How much turbulence is normal?
 

Hi everyone!!
I have a question that I have been longing to ask, but I haven't gotten around to it. It doesn't pretain directly to europe, but i figured that some of the travel buffs would have an idea.
When you are on a flight...how much turbulence is normal? On a couple of my flights it has gotten pretty darn rocky, I just have no idea what is normal? Has anyone had any experiences or knowledge that they wanna share? I have always been curious.

Thanks guys!!

Layla

For some reason, I've never had a lot of turbulence on night flights. But on the way back from Europe in September, the attendants had to get in their jump seats a couple of times.

Good thing they had free Baileys and wine for me. :)

thanks nbody!

if anyone else has any info I'd love to hear it!

Thanks!

Too much turbulence is when strapped to your seat, your bottom actually leaves the seat as on one of our flights to Denver.

Wow! A friend of mine is a pilot, and he had to fly through the storms last week in the north US. He said that he isn't usually nervous, but at that point he was (he told me why, which I won't go into here - nothing bad, but he'd gotten ready to grab the controls as opposed to relying on just the auto pilot).

How much turbulence is normal is like asking what weather is normal. Where to and from? What time of year? Any special weather conditions?

I've had dozens of flights with no turbulence and many where you had to be strapped into your seat the whole time and couldn;t drink out of a cup.

NYC into Pittsburgh is especially bad for much of the year - and they never attempted to serve food. As you got on the plane the FA handed you a box with snack and you picked a drink in a can - since they knew the chances were good they wouldn;t be able to get out of their seats most of the flight.

For much of the year flights from the US to europe have a stong (100mph and up) tailwind - and if there's a storm you have to stay buckled in much of the time. (On one flight a know-it-all idiot didn't and when the plane dropped he flew up out of his seat and hit his head on the overhead bin.) That's normal turbulence with high winds and bad weather.

So - your question is really like how long is a string? It's as long as that string is.

We had a lot of turbulence on Wednesday night on the flight from London to New York, so much so that the flight attendants actually suspended service for half an hour. But it was a bit better when the pilot changed altitude. If you have the constant up and down, that's the worst, but it usually doesn't last very long. Our lighter turbulence were pretty constant.

Yesterday I didn't have any. The day before it was bad. Which is normal?
The good day or the bad?

What kind of conclusion can you draw from anecdotal comments anyhow??
Particularly when there is no definition of normal.

Would agree that there is no standard for normal. I wouldn't agree that night is better than day either. Pilots do not fly into thunderstorms and take a very wide track around them. Seatbelt on all the time is best prevention from severe turbulence.

Yes, some flights can be very rocky depending on the time of year. Last year on a Singapore Airline flight, the flight attendants were on their knees in the aisle holding on to the seats as they couldn't get to an unoccupied seat. At the time, I assumed the kneeling was for safety and probably some praying as it was pretty rough on that flight.

It also depends on what you remeber.

When we emigrated to the US in November 1989 flying from Rome to NY, I don't remember any turbulence - have other things to recall. My husband remembers bad turbulence and doesn't want to fly any more.

I had a memorable flight many many years ago (1969) on Pacific Southwest Airlines from LAX to SFO. It was the famous midnight flight, which cost $10 and for which tickets were not sold. You just showed up at the airport and boarded the plane, and the stewardesses (as they were called) collected the fare on the plane! Can you imagine what a different world we live in now?
Anyway, that particular flight had some of the worst turbulence that I have ever seen -- a real roller coaster ride. But the flight attendants absolutely had to collect the fares, so they spent the entire flight crawling up and down the aisles on their hands and knees. As it was only about the 3rd or 4th flight that I have ever taken in my life, I have never worried about any sort of turbulence since then. If they had not collected the fares, then I would have worried.

It's virtually unpredictable. I have encountered incredible turbulence on a beautiful sunny day and then had a very smooth flight through a storm. Normally the pilot will attempt to alter the flight plan and either climb or descend to a different altitude in order to find smoother air. Of course that's up to the air traffic controllers.

There are two announcements that mean that it's going to get bad:

1. "Flight attendants, suspend the meal service immediately."

Worse:

2. "Flight attendants, strap into your seats immediately."

The "fasten seat belt" sign has usually been on for quite some time before it gets to this stage.

When you take a JAL flight from SFO to Narita and they don't get one single meal completely served in 10 hours, that's too much turbulence!

Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for answering. I know that you can't define "normal" and I suppose I should have re-phrased my question, but most people seem to have understood what I was looking for in an answer.
I just wanted to know about any possible patterns (if any) such as time of day, weather, etc etc.
I have never had a particularly "bad" experience, but I never know what to consider "bad" because I don't know what is "normal". I guess what I mean by normal is "safe"...."not normal" would be "unsafe" i suppose.
Keep the answers coming!! I appreciate them!
P.S. if anyone knows of any "fear of flying" courses in the Montreal area please let me know, i would be very interested!

Thanks Guys!!

On our return flight from London to NY, we had a very bumpy ride from headwinds. The flight attendants suspended service for a while.

Recently, my husband had a "wavy" flight from Houston to NY - constant up and down sort of like riding a surf board. I'm glad I wasn't on that flight.

When I was a teenager, on my very first flight (alone, I might add) we had such severe turbulance that the flight attendant fell. I didn't get out of my seat for 8 hours and it scared me for a very long time, lol. The next time I flew, it was my honeymoon, and I almost didn't get on that flight.

Can you tell, I don't like turbulance or airplanes, for that matter. :) But I do what I gotta do.

Most of my overseas flights depart from Newark, NJ and take place in October, early November, late February or early March. I think every single flight from Columbus to Newark (mid-afternoon always) has had really bumpy turbulence the last ten minutes or so before landing in Newark. I always expect it so I don't fear it, but I don't know why it happens.

Same thing with at least three red-eye flights from Las Vegas to Columbus.

I've been lucky in that I've had no memorable turbulence going/coming from overseas.

Some turbulence is foreseeable, some isn't. The best procedure is to keep your seat belt on at any time you are in your seat, and to not wander about the cabin any more than necessary. Even extremely heavy turbulence does not present any risk to the aircraft, but it's not unusual for unsecured passengers and crew to be injured when very heavy turbulence strikes a plane. Strapped into a seat, you're fine, but if you aren't secured, bouncing unpredictably to and fro is likely to get you a bruise or a broken bone if the turbulence is bad enough. Usually the flight attendants suffer the most when the plane encounters sudden surprise turbulence because they have to be up and about almost all the time, but passengers who loiter in the aisles or refuse to buckle up can be injured, too.

We had an unusual amount of turbulence on our flight home from South America on Wednesday. The flight attendants all sat down and strapped in, but it did not last very long....

I do understand what you are saying aucho53 as I think it is reassuring to know how much turbulence is "normal" and when to start panicking!

We once flew from Johannesburg to Amsterdam with MLK and we were approaching land having crossed the Med when our plane dropped 50 metres after which we did a complete loop and landed upside down. The passengers who had kept their seat belts fastened sat upside down but those of us who had forgotten to fasten seat belts landed down on the ceiling of the plane. I then realised that there was so much room up there I mean down there that I hoped the plane would not right itself the correct way up. Then I woke up and realised that we still needed to drive to the airport to catch our flight!

I have heard of airholes and meal trays hitting the ceiling. Keep those seatbelts fastened! :)

I realise that I'll be instantly contradicted by posting this :-), but....'no plane has ever crashed due to turbulence'.
Or so I've been told. :-)

My wife can't stand any bumps on a plane, and has had disturbed looks shot at her when she's shouted out loudly 'SH*T' when we hit some unexpected turbulence. And that was just from our daughter.
Me...I read that turbulence is just like drving over speedbumps in your car, or hitting the occasional pothole. No reason to be worried about it in your car, and no reason to be worried about it in a plane. These things are designed to fly through almost any weather you can forseeably imagine, you just lay back and enjoy the feeling of the blood returning to your buttocks, that's what I say...

On transatlantic flights, I usually expect some bumps when the plane is around Greenland. The severity depends on what the captain tells us after we take off...if he says we "might have a few bumps" or a "patch or two of rough air" around Greenland, it's no big deal. But when he actually uses the T word, then I know we are going to rock and roll.

I'm wondering if there's an element of pre-emptive caution in announcements that might vary from airline to airline. I've just come back from Canada, and Air Canada were punctilious about announcing possible turbulence (to the point where the captain made an announcement asking the crew to sit down as well), but for all my sweaty palms, I realised it didn't turn out to be any worse than the rumbling and bumps on a motorway bus ride I'd taken a day or two before. It's just that you do suddenly realise you're a few miles up in the air with no visible means of support....

