| Practical advice for the pilot who accidentally gets | | | | position where you cannot hear ATC for some time. |
| caught in an embedded thunderstorm. While this should | | | | The intensity of rain in a thunderstorm can be truly |
| never happen it does. Keeping your head is essential | | | | phenomenal. Quite possibly your engine or engines can |
| to survival and having a course of action to follow is | | | | start to ingest a great deal of water. This water can |
| essential to keeping your head. That course of action | | | | turn to ice in your carburetor especially at high altitudes |
| is spelled out here. Written is simple, conversational | | | | and low power settings. When you apply carburetor |
| style. | | | | heat, the mixture enriches forcing you to lean the |
| A very senior pilot was asked, "How might I fly through | | | | engine or risk fouling the spark plugs. Tuning the engine |
| a thunderstorm that I could not avoid?" | | | | is an integral part of flying the airplane, your most |
| The answer he wanted to give was either, "You can't." | | | | important task. |
| or "Don't try." | | | | The updrafts and downdrafts in a thunderstorm can |
| But the question needed to be answered. Here is his | | | | be far greater than a general aviation airplane's ability |
| advice: | | | | to climb or dive. So just ride them out. Don't start |
| Just about the only way to inadvertently get into a | | | | building airspeed by pushing your nose down to stay at |
| thunderstorm is by flying instruments in clouds with | | | | your assigned altitude in a strong updraft. If you get |
| embedded thunderstorms and without either weather | | | | caught in a strong downdraft, go to your best rate of |
| radar equipment onboard or ground-based weather | | | | climb airspeed at full power. You will still go down - just |
| radar available to your air traffic controller. Let's | | | | not as fast and not so far. When the downdraft |
| assume this is how Fate dealt you such a poor hand. | | | | dissipates, you can start climbing back to your |
| The biggest danger in a thunderstorm is structural | | | | assigned altitude. If you have oxygen and perhaps if |
| failure. My advice is: don't do anything that helps the | | | | you don't, ask ATC for a higher altitude so you will |
| thunderstorm break your airplane. When you realize | | | | have a greater margin of safety when you enter your |
| that you are in trouble, slow down. I mean not just to | | | | next overpowering downdraft. If ATC will not grant |
| maneuvering speed but much slower than that. Slow | | | | you a higher altitude, do not be afraid to declare an |
| to what is known as 'slow cruise' - the speed that you | | | | emergency and tell ATC that you are going to a |
| use in holding patterns. This will be fairly close to the | | | | higher altitude. |
| best rate of climb airspeed for your airplane. Slow | | | | There are two things that you should remember here. |
| cruise is slow enough to minimize the adverse effects | | | | First, if the FAA issues a violation, it is better to argue |
| of turbulence and fast enough to keep your controls | | | | in court that you needed that higher altitude than it is to |
| responsive. Consider putting your wheels down. This | | | | have the surviving members of your family argue in |
| will help you stay slow. Most airplanes are not as | | | | court that the FAA should have cleared you to a |
| strong with flaps out, so don't use flaps unless there is | | | | higher altitude. Second, when you go high without |
| no restriction against it in your pilot's handbook for the | | | | oxygen, you get so stupid that you don't know how |
| airplane. | | | | stupid you are. Having said that, when you are at |
| The reason to slow down is that the higher your | | | | 10,000 feet facing 12,000 feet peaks and a known |
| airspeed, the greater force turbulence can impart on | | | | thunderstorm behind you, the options start to narrow. |
| your airplane. That destructive force comes in the | | | | For me, it is better to face hypoxia than certain death. |
| form of lift. Remember that the lift of a fast wing is | | | | To sum it up: Plan your fight and check your weather |
| much greater than the lift of a slow wing. Slow is good. | | | | well enough to know that you are not going into a |
| Too slow is not good simply because the last thing | | | | thunderstorm. |
| that you need is to stall and spin when you are in a | | | | If, by some fluke of nature, you end up in a |
| thunderstorm. | | | | thunderstorm that was not predicted and you could |
| There is an expression in aviation that says a pilot's | | | | not see, then |
| priorities are aviate, navigate and communicate, in that | | | | 1.) Slow down. |
| order. I agree. Certainly your most important task is to | | | | 2.) Remember that flying the airplane is your most |
| fly the airplane. However, you need all the help you | | | | important task. |
| can get. So tell air traffic control (ATC) that you are in | | | | 3.) Get out of the thunderstorm as quickly as possible. |
| trouble and need help. Ask them to vector you out of | | | | 4.) Keep going straight with wings level while you ride |
| the thunderstorm. Tell them that you cannot maintain | | | | out overpowering up and downdrafts. |
| the assigned altitude - because you cannot. Ask them | | | | 5.) Tell ATC. |
| to vector you away from high terrain. Be aware that | | | | 6.) Ask for help. |
| your inability to maintain altitude can easily put you in a | | | | |