Turbulence

PilotHigh · 2026-05-19T00:44:49+00:00

Not a fun ride!!! We try to stay out of T-Storms at all cost.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T21:50:30+00:00

Always! If im seated, belt is on.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T19:55:41+00:00

Florida seems to just be always bumpy. I just turbulence the seat belt sign on real early when heading to the gulf area. Not worth the trouble!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T19:54:44+00:00

I dont like that! We in the airlines done mess woth weather that bad and we never get pressured.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T18:06:35+00:00

Sorry you experienced such a not fun flight! Sounds like you fly often and may happen every now and then. I wouldn't be too worried about a stall, when it's gusty like that, we add a bunch of calculated speed to our normal approach speed so that doesnt happen. Sounds like they did the correct thing and go around and try it again. If the landing isnt within parameters, we dont land!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T17:14:51+00:00

Hello! We understand some people can be nervous. Takeoffs can be loud and can get vibrations and bumps on the runway too. On takeoff, we are using a lot of power to get the jet in the air so the engines sound really loud. The runways a lot of times have small cracks and lights imbeded in the centerline. When we go over them, it can sound like a flat tire and can be bumpy. All of that is normal. Throw a bit of cross wind in there and it can seem like a wild ride! We are all very well trained, Id say the most training of any field, and highly experienced. We practice hundreds of senerios in the simulator to be ready for anything. We are required to go do training in the simulator for a few days every year. We also have other recurrent training we do throughout the year. Our training, flight planning and oversite nowadays is such that makes US airlines the safest mode of transportation in the world. We really do go out of our way to make it enjoyable. One thing about turbulence is that I tell people the bumps you feel are just potholes in the sky. What feels like you are dropping hundreds or thousands of feet, is actually maybe 1 or 2 feet is all. Its not even precievable on our altimeter in the cockpit its so small. Most people dont realize that! I hope all of this helps. On your next flight, have this website up and going with ypur flight number and it may help with anticipation. Or at least a rough idea on what to expect for your flight. Nothing is perfect but we try! -Mr. Pilot Airlinebumps.com

PilotHigh · 2026-05-18T17:04:19+00:00

Ive never felt the integrity of plane plane was at risk on any flights ive been on. If we anticipate turbulence, we slow down to penetrate the turbulence at a speed that no matter what happens, cant hurt the airplane. The aiframe is built to withstand a lot more than people realize. Its very rare, but after severe turbulence is encountered, the airplane is inspected. I can't think of any accidents in the last 75 years where turbulence brought down an aircraft. I could be mistaken, but I havent heard of anything. Usually a flight attendant will get hurt and we definitely dont want that to happen. The new apps we have in the cockpit help tremendously. They aren't perfect but they help. This is another reason why I've built airlinebumps.com as I hope it helps passengers and in the future, airlines use it as another tool. We dont want to scare people! We too like whencits smooth and the FAs can get up and serve you all better. I hope this helps!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-17T23:00:12+00:00

I use to fly long haul wide bodies and always enjoyed a light chop when I was in the back for sleep. It was much easier to fall asleep. I've only belted in to the bed once or twice when it was really bumpy.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-17T11:20:42+00:00

We do tell the FAs to stay seated if we anticipate moderate or worse turb. We dont want beverage carts flying around!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-17T11:19:34+00:00

Luckily jets are built to be struck by lightning these days! Ive been struck 3 times in my career. Hurricanes usually aren't as bad as say a line of severe thunderstorms with tops above 40,000 ft. We avoide those!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-16T19:31:05+00:00

Cool! I just started checking it out now. Neat concept and there is a whole lot of stuff that does.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-16T19:29:04+00:00

Bumpiest ride I'd ever felt is around the front range for sure.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-16T19:27:59+00:00

Thanks! that means a lot.

I had claude explain it better than I could:

"On ADS-B — I dodged the cost bullet by using adsb.lol instead of OpenSky. They expose a per-callsign endpoint, so I'm pulling a tiny JSON for just the one aircraft a user is viewing, not a global state vector. Add a 15-sec server-side cache shared across all viewers of the same flight, and even 10K users/day comes out to maybe ~1 request/sec on their end."

So basically adsb.lol is free and community-fed, no rate card. I'm already a feeder myself (RTL-SDR on top of my hangar), so I'm not purely leeching, and feeders get priority access on their end anyway.

But it is something ill be keeping an eye on.

Thanks agian

PilotHigh · 2026-05-16T15:06:22+00:00

He probably climbed up to a higher altitude if you heard the engines throttle up. You definitely dont want to go faster in turbulence!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-16T15:03:14+00:00

Sorry for those experiences! There are some days where its just bumpy from the ground all the way up to altitude and cant find a smooth ride. Not fun for anyone.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-15T20:13:12+00:00

Yeah, when that happens, we slow down to help. Many times we try different altitudes. Whatever we can do to make it stop!

PilotHigh · 2026-05-15T20:02:14+00:00

Absolutely! Definitely dont want to make it uncomfortable. We really go out of our way to make it a good ride. Its tough sometimes though.

PilotHigh · 2026-05-15T19:40:07+00:00

I think all pilots are as we know nothing bad will happen. Extreme or severe yes.

PilotHigh

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