For what it's worth London-Montreal seemed rather bumpier to me (and the flight crew and announcements less concerned) than Montreal-London (which was about two hours shorter, such was the tailwid).

Hi everyone!

Thanks again for all these replies...this is exactly what I was looking for. I normally take my seatbelt off on flights, but I plan to keep it on from now on "just in case" lol!
Keep em coming!!

Thanks! Layla

I was a couple of times in a really bad ones, as I was traveling at least once a week for business.
Once on the way to Seattle, about 30 min before landing and just on top of Rockies. It was a big silence on the flight.
Once it was on a flight Montreal to Toronto (under 1 hour flight with severe turbulance) they cancelled the following flights as we had hard time landing and aligning with the runway.
Many times it happened over St-John just before reaching the Atlantic Ocean, and many transatlantic flights were with turbulance all the way down. And many times over the mountans like Pyrenees, etc...
Once on a very short flight Montreal to Philadelphia the stewardess fell down while serving people and hit her head on the corner of one of the closets there. It was just one airpocket.

Hi chebourashka, thanks for your reply. Are you from Montreal?? I am also a Montrealer...do you by any chance know of any fear of flying courses? I am not afraid to fly, but would like to check one out, and I know some people who ARE scared of flying that would definitely be interested!
Thanks!

Layla

I don't think that "normally" there is very much turbulance at all on most of my flights to/from Europe. Sometimes there is a little bit for a few minutes, but I think I have had more turbulance on US domestic flights than on those transatlantic ones. Usually when the weather is bad, thunderstorms or something, which seems to happen late summer where I live.

I always keep my seat belt on at all times on flights, no exception, even if slightly loose. The only time I take it off is to go to the restroom. People (not just trays) can be seriously hurt if the plane drops a lot suddenly (I don't know if that's due to an air pocket or what). This isn't hypothetical, I knew a young woman who had that happen to her on a flight from LA to Hawaii, and she became permanently disabled due to damaged to her neck/spine from hitting the ceiling, I think. I used to work with her, and she couldn't ever work again (at least full time) and had to go on disability. I never left my seatbelt unbuckled again.

normal is less and less. Incidents like Christina's are extremely rare now because navigation has got so much better, the pilot's know where the turbulance is and can avoid it.

Serious turbulance does injure and can kill.

I was standing in the bathroom taking a piss and all of a sudden, tubulence! Needless to say, my aim didn't please even me. The fasten seat belt sign came on and I said, Oh no, I'm not leaving this bathroom until things settle down. I placed my hands on both side walls--forget my private places. Five minutes later I walked back to my seat with wet spots on my shoes. The Qantas flight attendants were straped in their seats. They looked happy that they didn't need to get me mouth to mouth resisitation.

I'm glad to hear these kind of incidents are rarer due to navigation improvements. It was quite a while ago -- around 1988. I think there was some lawsuit involved, also, but I don't know what the charge was --whether it was pilot error or negligance of navigation or whatever. It just scared me as I saw how your life can change so suddenly, and keeping a seatbelt on is such a minor thing you can do, so I just do it out of habit now, like in a car. It does seem incredible that someone could hit the ceiling even from a drop (she was an adult, although fairly small and not heavy). Maybe I got the story slightly wrong as I don't recall all the details and she wasn't a super-close friend, just a colleague mainly. But I do know she hit something (even if not the ceiling) from airplane turbulance and that did damage her neck/spine so she went on disability and could only do a little work from home after that.

Many years ago a friend who is a military pilot assured me there is no such thing as turbulence :).

Is it my imagination or does flying seem more bumpy now than it did 20 years ago?

It's so funny...I thought I knew what normal was. Probably take at least 50 RT trips a year--that might be a conservative estimate. I've been on flights where the pilot couldn't find the field. I've been on many a flight that had to turn back. But two Aprils ago, I was on a flight to LaGuardia where the pilot had to make three attempts at landing--the wind shear was so bad he couldn't stay the course to get on the ground. Our wings veered up and down and the plane bumped every inch to the actual landing.

Needless to stay, it has set a new standard. Any flight where a passenger doesn't pass out (TRUE!) out of sheer fright is "good."

ttt

Hi guys....
this is a great thread! I really enjoyed reading the answers that I got. Thank you all for sharing!!
Now I have a better idea of what I can expect, and how things can seem bad but really aren't too serious...hopefully!
Keep em coming!!

Layla :)