At FL 320 Longitude was knocked down to crash by turbulence only… I’m sure this has never happened in real world. Never heard of jet planes being knocked down by wind at cruise level. What are these guys doing!
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I remember in one of the dev q&a Sebastian have mentioned that they are not implementing some sever turbulence in live weather because they thought the community would not believe they are real.
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Real world incidents of crash due to turbulence:
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That being said, turbulence that can cause a plane to crash isn’t common (unless you’re flying through a powerful storm cell).
There are a few instances of wind shifting violently in flight, which I believe is due to weather smoothing issues at higher altitudes. That’s a core sim issue.
I can understand the risk at takeoff and approach, but at FL320 cruise level with no traffic around creating vortices, isn’t this a little extreme? The last accident above was at FL 310 but just dropped 100feet
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Take a look at a real world Winds Aloft chart… might open your eyes to the violence of the weather we rarely experience at ground level.
Have you never been on a commercial flight at cruise altitude when the captain turns on Seatbelts sign due to bouncing around? I used to fly for my work quite a bit, to all different parts of the U.S. on all sorts of equipment. I have been on numerous flights where the captain announced he was “asking ATC for smoother air.”
A crash due to Flight Level turbulence is a rare incident to be certain, but if you’re flying at the edge of the airframe’s performance envelope, “anything can happen and sometimes does.”
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Never mind it’s just a sim
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What message did you get? was there a popup dialogue box?
Yes it can happen. Know your V Speeds.
I had to search the world over for the Longitude’s v-speeds. No PIM and little other useful piloting info is available.
In all likelihood, you exceeded ‘Vra’ Rough air or turbulence penatration airspeed which is 235 KIAS. You should also look at ‘Va’, maximum manuvering speed which is 222 KIAS at 39,500 lbs.
I’m a TBM driver and have just started training in the Logitude. I don’t have the performance curves so I can’t say that the Longitude will even maintain altitude at FL450 at 222 - 235 knots.
Using flaps in the above situation is not wise. Better to ask ATC for a lower altitude.
If anyone is interested in the Longitude FAA Type Certificate, let me know and I’ll scan and post the doc. This is where I found the critical v-speeds.
Greg
The AA flight 587 experienced wake turbulence and the tail ripped off due to the crew profusely pressing on the rudder left and right. Human error and poor training for that situation. All they had to do was ride the wave and all would’ve been fine.
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Yes, while crashes due to wake turbulence and and microburst wind shear on landing are completely different phenomena, it’s actually very true that planes can break up at altitude. The U2 for instance I think has a margin of +/- something like 10 or 20 knots at altitude (FL800) between breaking it’s wings off or falling out of the sky in a stall.
I’m no airline pilot, so I’m taking a chance saying this, but, I do believe they have to be careful of their mach number up there as well. Is it possible turbulence can push them over the edge? I don’t know.
Interesting article - https://www.slackdavis.com/blog/can-turbulence-cause-a-plane-to-crash/
and that’s exactly the problem, but also posts like this - because people who have flown once a year or never before are suddenly true “flight realism” experts - of course I don’t want to offend anyone. statements like “it’s too windy”, “it’s too bright” “it’s too loud” “but my car doesn’t move like this in the wind” - etc etc and in the sim everything is already reduced! I have already complained about this in the alpha phase. and if that is the case - then realistic settings for wind or turbulence should also be introduced as a setting if necessary (to choose between different levels, for example)- real weather is called real weather and it is often dangerous and not pleasant in the air - that’s just the way it is. of course there are also bugs and things that are not right…
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It can absolutely happen in the real world.
Typical characteristics of microbursts
- Size: Covers an area less than 2.5 nautical miles in diameter.
- Intensity: Downdrafts are 40 knots (4000 ft/minute), horizontal winds between 45 and 100 knots.
- Duration: Approximately 15 minutes.
- Visual signs: Often associated with heavy thunderstorms, embedded in heavy rain.
Good luck with that.
Here is a photo of trees after a microburst
They are especially dangerous when you are near the floor of course, but the downdraft can start at high altitudes.
Dear sir. You have completely lived up to your forum handle. Well done!
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it also varies with locationn and jetstream proximity. I note, for example particularly volatile winds around Melbourne and regularly get gusting 50-100kn gusting winds at altitude, which seem to simulate real life flights (and local weather), yet flying other parts of the world it is as smooth as glass
hey OP… where were you and when? Did you check what live weather was?
p.s. we’d be screwed if they allowed microbursts…
I use live weather and never experienced turbulence yet, only some crosswind otherwise flying has always being pretty smooth
Yes but most if not all of those were low altitude events. The op said cruising altitude, which you should have time to recover from at 32k ’
Try Sapporo Japan RJCC to Tokyo, FL320, crashed second time due to the extreme turbulence… I’m going to fly this route the third time asking for flight level change to FL380 see if that happens again…
Correction FL310
Between JYONA and LEKOL, westerly crosswind 135 kts, airplane starts to bob up and down violently , same location regardless of time… must be a death zone