Wake vortices... a sterile danger?

I was at a place today from where I had a nice, clear view of the Dubai
Airport runway all day long. For about 3 hours in the morning, and
another 2-hour period in the afternoon, a string of aircraft took off
virtually tailing one another. Most of them were A330s, and the rest
were 747s and A340s, with the odd A320 and 737.

Makes me ask you folk this... are wake vortex caveats for real? How do
you manage when in a queue of big jets?

Ramapriya
ayirpamarATgmailDOTcom

Think of them as being like invisible ropes trailing from the
wingtips. They are small so your chance of hitting one is small. If
you do however, the probability of death from the upset at such low
altitude is very high.

They do trail like ropes so staying above the flight path(s) is basic.
There are accounts of them hitting the ground and bouncing back up
again which could ruin your day if you went through one just before
you flare.

--

Roger Long



"Ramapriya" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was at a place today from where I had a nice, clear view of the
Dubai
Airport runway all day long. For about 3 hours in the morning, and
another 2-hour period in the afternoon, a string of aircraft took
off
virtually tailing one another. Most of them were A330s, and the rest
were 747s and A340s, with the odd A320 and 737.

Makes me ask you folk this... are wake vortex caveats for real? How
do
you manage when in a queue of big jets?

Ramapriya
ayirpamarATgmailDOTcom

Ramapriya wrote:

How do you manage when in a queue of big jets?

When flying into and out of Boston Logan airport in a Bonanza and assuming
the weather is not low IFR, I request an early turnout away from the
descending wing tip vortices.

The big jets take a lot more runway than I do and normally climb a thousand
or so feet before turning, so when at a large airport where reality is that
ATC is not grant me a three minute hold for wake turbulence (instead, they
will move me out of the way and the three minute hold works out to more
like an hour wait while jet after jet departs), I lift off immediately -
short field takeoff - then with tower approval begin an early turnout away
from the runway.


--
Peter

fwiw, make that turn request upwind if you can.

fwiw, make that turn request upwind if you can.

"Ramapriya" wrote in message

.... a string of aircraft took off
virtually tailing one another. Most of them were A330s, and the rest
were 747s and A340s, with the odd A320 and 737.

Makes me ask you folk this... are wake vortex caveats for real?

Very real. But, when you say "tailing one another", how tight do you mean?
What was your estimate of the separation? 1 minute? 2 minutes? 30
seconds? 10 seconds? There is no hard wingtip or flap edge vortex until
the wing starts to generate substantial lift, and these vortices tend to
sink at about 500 fpm quite promptly. So a lot of similar performance
aircraft with 1 minute separation will mostly be climbing out above the
vortices from the craft in front.

Makes me ask you folk this... are wake vortex caveats for real? How do
you manage when in a queue of big jets?

If you're talking about programming a 777, I have no idea. I suspect
it's not as big a deal for them, as you observed.

If you're talking about flying a Spam Can *behind* a 777, then wake
vortex danger is VERY real. I've only run into it (literally!) once,
when I landed too close behind a C-130 in Albuquerque, and ended up in
a 60 degree bank on short final -- but that experience was enough of a
shock to make me very cautious behind big stuff.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 19 Dec 2005 12:29:17 -0800, "Jay Honeck" wrote
in .com::

If you're talking about flying a Spam Can *behind* a 777, then wake
vortex danger is VERY real.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...98FA210&rpt=fa

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message

....danger is VERY real. ......ended up in
a 60 degree bank on short final -- but that experience was enough of a
shock to make me very cautious behind big stuff.

You bet. This is one of those things that everyone talks about, and is
true. Just about everyone has hit a wake or knows someone who has. My
education came on a beautiful spring day about 25 years ago when I was on
final on a visual to 9 at BOS behind a DC9. I abruptly rolled right to
about 120 degrees of bank, and about as abruptly rolled back left to
approximately level. I forget what I told the pax.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message

....danger is VERY real. ......ended up in
a 60 degree bank on short final -- but that experience was enough of a
shock to make me very cautious behind big stuff.

You bet. This is one of those things that everyone talks about, and is
true. Just about everyone has hit a wake or knows someone who has. My
education came on a beautiful spring day about 25 years ago when I was on
final on a visual to 9 at BOS behind a DC9. I abruptly rolled right to
about 120 degrees of bank, and about as abruptly rolled back left to
approximately level. I forget what I told the pax.


You probably told them that the smell in the cabin was from a nearby
rendering plant.