Hail shatters windscreen of Delta jet

[red750]

https://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/news/a/29219102/plane-flies-blind-after-hail-breaks-windshield/

[ayavner]

scary!!

 

 

[facthunter]

To be avoided. It can write off the plane. That's what weather radar is for. The windows are still there but hard to see through. Radome and wing leading edges usually suffer most. Nev

 

 

[fred cenko]

Ironically watching Aircrash Investigations yesterday they had the show about the Air Peru passenger jet that went through the exact same ordeal,but was not as lucky due to

 

pilot error it got caught in the middle of a super cell downdraught but neither pilot made an attempt to apply full throttle killing 40 out of the 90 people on board.

 

 

[facthunter]

Special Instruction was instituted to maximise surviving a down burst situation. It requires early application of max power before speed washes off too much. You actually enter a headwind followed immediately by a tailwind as well as being in a descending parcel of air. Nev

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Nev I presume little planes like ours are less susceptible to down bursts because we have far less momentum.

 

Which RAAus pilot would be out and about in those conditions anyway?

 

 

[SDQDI]

I would've thought that it would affect our little things quicker because of the lesser momentum but then I would also say once through it (assuming all is well with the plane) recovery should also be quicker inasmuch as you only have to reduce the descent of 600kgs not a few tonnes. But I guess that you would have to take into account power to weight and a few other things.

 

But hey I'm just guesstimating and didn't want to agree with OK:wink:

 

 

[dutchroll]

Airborne weather radar is not good for detecting hail. It sees "wet" precipitation rather than "dry" precipitation. Plus ice on the radome is another factor which can obscure the picture.

 

They may well have assumed based on the radar picture that they were just flying into rain.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

But hey I'm just guesstimating and didn't want to agree with OK:wink:

We wouldn't want that would we?

 

 

[facthunter]

That's a possibility, but hail will likely be encountered from anvil cirrus. A good operator will map clouds and not get on the side where the overhang will likely cause hail and in other cases will avoid large active areas of Cb because of other problems like severe turbulence. Nev

 

 

[fly_tornado]

watch the storm close in the flight

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CMEVoscWwAAK9jD.mp4

 

 

[facthunter]

By moving the screen controls to scan the clouds vertically you can get a very good idea of their development all the way up to their tops. Lower down you will get earth returns that may confuse. A certain amount of experience helps enhance the value of radar . Nev

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Nev I presume little planes like ours are less susceptible to down bursts because we have far less momentum.Which RAAus pilot would be out and about in those conditions anyway?

Should be MORE susceptible due to lower speed meaning more time in the down draft.

 

 

[facthunter]

OK .they shouldn't be anywhere near them as they are associated with heavy precipitation in the vicinity and are near large active weather cells. There is the effect of the downwards air current but the factor that brings the heavies down is the windshear rapidly going from a head to a tailwind where the pilot reacts to the headwind by reducing power then ends up sinking and then losing airspeed as the wind goes to a tailwind. When this happens on late final, the problem is most likely to cause grief. We are looking at variations of 40 or more knots and on a normal approach into a fair headwind, with landing flap in rain, you may well have 65% power on so unless you get the rest on as fast as possible, soon as you are getting into strife , you go into the ground. After these things started to happen crews were specifically trained to recognise the circumstances in which these events occur and the technique required to get out of them safely.

 

Whether an U/L could handle it is academic, but while it might handle the windshear better the downdraft might tax it's climb performance and there's the question of turbulence and heavy precipitation might make things hairy. It's true that Heavy jets don't accelerate fast when the extra power is not a large amount% wise and they get slow with full flap and gear down. Nev