the time, before t'net

ever since I've been an utterly awful passenger.
 
Worst I've experienced has been one of the "drop" happenings. Came after a spot of rather shaky turbulence which I was fine with, as never really been concerned unless the cabin crew are losing their **** when it comes to it. Then the drop happened. Felt like being on a roller coaster, and my immediate reaction was just to start wetting myself laughing with the adrenaline rush.

The work colleague that I was flying with wasn't so impressed, though, as he's mortified of flying and had already been expressing his displeasure with the fact that KLM had changed the craft for our normal route to Schiphol to a prop plane. :D I swear it looked like he was ready to start clawing his way out of one of the windows, hahaha. :D
 
Pestilence said:
Worst I've experienced has been one of the "drop" happenings. Came after a spot of rather shaky turbulence which I was fine with, as never really been concerned unless the cabin crew are losing their **** when it comes to it. Then the drop happened. Felt like being on a roller coaster, and my immediate reaction was just to start wetting myself laughing with the adrenaline rush.

The work colleague that I was flying with wasn't so impressed, though, as he's mortified of flying and had already been expressing his displeasure with the fact that KLM had changed the craft for our normal route to Schiphol to a prop plane. :D I swear it looked like he was ready to start clawing his way out of one of the windows, hahaha. :D
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thats what Im like,

i have to fly all over the place for business and i hate it so so much

30mg of valium makes all turbulence go away :D
 
kindai said:
Crosswind landings happen a lot more than people realise :)
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You'd think there would be some way of turning the tyres to cross wind mode so the pilots don't have to snap the plane back straight as soon as the wheels touch the ground.
 
The old Hong Kong airport FML it's like the plane just drops out of the sky past a skyscraper and onto the Tarmac surrounded by water
 
This might sound odd.

I don't mind flying, I hate being out of control.

Be it a passenger in a plane, or a passenger in a car, both are as terrifying for me.

I've flown a plane, and I was fine, even when it got bumpy.

However, I did experience what I'll describe as 'end game' turbulence flying to Thailand last year.

The scene:

Flying on the first leg of our journey, LHR to Singapore. A380, Singapore Airlines. We've been in the air 8 hours, and its been so smooth you could be forgiven for thinking we hadn't taken off. Incredible.

Then, the seatbelt sign came on, a cascade of bongs over the speaker system, and the cabin stewards only just short of running fly to their jump seats.

What followed was an hour of pure terror. I honestly thought I was going to die. Engines screaming, bouncing up and down, the stewardesses looking petrified, constantly tightening their belts. Yeah, it was pretty special.

My wife told me after the flight she would never, ever fly with me again unless I took medication to stay calm. I don't mind admitting I've never been so scared in my entire life, even a passenger ride in Will Gill's P1 was calm by comparison.
 
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